Page 66 of Sweet Deception

Rome's phone pings with a notification. He reads the text and looks up with a smug smile. "Gio was followed. You both were. I assume that was your plan, since our girl is disguised as Betty?"

Rafael nods.

Rome tilts his head to Rafael. "Like I said, brilliant."

Cold satisfaction settles into my bones. It's going to be a long night and I won't be able to go home to Kylie any time soon, but at least she'll be in my bed.

Rome moves to the cabinet against the wall, revealing multiple monitors. He turns to Rafael, "Plug your computer in and open the feed from the office on here." He turns to me. "While we wait, let's play some cards."

Rafael does as Rome asks while Rome comes and sits down next to me. "You have Kylie well covered, but I want to be open with you. I have men at your residence to back your guy up." He holds his hand out, stopping me from interrupting. "She means something to you, but I'm also being smart and keeping a cop's daughter out of this."

I grit my teeth, but ultimately I can't complain Kylie has the extra coverage, so I give him a chin lift.

Rome slaps me on the back and grins. "Good. Come on, I want to find out if you've lost your touch at poker."

Gio comes waltzing into the office, followed by a female pulling a wig off her head.

"Luca, meet Cassie." Rome waves a hand at the woman.

I dip my head to Cassie. "Thanks for helping."

"You're welcome. I'm told my compensation for doing this, I would have a chance to kick your ass at poker." She grins before moving to the table where Rome's men are gathering.

"I like her." Gio follows Cassie, staring at her ass and misses the disgruntled look she gives him over her shoulder. I can't help but chuckle despite the shit about to go down.

Rome approaches me with a drink. "What did Rafael find on Lisa?" His gaze moves to the screen as my office comes to life on the monitor. "I'm not convinced she's clean. The timing is too perfect and the guy we interrogated said they had multiple plants."

I accept the glass he offers. "I agree. Rafael has a guy on her. If she makes one wrong move, we'll get her. That makes three plants in total. We're looking into the cleaner to see how he got involved. I'll share as soon as we have all the details."

"Good." Rome downs his drink and turns to the card table. "For now, let's play."

"Give me a minute. I need to let Kylie know not to wait up for me."

"Take your time, Cousin." Rome slaps my back and moves to join the others at the poker table.

Pulling out my phone, I text Kylie and mourn the loss of her company tonight. If this wasn't so important, I'd put it off. We had one great day, and it wasn't nearly enough time. Sighing, I put the phone away and join the others.

Chapter twenty-eight

Luca

"I've worked out a schedule with Rome's men for round-the-clock monitoring." Rafael informs us as he enters my office and heads for the sidebar. Robert, or anyone else, didn't make a move last night. I gave up around 3 am and left it in Rome's and Rafael's hands. As much as I wanted to wake Kylie, she was fast asleep and never woke as I got ready for bed and joined her. She probably needed a break, anyway. We went at it hard on Sunday.

I asked Rafael and Gio to meet me after hours at the downtown office for a bit of privacy, and I texted Kylie, letting her know I'll be working late again. Joseph will get her at nine and take her to my home, same as last night. As much as I wish I could be there myself, we have more to hash out in our plan to stop this other syndicate from fucking with my business.

Setting my reading glasses down, I stand and move to the glass wall to look out over the city. "I called Margaret first thing, letting her know Betty quit and that I would handle her replacement."

"She won't be happy we kept her out of the loop on this." Gio sits causally in the guest chair at my desk. He's already helped himself to the scotch.

I turn to Gio knowing he's right about Margaret. "I want her annoyance at the inconvenience to be real. Just in case."

"It's best this way. Margaret wouldn't be able to hide her worry over the girls if she knew someone was trying to infiltrate the business." Rafael moves to sit next to Gio with his whiskey, slouching down with his legs spread. He's had fun with this spy shit. I don't think I've seen him happier.

Sighing, I head to the sidebar, snatching my empty glass on the way to refill it. "I'd prefer she never found out, but I don't want her to have any hard feelings toward Betty when she's able to return to work."

"What are you going to do about Kylie?" Rafael asks.

"What do you mean?" Lifting my drink, I glance at him as I move back to my desk.