Ciel pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. I’d finally convinced him to take his contacts out after the twelfth time he rubbed them. “What’s your reasoning?”
I pursed my lips. “After all the tracking we’ve done, Rafael Arboleda keeps disappearing—so do any other cartel members that cross into Manhattan. They hit the Russians, then fade away like smoke. It could be because of Max’s hacker. Maybe it is. But I’m looking at this map of where our cameras are” —I handed him a piece of paper that showed a dot for each place where we could either hack a security system or we had our own cameras placed—“and this map of where they’ve hit the Russianbusinesses. The closest dark spots outside of our cameras are the river.”
“The Hudson?” He sat down in his chair, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“Yeah.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I think they’re on the river. If they filter into the city with the cruise terminal or boathouse traffic, maybe that’s how they’re avoiding all the facial recognition. Big crowds, lots of hats, lots of glasses. Easy to move product.”
“Fuck me,” he said, sitting forward, and typing on his computer. Satellite images of the piers and the surrounding area popped up. “Maybe they’re living on boats? Or using them to travel?”
“Maybe. I’m not sure.” I pointed to the circle I drew. “But there seems to be where they’re most likely to disappear. Maybe if we watch the river area more closely, any place where large amounts of boats can land, and passengers can disembark, maybe we’ll catch better images.”
“And if we catch better images, we can follow. Ryuji said that Alec mentioned a lot of their dealers hang out by the piers.” Code flew across the screen as he typed. Screen after screen appeared. Obviously, I was still really new at this, but whatever commands he was inputting were way outside of my comprehension. “We’ll watch the other side of the Hudson, too. If they’re navigating up and down the river, they’re likely in New Jersey as well.”
“Watch the Bronx, too,” I added. “A lot of Tommaso territory is there.”
He nodded, typing even more commands. One day, maybe I’d be able to read and write the kind of code he did. But for now, I quite enjoyed our joint problem-solving. I sat in my chair, spinning around while he worked.
We felt like an inseparable team. Two halves of one brain. All my men were starting to feel like that. Pieces of my heart, pieces of my soul.
“When we find them, wherever they’re hiding, we can get answers about your parents,” I said quietly. I looked down at my hands, imagining they were covered in blood. Absentmindedly, I rubbed them on my leggings. “We’ll do whatever is necessary to get the truth.”
He paused, tilting his head to look at me. “Did you really kill Kofler?”
I nodded, one arm grabbing my other elbow as I glanced away. “I stabbed him in the heart.”
I had felt confident about it. A little proud, even. But then Cas looked at me like I was tainted…exactly like Obi said. Ever since, I’d been second-guessing that decision.
I’d been trying so hard to prove myself, but what if it amounted to nothing? What if I was still just as weak as they all thought I was?
Ciel grabbed my hands and brought them to his lips for a brief kiss on each of my palms. Then he released them and went back to typing.
I laughed softly. “What was that for?”
He shrugged, then smiled. “I think the world of you, baby girl. Nothing will change that.”
My heart clenched as I realized those were the exact words I was looking for yesterday on the way back to the penthouse.
I had told Obi I wanted to live in the shadows with them, but I was afraid the deeper I stepped into darkness, their opinions of me might change. With two kisses and a smile, Ciel erased those fears.
Ciel made me feel like I belonged.
“You sure know the way to a girl’s heart,” I mused with a grin.
“Te veo.” His cheeks reddened, the blush extending to his ears, but he didn’t turn to look at me again.
“I see you and I like you.” I blew him a kiss. “Also, thanks for not saying anything about the board meeting yet. I need to decide whether I even want to show up before I scare Cas half to death.”
Chiara had sent me that text for a reason, but was it a trap, a warning, or a clue? I needed to get my foot into my father’s businesses to pave the path to our empire, but at the same time, it felt terrifying to show up there. That was Max’s battlefield, not mine. He had homefield advantage at those meetings.
He nodded. “You’re welcome. If you decide to go, I’d like to go with you.”
“You would?”
“Yeah. I’m sure you’d rather have Wynn or Cas go, probably even Ryu, before me. But…” He shook his head slightly. “I can go.”
“I want you to come with me,” I finished, leaning over to grab his hand. “You and me on our own secret mission.”
He raised his eyebrow, but grinned. “Obviously, we should still tell everyone, but I do like the sound of that.”
