Page 100 of Corrupted Seduction
“I don’t suppose you’ll be needing any help?” Nico asked. He spoke casually, but I could see the eagerness in his cold, green eyes.
“Too quiet on the home front these days,amico?” I asked as I closed the trunk of my car.
He scoffed. “I suppose I should be grateful,si?”
“Peace is a wonderful thing until it leaves you with idle hands and no assholes in need of killing,” I said—a rather deep sentiment, in my opinion.
“Molto vero,”he replied at the same time the front door opened and Raven stepped outside. He smiled up at her, the ice in his gaze melting in an instant.
The man was completely whipped.
“Dr. Dawson… er, Heidi is with the boy upstairs,” Raven informed me when she’d reached the bottom of the stone front steps. “She said she has everything under control, so…”
“Grazie, cugina. I appreciate your help tonight. And yours as well, Nico,” I said.
Nico nodded, but Raven shrugged. She glanced at the house, then back to me. “It looks like you didn’t really need my help, after all,” she said, smiling a little too brightly.
It was true, but I hadn’t expected Heidi to jump on board this evening. In truth, I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“I like her, Deo, so try not to screw things up, okay?”
“There’s nothing to screw up,” I replied, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. You spend a few nights with a woman, and suddenly everyone was chiming in with their opinion.
She rolled her eyes, feeling no need to quell the urge, it seemed. “Let me ask you a question: When you told her this kid was in danger, did she question it?”
Come to think of it, no, she hadn’t. But I kept my mouth shut.
“And why do you suppose that is?” Raven went on without pausing.
“Because she’s madly, deeply in love with me?” I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
She scoffed. “That’s pushing it. But it seems to me she trusts you. She put a lot on the line tonight to help that kid, entirely based on what you told her. That’s a pretty big deal, in my opinion.”
“We’ll leave you to it,” Nico interrupted, casting me a sympathetic glance as he put his arm around Raven. “Enjoy your evening,amico,” he said, his voice just a little wistful.
I was hitting that tired point where I almost would have been willing to exchange places with him.Almost.
I watched Raven and Nico walk toward their car as another car turned into the long driveway. It appeared Aurelio had arrived.
It was time to get to work.
Lucky for me, by the time I’d changed out of the ridiculous scrubs I was wearing and Aurelio and I had made our way down to the basement, Giovanni was already waiting there for us with Verdi at his side.
Vito had our latest guest on a chair in the middle of the concrete-walled room. His wrists and ankles were cuffed to the chair, and his hands had been duct-taped so that his fingers lay flat against the chair’s wide arms. His chin rested on his chest; he was still unconscious, the consequence of the sedative I’d dosed him with.
I glanced at my watch. It wouldn’t be long now.
“Do you recognize him?” I asked Verdi, nodding to our guest.
Verdi took a step into the room without batting an eyelash. He wasn’t the least put off by what was about to happen here. He looked at the guy through narrowed eyes, his head cocked on an angle. He shook his head slowly at first, then more decisively.
“No,Signor,I don’t.” He turned to look at me. “Who is he, if I can ask?”
“He’s a breadcrumb,” I said since that was all we had at the moment. “Time to see where it leads.Grazie,Antonio,” I said, dismissing him.
He smiled wryly. “Any time. It seems I have plenty of that on my hands these days.” He didn’t sound angry; he sounded restless.
I smiled. “We’ll get you off the bench soon, if that’s still what you want. But keep the warning I gave you in mind; I don’t make idle threats.”