Page 124 of Thorns of Blood

At that moment, our phones sounded with a softping. It was time.

The Albanian coast was breathtaking, the crystal blue waters some of the most beautiful I’d seen in my lifetime. But my worried mind couldn’t appreciate the beauty. The only thing I wanted and needed was to get to my children and get them to the safety of our home.

The past two months had been a journey of ups and downs, dead-end leads and clues that had ultimately led us here.

Vlora, Albania.

An old city founded in the sixth century and situated in a bay where the Ionian Sea merged with the Adriatic. A city that was on nobody’s radar, yet when we looked deeper into it, there were so many organizations working in the shadows. But above them all, there was a single powerhouse that hid the most powerful men—or women—of the criminal world.

And somehow, my son and daughter were connected to it.

Dropping a kiss on his tattooed hand, I hummed, “Wake up, sleepyhead.”

“Hmmm.” His voice was roughened from sleep as he blinked his green eyes, alert entering them. “Any news?”

“Something just came in,” I said, sliding out of bed and rushing to our phones that laid on the hotel table.

Giovanni leaned back on his elbows, watching me as I slid the message open. I grabbed his phone and padded back to him, sliding into bed as I handed his cell to him.

He read his text, then mine.

“You’re not going alone.”

It didn’t surprise me. Giovanni was nothing if not predictable, but it was what I loved about him.

“We have forty-eight hours. We should stake out the meeting place and surrounding area. I’ll call Lou. She and Kingston could?—”

He pushed me onto my back, swallowing my next words with a deep kiss. It wasn’t until I was panting underneath him that he murmured against my lips, “They’re already here.”

“God, I love you,” I rasped.

“I love you more.”

And then he showed me exactly how much.

FORTY-EIGHT

GIOVANNI

The lake was surrounded by hills, affording privacy away from the touristy beach town in Albania. It was barely six in the morning, and the only thing I could hear were our low breaths and the waking of the forest.

And my damn brothers who wouldn’t stop talking.

“How can you tell her mood?” Cristiano asked Romeo. My youngest brother had been trying to make up to Liana by getting to know her, but she wasn’t making it easy for him. I knew she didn’t hold grudges, at least not like she used to, so I suspected it had become some sort of a game between those two.

“Well, bro,” Romeo started, puffing his chest like he was an expert on everything relating to Lia. If he was, he’d be dead, because nobody was allowed to be closer to her than me. “There is the little fact that she’s holding a machine gun that tells us she’s overly happy right now.”

“I sure as fuck hope she isn’t mad at us,” Cristiano muttered.

I’m surrounded by Einsteins.

I rolled my eyes and so did my wife, although the corner of her mouth twitched.

Louisa and Kingston stood hidden in the shadows in case backup was needed, while my brothers stood with us out in the open. There was no sense in pretending we were alone, and I suspected whoever our contact was knew that.

A gust of wind swept through, making the spring temperatures in Albania slightly cooler. Lia’s strands caught in the breeze, sending her wildflower scent my way, and I couldn’t resist the pull of taking her hand into mine.

Then the sound of an engine traveled through the air and all playfulness ended. With guns in our hands, my brothers and I surrounded Lia.