Page 38 of The Prices We Pay (Vittori Enterprises #1)

Luca

“ G o put your stuff up in my room, Vita Mia. First door on the right. We will get something ordered for dinner.” I give her a quick kiss. “Feel free to wash up in the shower if you want. Help yourself to whatever you need.”

Josephine smiles, but it doesn’t reach her ears. And the four of us watch as she makes her way upstairs. The moment I hear my bedroom door open and close, I spin to look at Sebastian. “Anything?”

“The guy who delivered the letter to Dante worked for a carrier service. I ran a background check on him, and he’s just a nineteen-year-old from Idaho going to college.

Called to ask where the letter came from, and he said he was running his usual route when a guy stopped him on his bike and paid him fifty dollars to drop off the letter.

The only thing he could tell me about the guy was that he was big, blonde, and ‘talked funny,’” Seb emphasizes in air quotes.

I nod in the direction of the kitchen and pour myself, Dante, and Seb each a glass of Bordeaux and grab Enzo a bottle of sparkling water from the fridge.

“And her apartment?”

Sebastian pulls out his phone and sets it on the counter, showing us a grainy photo from the hallway outside her door.

“Two guys. They’re wearing the same uniforms for the cleaning company her building uses.

They had a key to her door and walked right in at 10:23 a.m.” He swipes to the next picture.

“And at 10:34, they walked out.” One more swipe.

“I was able to get an image of one of the guy’s faces off his reflection in the elevator door. ”

I lean closer to take a better look. “Motherfucker.”

“Big and blonde,” Enzo adds. “And if that’s who I think it is, he sure as shit talks funny.”

“Damien,” Dante growls .

“Looks like it,” Sebastian confirms.

“He’s going to wish I killed him that morning in the coffee shop. I swear to fucking god.”

“Guys, what in the actual fuck is going on? None of this makes any sense.” Dante runs his hand over the back of his head. “I mean, why are the Russians stealing from us? Why are they fucking with Joe? Why did they take her dad’s letters? Why is he even sending them to her? To us?”

He looks at the three of us, and we all look at each other. But for the first time since I don’t even know how long, none of us have answers. And I think I can speak for all of us when I say it’s really starting to piss me the fuck off.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Josephine come down the stairs in nothing but a white towel.

She stops about halfway with her phone in her hand, looking like she saw a ghost. “I had a missed call while I was turning on the shower. It was from an unrecognized number out of Montana. There was a voicemail, so I listened to it, thinking it might have been from Jasper, but—but it wasn’t. ”

Enzo stands up from his stool. “Who was it, Sweetheart?”

“It—” she swallows harshly. “It was the Montana State Prison. They called to let me know Dad was released from prison. Three days ago.”