Page 22

CHAPTER 21

E than leaned back in his chair, stretching his fingers before refocusing on his screens. All his security feeds were open. One showed a cycling view of Guardian’s offsite servers and another monitored the systems of non-Guardian assets. The next screen ran anomaly detection in encrypted data transfers. He checked on active operations that Guardian teams were deployed on and the high-priority inquiries being worked on with Domestic Operations. Con, Ring, Brando, and occasionally Jewell supported the Shadows, so they were in good hands. The last screen was dedicated to Star. He'd labeled the system that monitored her alarm system and house as his Star Curse Prevention Protocol. Max had thought it was funny but agreed it was probably the most useful system Ethan was currently monitoring.

He smirked at the live feed of her house. Star sat cross-legged on the couch, a stack of old books beside her, absently flipping through one with a furrowed brow. Thor perked up at his feet, sensing his shift in focus. He stood up, stretched, and wandered over to him. Ethan scratched his neck scruff. Thor had come through the surgery like a trooper. However, the vet cautioned him that Thor had arthritis, and his eyesight was starting to fail, which rationally Ethan knew was due to his advanced age, but emotionally, he didn’t want to face.

He gave Thor some undivided attention and a treat before returning to his systems. Max was online, and everything was running smoothly. He tapped his earpiece.

“Are we on for tomorrow?” He and Max continued to spar at the gym, and Max had pulled out some spectacular moves in the last three months. Ethan loved learning the new techniques and moves.

“Yes. Things are quiet today. We can go remote.” Max sounded disappointed.

Ethan chuckled. “I agree. The bad guys are behaving for once.” He sent the system alerts to his watch and phone. If he needed to work the situation, he could start defenses for all systems on his phone and then take over the response on the computer systems when he got to his office. In reality, he could handle most minor breaches via the phone protocols he and Max had developed.

Ethan frowned as he looked at the video feed of Star’s living room. She was still on the couch. He zoomed in on the books. They looked like they were wrapped in something and tied with strings. He adjusted the camera angle. Yep, books, and they looked old.

Sighing, he pushed away from his desk, grabbing his hoodie and keys. "Come on, Thor. Let’s make sure Star hasn’t accidentally unearthed ancient witchcraft books and begun the process of summoning a portal to hell."

He locked his office and retrieved his phone, pocketing it. When he got upstairs, the phone rang. He glanced at the face and smiled. “Hey, Pops. In the area?”

“Nope. At home. Just calling to see if you’re still in one piece.”

Ethan laughed. “Yeah, everything is going pretty well.”

“You just jinxed it.”

“You don’t believe in that shit.” Ethan leaned against the kitchen cabinet.

“I do now. Your woman is a magnet for trouble. Your mother agrees; you two need to move back home. She can’t get into too much trouble here.”

“You say that. Are you sure there isn’t a fault line under the mountain?”

“Shut your mouth, boy,” his father growled.

Ethan laughed. “The idea of moving to Colorado has been a topic of discussion. Star wants to finish the house and sell it. Her work can be done anywhere; the long pole in the tent is moving my systems and the down time.”

“Max can cover it. He did it for eons.”

“Eons? Should I tell him you said that?”

His father scoffed. “When are you going to marry that girl?”

“Shit, Dad, we’ve only been together for three months.”

“And you knew her six months before that. I knew your mom was the one right away. Well, after I defrosted her, that is.” Ethan heard his mother in the background. “Ouch. I meant that in the nicest way, babe.” His dad was so wrapped around his mom’s finger.

“I know Star is the one, but I don’t want to scare her off.” Ethan shook his head.

“Right. The only one scared is you. You’re being a chicken-shit. Ask her and bring your asses home.” The line went dead. Ethan looked at the phone and then laughed. “What a dick.” But his dad was right, he needed to get off his ass and ask her to marry him. He loved her, and she loved him. Had they admitted it to each other? Yeah, many, many times. Nothing was holding him back from asking her … except his nerves. Ethan scrubbed his face. He was never nervous. Never. Why was this simple act freaking him out? “He’s right. You need to man up.” Star was it for him. She was his first thought in the morning and his last before he went to sleep. The woman made his world more interesting, chaotic, and ridiculously alive.

It wasn’t like Star had any ties to the house other than wanting to finish what she’d started. He had no ties to the area either, except for Star. Yeah, he was ready to go back to Colorado. He wanted Star to meet his mom in person and see his home. To fall in love with the solitude, the beauty of nature, and the idea of self-sufficiency. It was the way he was raised, and it was where he always knew he’d return. Sighing, he pushed off the kitchen counter. Thor made his way to the back door. “Yep, let’s go.”

The chill in the air was sharp. He waited for Thor to take a quick break, and they both jogged up the stairs he’d built months ago. He knocked once, inserted the key into the door, and walked in. Thor trotted ahead of him as he closed and locked the door. The electricity had been fixed, and she’d also had the heater replaced. The house was toasty warm. He walked into the living room, and she smiled at him. “This is a nice treat.”

Ethan dropped beside her, and she gave him a kiss that promised more and left him wanting. Star was an addiction he never wanted to recover from.

He dropped his arm over her shoulder as they reclined on the couch. “What have you got?"

“I was pulling out that old medicine cabinet in the guest bathroom. I told you about that last night when we were eating dinner.”

“I remember. That doesn’t explain these?” He tipped his chin toward the books. “Is that wax paper?”

She handed him one of the old, wax-cloth-covered books. "Waxed cloth, actually. See? When I pulled out the metal cabinet, these were stacked like this behind it, and they went up the wall between the studs. I think I got them all out.”

“What are they?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, really. Accounting of some kind?"

Ethan carefully unwrapped one of the books, flipped it open, and scanned the handwritten entries. The numbers were precise, methodical. The names? Not so much. He frowned, flipping a few more pages, then exhaled through his nose.

"Star."

"Yeah?"

"You were having a good streak there. A solid run of non-life-threatening months." He flipped another page and sighed. "I’d say that time is over."

She snorted. "Oh, come on, it’s just old bookkeeping."

Ethan turned the book toward her and tapped a line. “Don Giovanni – Shipment cleared – $250,000.” He flipped a few more pages, tapping another entry. “These are bank account numbers.” Ethan tapped the column to the right. “Which means the payments are traceable.” He kept reading. “L. Moretti – Retainer received – 10% of total payout.”

Star blinked. "Who’s Don Giovanni? Or, uh … Moretti?"

Ethan closed the book, resting his forearms on his knees. "Don Giovanni is one of the biggest mob bosses in the northeast. Moretti ran operations for him in Chicago. Giovanni has his sons running the show now. Moretti is dead. These aren’t just books, Star. These are ledgers. Records. Your great uncle kept detailed financials on crime families and hid them in the bathroom wall."

Star stared at the books like they might sprout fangs. "Huh."

"Huh?" Ethan scoffed. "That’s all you got? Huh?"

Star shrugged. "Well … it explains all the holes in the walls, doesn’t it?”

Ethan blinked and then nodded. “It does. It also means that someone knows or suspects your great uncle kept duplicates of the books he did for those families.”

She lifted wide eyes to him. “That doesn’t sound good, does it?”

“Nope, afraid not.”

She ran her hands through her hair. “But … it’s not like I knew they were there."

Ethan gave her a dry look. "Doesn’t matter. They’ll know where it came from."

Star’s expression dropped. "Oh, crud. Not again."

Thor huffed and flopped onto the floor with a heavy sigh, clearly unimpressed with her inability to stay out of trouble.

Ethan ran a hand through his hair, already pulling out his phone. "I need to make some calls. You? You’re officially on lockdown."

Star scowled. "Excuse you?"

"Star," Ethan gestured to the books, "you just inherited a giant, neon, ‘Please come kill me’ sign. Congratulations."

She groaned and flopped back on the couch. "I actually liked not being in mortal danger."

Ethan stood, already texting Max. "Yeah, well … it was fun while it lasted. Looks like we’ll need to go to Colorado sooner rather than later."

“Colorado? Why? Are we visiting your mom and dad? You know I really like your mom. That recipe she gave me for chili was fantastic.” She tucked her legs up and hugged them. “Do you really think these people will come after me?”

“You are the link to these books being discovered in your uncle’s house. It prevents the assumption that these were fakes or doctored,” he said as he answered a slew of Max’s questions, filling him in as concisely as possible.

“Then this letter could probably seal the coffin, huh?” She held up an envelope. Ethan felt his eyebrows lifting to his hairline.

“What does it say?”

“I don’t know. I was going to call you so we could open it together. I thought it was probably like a time capsule minus the capsule, you know?”

Ethan sat back down. “That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

“Fairy-tale dreams in a nightmare world.” She dropped her head back against the couch. “Why do I always end up in stuff like this?”

Ethan put the envelope and phone down and turned her to him. “Setting all of this aside, I wanted to talk to you, and if I’ve learned anything in the nine months since knowing you, I’ve learned to speak my mind when I have the opportunity.”

Star’s eyes widened. Then she almost cried, “Oh, God, no.”

Ethan frowned. “What?”

She sat up, hands gripping his hoodie, in full panic mode. “You’re leaving me, aren’t you?”

Ethan’s jaw dropped. “What?” How in the hell did she jump to that conclusion ?

“You just went all serious! This is the ‘I need to talk’ moment! You’re—oh my God, you’re going to break up with me in the middle of a potential mob war, aren’t you?”

Ethan stared. Then barked out a laugh, shaking his head. God, her mind was chaotic. “Star.” He caught her face between his hands, kissing her hard. When he pulled back, she blinked at him, dazed.

“I’m trying to propose.”

She blinked again. “Oh.”

“Marry me and move with me to Colorado. Be my wife. Let me love you for the rest of our lives.” He waved at the books. “The books don’t matter. Nothing matters but us being together. Let’s start our lives with each other. Now.”

“You want me to move to Colorado?” Her eyes were blinking, and tears were forming.

Ethan dropped to his knees in front of her at the couch. “Babe, don’t cry. I know I don’t have your ring yet, and this wasn’t all planned out and perfect. I’m sorry if I botched it, but I love you and want you to be my partner in life.”

“No. No, this is perfect. I love you so much. Yes, I’ll marry you. I’ll move to Colorado with you. But …” She turned and looked at the house. “I can sell this as is … but what about my job?” She looked at him, apparently completely overwhelmed. He could see the gears in her brain trying to sort everything.

He cupped her face with his hands and made her look at him. “You never have to work again if you don’t want to, but you do the transcription work remotely, right?”

“Yes. I do. So I can contribute to household expenses when we move.”

He leaned forward and kissed her. “I have enough for us for the rest of our lives, and you’re not going to believe where we’re going to live.”

She blinked and then frowned. “You already have a place picked out?”

“I do. But we can find something else if you don’t love it.” They would have an entire wing of that massive cavern. His father and he had designed it for him and his family to live in someday.

She licked her lips. “And this?” She nodded toward the books.

He glanced at the books. “We’ll have to report what you found, but believe me, you’ll have the best protection in the world when we come back to testify.” Ethan cupped her cheek and leaned in to kiss her. Her lips were warm when he made contact, and she wrapped her arms around him.

When they finally pulled apart, he pulled her onto his lap and reached for the envelope. “Shall we?”

She leaned against him and nodded her head. “Let’s see how deep the trenches are.”

That was exactly what it felt like. They were going back to war, weren’t they? Ethan opened the letter.

Star,

If you are reading this, fate has placed a heavy burden on your shoulders. I wish I could tell you I was a good man, that my hands were clean, but I have lived too many years, seen too much blood spilled, and counted too many dirty dollars to lie.

I kept these books because I knew, one day, the weight of my sins would crush me. I told myself it was just numbers, just money, just business. But I knew better. Every dollar amount in these ledgers represents more than transactions—they are lives ruined, debts paid for in blood, of men who walked away rich while others were buried in the ground.

I was no saint, but I was never a fool. These books are power. The kind men kill for. The kind that will have devils crawling out of their holes the moment they know they’re in your hands.

I’m not asking for your forgiveness—I do not deserve it. But I am asking you for something far greater. I want you to avenge my evils.

Take these books and put them in the hands of someone who will burn the men who profited from suffering. Use the letter you hold as proof that I, Nicolò Conti, kept these ledgers. My signature at the bottom of this page, my shaky old handwriting, can be analyzed and authenticated.

Some will stop at nothing to see it buried again. Be careful. They will come. They will threaten, bribe, and beg. And if that fails, they will kill.

But I know your heritage. Your parents were not ones to be bullied, nor ones to walk away from doing what is right. I hope you were raised in that fashion.

I have done nothing in my life worthy of pride. But if you carry this burden, if you see this through, I will die knowing that at least one good thing came from my miserable existence.

May God, if He still listens to an old sinner, watch over you.

With all my regret,

Nicolò Conti

“Wow, that puts everything into perspective, doesn’t it?” Star looked up at him.

“Yeah.” He had a lot of work to do and mountains to move before they released this information because what they had in front of them was too important to give to the local police. It was the kind of important that usually came with bullets.

“First things first. We put these books in my safe.” Ethan waved at the ledgers. “Then we get a marriage license and get married. If you want a big wedding, we can do that after this is cleared up.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m not that kind of girl. I don’t care about the dress and things. Well, that’s a lie, I love shoes, you know that. Anyway, I’d like a wedding band, though, and I’d like you to wear one, too. A big one. So women know you’re taken.”

Ethan smiled and leaned over to kiss her again. “They’d know. You’re the only woman I can see.”

She smiled at him and lifted an eyebrow. “Still …”

“Yes, ma’am,” he agreed, getting another kiss from his woman.

“What happens after that?”

“We go to Colorado. You stay with my mom while my dad and I move all my equipment. I have to have all of it, and I don’t trust a moving company not to mess it up.” And since it was the highest grade of technology available in the free world, it needed to be guarded during the move. He’d need to borrow a few assets that were without an assignment. A Shadow or two to make sure they weren’t followed, stopped, or impeded. He’d make it work and then fill in Archangel afterward. Max had already agreed in principle, so being close to his mentor wasn’t a necessity any longer.

“Do you think she’ll like me, I mean, in person?”

“Who?” Ethan snapped back to the conversation.

“Your mom,” she said as if he were dense.

“Oh, she already loves you.” Ethan stood up and held out his hand. “Time to get ready for a marathon. This,” he waved at the books, “could take years to come to court. I can’t imagine the families’ lawyers won’t stall it or motion it into obscurity.”

“But I’ll be okay in Colorado? They won’t be able to find me?” Star took his hand and stood up.

“I guarantee it.” And he prayed the cavern wasn’t actually on a fault line.