Page 87 of Wreaking Havoc
Even without backup, Sascha only gave the guard a little ironic salute before making his way to the elevators, ignoring his huffing protest.
It hadn’t been as difficult as he’d thought it would be to convince Kai to stay in the car. That could have been because they had Matteo there as well, and Kai thought he needed more babysitting than Sascha. Or, more likely, it was Kai’s faith in Sascha’s new, convenient imperviousness to harm.
Which, actually, Sascha should at some point get the details of. But it didn’t seem incredibly urgent at the moment. It wasn’t like he was going to be throwing himself off a building to test it anytime soon.
He found Ivan sitting predictably in his desk chair, looking a bit more put together than their last meeting—his shirt was buttoned, his tie in an immaculate knot, his hair neat as ever. Except…
“Is that ahickeyon your neck?” Sascha asked in disbelief, flopping down in the seat across from him.
It wasn’t like Sascha thought Ivan didn’t get laid—he’d seen him canoodling one too many times with the tacky, brash women who frequented their family’s clubs to be under that impression—but Ivan had never let them leavemarksbefore.
Sascha wasn’t even sure Ivan let them kiss him on the mouth, for that matter. He was half-convinced his older brother had some sort ofPretty Womanagreement with his conquests.
But it didn’t seem like any answers were going to be forthcoming, since Ivan only glared at him, holding out a hand. “The Book?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Sascha handed it over, trying and failing not to stare at the conspicuous hickey-shaped bruise on Ivan’s neck, just above his shirt collar.
“You’ve done it, then?” Ivan asked, after tucking the Book safely away in his desk drawer.
“The Carusos are taken care of,” Sascha told him. “You’re very welcome, by the way. I’m sure the family will be scrambling for some time to get new leadership established.”
Ivan waved a hand. “Not that. The bond. You’ve done it?”
Sascha tried to hide his surprise that Ivan was asking a personal question over business. “I have.”
Ivan only nodded, looking distracted.
“And we maybe picked up a stray,” Sascha mumbled, hoping Ivan’s new chill would extend to kidnapped Mafia members.
Ivan gave him a sharp glance. So maybe not. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“Do you know anything about Matteo Caruso?”
“Enough to know he’s not a Caruso by blood.” When Sascha made ago ongesture with his hand, Ivan tipped his head back against his chair, gazing up at the ceiling. “Let’s see. Luca Caruso’s stepchild from a since-dissolved marriage. He was being raised to be a successor, then next I heard, he was the family’s whipping boy. Possibly literally.”
Sascha flinched. Fuck. If he’d been having any second guesses about his course of action, that did away with all of them. “We’re offering him sanctuary,” he told Ivan firmly.
He was proud of himself for coming up with something that sounded like official Mafia speak. Better than,We’ve semi-kidnapped him because he looked too emotionally wounded to be let out into the real world.
He raised a brow at Ivan. “Is that going to be problem?”
Ivan was still staring at the ceiling. “They’ll think he’s on the run, I’m sure. And a rival family wouldn’t be anyone’s first guess.” He waved a hand again. “You should be fine.”
“Well…good,” Sascha said slowly, a little concerned by the lack of pushback.
“I have a club for you,” Ivan told him abruptly. “One that’s clean. You should be able to manage the back end of things remotely. If you do well, we can add on others.” He lowered his gaze to meet Sascha’s eyes again. “You’ll need to make visits every now and again.”
“That’s fine. I can show Kai more of New York.”
Ivan’s lips twitched. “Yes, play tourist with your demon husband. That’s exactly what I meant.”
Sascha held back his eye roll. “Anything else?”
Ivan’s fingers tapped on the desk in a steady rhythm. “Your demon is going to need paperwork to exist in the modern world. Identification at the very least.”
“I guess so.” That wasn’t something Sascha had thought much about. Those were the types of things that were just…taken care of in his life.
“I can have Cooper arrange it,” Ivan offered.
