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A few days went by with Olivia moping around, but only when she thought I wasn’t watching her. She was quiet but not outright, giving me the silent treatment. She smiled when I caught her eye, but the smiles were forced. She was back to being the perfect little employee, with nothing to complain about, but not at all herself. Not the real woman I’d come to know, who could be fiery, stomp out of rooms, and stick up for herself.

I didn’t want a perfect employee; I wanted my stubborn wife.

Something seemed to break in her, and I needed to figure out how to fix it and make her whole again. I had to be able to give her what she truly wanted, and if I was going to do that, I had to tie up a lot of loose ends.

Leaving the Bratva wasn’t an option. I was loyal to my family to the day I died, but if it meant Olivia returning from the land of zombies, I could pull back. It wouldn’t mean too much of a shift in how we lived, especially if she wanted to continue living down here. I had plenty of businesses on the up and up, or at least paid their dues to the government, including a very upscale restaurant in Beverly Hills. That alone could support us in a lavish lifestyle.

Every last one of my legit businesses was tied up at least a little bit with my family, though, and that would take some careful unraveling. Not to mention my brothers going ballistic when they found out I no longer wanted to participate in turf wars.

Could it be done at all? Was it worth trying? The answer was a resounding yes. For Olivia, I’d try anything. I’d never go against my family, but she was the most important person in my life now. Nothing else mattered.

With the final paperwork about to be signed on my first real estate venture down here, I was no longer waffling. It was going to go full steam ahead, and I was going to jump on the adjacent acreage as soon as possible for future expansion. All I needed to do was meet up with the contractor and the farmer who owned the surrounding land, and that was due to happen today.

This resort was going to take a lot of work, and way more bribes and favors than any ordinary businessman could pull off, but at least I had a tentative plan to start the normal life Olivia craved. As soon as everything was official and underway, I’d tell her. Maybe then her smiles would reach her eyes again.

On my way out, I found Olivia in the garden, speaking with the head gardener. Her Spanish had improved by leaps and bounds in such a short amount of time. I was proud of her tenacity to study so hard, but not shocked since I always knew she was brilliant.

“I have a meeting this morning. Would you like to go into town with me?” I asked her, thinking it might perk her up.

“Sure,” she said listlessly. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

I tried not to bristle and forced myself not to remind her that she wasn’t my damn assistant. It was a miracle she wasn’t calling me sir in that polite, professional tone. Although, I might not hate being called that during certain circumstances, this wasn’t one of them.

“Just have a nice time,” I said.

With a nod, she hurried to get changed, coming down in a pretty sundress I remembered helping her choose during one of those golden moments when everything seemed great. I wanted to think she picked it today because she remembered too, but she probably just pulled the first thing she put her hand on in the closet.

The ride into town was worse than tense silence, with her asking me a few questions about my meeting, like a stranger making small talk at a cocktail party. I hated it and almost wished she’d get pissed off again. The guard she seemed to like the most out of my security crew was tasked with driving us in, and then tagging along wherever Olivia wanted to go while I headed out to the work site.

It was little more than a cleared spot in the jungle, surrounded by farmland that had lain fallow for some years due to the owner’s ill health, and it was about to be consumed by the persistent trees and vines if I didn’t have plans to start clearing right away. The thought of a brand-new project was like starting an adventure. Anything could happen and it filled me with excitement. Once Olivia understood my intent, hopefully, she’d come to see it like that, too.

We found Ivan in the coffee shop where Zoey went to work on her book, pathetically waiting around in hopes that she’d show up.

“Are you finally on the hook?” I teased, sitting down beside him. “How many cups of coffee have you had?”

“I like the coffee here,” he said.

“It is pretty good coffee,” Olivia agreed, showing a hint of the first real smile at my brother’s expense. “But I bet you wished you didn’t have to drink it all alone.”

He grumbled. “Well, you’re here now.” Then, his face lit up when someone walked through the door.

Olivia’s smile brightened just as much when she saw it was her new friend. Zoey waved and came over, setting down her things before going to the counter to place her order. Ivan jumped up, nearly knocking over his chair in his haste to pay for her coffee.

“Do you want to chaperone these two or go shopping with Andre?” I asked.

“What if I wanted to go to your meeting with you?” she asked.

It was the first bit of zest I’d seen from her in three days, and I wavered for a moment. But I didn’t want her to have to see me act like a crime boss if things went sideways. It was better to keep her in the dark for a few more days, then everything would be settled, and I could give her the good news that this resort was going to be run by a normal businessman and his wife.

“Next time,” I promised, meaning it.

She sighed and said she’d stay there, so I left her guard discreetly posted on the bench outside, surprised when Ivan caught up with me before I could reach the car.

“I thought you’d want to stay with your girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he answered, making us both smirk at the sixth-grade level comeback. “I’m coming with you.”

“There’s no need; it’s just signing a few contracts.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Even so, I’ll go with you.”

“Do you know something?”

“I know a lot of things,” he said, snapping his seatbelt. “And I might have heard some rumblings about someone not wanting this deal to go through.” He popped open the glove compartment where a gun always resided, and nodded toward the trunk in question.

“I’m loaded up,” I said, referring to the arsenal back there. “Do I need to be, though?”

“Probably not. Hopefully not.”

He put me on edge, so I called up a few members of my security to head that way, just in case. All I wanted to do was sign these damn contracts with no fuss. Was that ever going to be possible, even when I stepped aside from the Bratva?

I glanced at Ivan, wondering if I should tell him my plans, but the tense set of his jaw warned me it wasn’t the time to talk about wanting a peaceful existence.

When we arrived at the site, Senor Alvarez, the farmer who owned the surrounding land, wasn’t there yet, and the realtor stood beside his car, twisting his hands. The man I was working with to organize construction crews sat in his truck.

“It’s not good news,” the realtor said, when I asked him why he looked so anxious. “It seems like Senor Alvarez is being advised not to sell after all.”

“What?” I asked, shocked. “Who’s advising him? He was desperate to unload this land since he’s not working it anymore, and he was thrilled with my offer.”

“That’s the thing. He’s a sick old man and doesn’t want trouble. I guess whoever spoke with him was rather forceful about not wanting you to have the property.”

The construction foreman got out of his truck and walked over, looking as glum as the realtor. “Has he given you the news?”

“So, you know about it, too? Are you being advised by someone as well?”

He nodded, clearly pissed off. “Threatened is more like it. But I don’t need any trouble either, and the way things are going, I won’t be able to find anyone willing to work.”

That meant the expansion wasn’t going to happen, and the original plans for the resort on the land I just bought weren’t going through. To hell with that.

It took a bit of cajoling from Ivan and me, because the two men had been scared shitless by whoever didn’t want me in the area. It wasn’t anyone from town, because they were already buzzing about all the new jobs and tourists the place was going to bring once it was completed. Someone outside the area was trying to stage a takeover. So, what would a regular, everyday businessman do in this situation? Run away?

Thankfully I was still in the Bratva, and once we got some answers, Ivan and I took off to find the leader of this rogue gang and see if we could shake some sense into them. We could work together, or I could destroy them, it made no difference to me.

They were holed up in a little shanty town about twenty miles away from our village. The place was nothing more than about a dozen shacks and trailers, so calling it a town was generous. My men had met up with us and followed, but I ordered them to hang back to see if diplomacy would work first.

It didn’t, and before we even learned where the leader was, Ivan had thrown several punches, I’d taken a hit to the jaw and had to break someone’s thumb, and finally had to put another guy in a chokehold as my team burst through the doors with their guns out.

The only man on the opposing side who’d managed to draw quickly put his gun away. Ivan strode over and grabbed it, tossing it out a window, and I slowly let the guy I was choking have a breath.

“So now do you want to tell me where I can speak to your boss?” I asked the room at large.

Before any of them answered, a burly guy with greasy hair and a scar down the side of his neck charged into the ramshackle place. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Your English is really good,” I said, nodding toward my brother, who had his gun trained on this new guy’s head. “I also speak Spanish if that’s more comfortable for you.”

“Whatever language you speak, you’re an outsider.”

“Is that your problem with me, or is it that you can’t come up with ideas of your own? If you’re trying to steal my land, it’s a bad idea. If you’re trying to come in and take a cut when I’m finished developing, that’s an even worse idea.”

“You don’t know shit,” he answered.

I realized he wasn’t the head honcho after all, and trying to reason with him was a waste of time.

“Why don’t you just tell me where I can reach the person in charge of your little mission?” I asked, giving Ivan a discreet glance.

The man he was holding back went down when Ivan knocked him out with a swift blow from the butt of his gun. As soon as he slid from his grasp, Ivan leaped over him, and roundhouse kicked the man closest before he could scramble behind a counter and possibly pull out more weapons. I clipped the mouthy one in the knee, and the man I had been choking immediately started to beg for mercy as screams of pain tore through the small space.

Aiming my gun at the so-called leader’s head, I ground my foot into his fresh bullet wound, waiting for him to stop howling before I spoke again.

“Look, it would be a shame if I had to kill anyone here today,” I said. “But I will if you don’t tell me who I need to talk to about getting my land deal through with no more problems.”

The man sneered at me through his pain, laughing maniacally even as tears flowed down his cheeks. “What would be a real shame is if something happened to your pretty wife. Don’t you think?”

I froze, keeping my gun aimed at his face as I looked at my brother. My heart pounded hard enough to break my ribs at the mere mention of Olivia.

“Take care of this,” I said, already halfway out the door.

He nodded, and I shouted at my guards to help Ivan round everyone up and get answers as I jumped into my car and aimed it toward the village.

What the hell did they know about my wife? God help every one of them if she was in danger. My mind went blank with rage and fear, and all I could do was jam my foot on the gas, desperate to know that she was all right.