Page 158 of The Crowned Garza

There’s peace in not having to hide anymore. A quiet calm in knowing everything is out in the open and the worst has been endured.

Breaking the placid silence, I ask, “Do you have anything pressing to do today?”

“All major crises have been dealt with,” he replies in a lazy drawl. “I’ve had a million meetings and business operations are still going strong. Cleaned things up with the families and put my chosen underboss in charge. Made contact with Tor and filled him in. Everything else can be done remotely. I await your orders regarding Red Cage.”

I grin. “My orders, huh?”

“Sì, mia regina.” He gives a reverent bow to my cleavage, making me giggle like a loon. “You call the shots.”

“I still can’t believe how helpless they are without you,” I say. “It’s ridiculous.”

“Red Cage has mostly high-profile clients, and thus handles extremely sensitive information,” he explains. “To maintain the safety, security, and the confidentiality of our clients, access to highly confidential and classified information is restricted to a select number of people. Core Six and myself. Now, in the case of the commandos—including your brothers—being overseas on international jobs and all, having the wrong person at the helm could mean a matter of life and death. They need to be able to trust the person on the other side. If they can’t, they won’t do the job.”

Understood. But still… “What if something were supposed to happen to you, what would happen then? The company just dies?”

He laughs. “No. There’s a contingency plan in place for that. But I’ve set it up with several activation steps so that only Tor can authorize it. Red Cage is his company, after all. And before you ask, yes, there’s also a contingency plan in case something happens to both of us at the same time.”

Hmm, it seems Red Cage isn’t collapsing like a house of cards as my dramatic-ass brothers have been making it out to be.

“Well, can I keep you all to myself for at least two days before you go back and they start hogging all your time again?”

He perks up. “Does that mean you’re giving me the green light to go back to work?”

I scowl at him. “Don’t look so excited,Guy.”

He replaces his eager expression with one of mock misery. “Better?”

I roll my eyes. “Promise me that this timetheyare gonna be sharing you withme, not the other way around.”

“Youover everything, remember?” The seductive smile he gives me turns me to goo.

This sonuvabitch knows exactly what he’s doing. Making me all melty and subdued.

“Me over everything.” I snuggle closer into him, nuzzling his chest. “Did you go by the loft to check on Indy?”

“She’s with JB.”

I jerk back, gaping. “They kidnapped yourcat?”

Saint laughs at my expression. Heartily. “I have a feeling she went willingly.”

“You’re not mad?”

“We have an agreement. From what I’ve seen, they bond really well—I’ll show you videos later. Maybe she just needed the right owner. We’ll see in a few weeks if she wants to come back to me.”

“I…don’t understand, but okay.” I burrow into his chest again. “I met your mom.”

“I heard.”

“She’s...”

He chuckles. “I know.”

“It was like meeting royalty.”

“The Rossettis are like that.”

“I like her. A lot.”