Page 91 of Captured Innocence

“Yeah, well, he fucking missed something.” I wasn’t in the mood to be talked down to.

Dar shook his head at Enzo then moved closer to me, shoving his hands into his pockets to show he had no intentions of fighting me. He’d reacted this way when Lucia had been threatened. “We have topnotch equipment. If there’d been a damn bomb the device would have found it. You know that.”

“Then how the hell did they manage to get that close?” I knew the answer. I wasn’t a goddamn fool. Even though we’d been rushed to the hospital, the snow had packed the ground, the temperature not warning up prior to me walking three miles around the property. The fuckers had used a snowmobile to the point they were concerned the engine could be heard, hiking on foot after that. They’d waited until the cover of darkness.

The ugliest truth of all was that if Sophia hadn’t gotten us outside to create goddamn snow angels, we’d both be dead. The Ghost had upped his game.

Now I planned on finishing it, and I’d be the victor.

We’d arrived only the night before, Sophia still recovering. At least she only had broken ribs and that had been from my crushing weight falling on top of her. But thank God I had. My face still looked like I’d walked through a mine field, shards of glass picked from my skin. I couldn’t care less about what I’d gone through. I hadn’t been able to protect Sophia.

I would never forgive myself for it.

“We’re going to have a drink, all three of us. Then we’re going to figure out who the fuck this Ghost is,” Enzo said, snarling when he glanced from one to the other of us.

Both Dar and I stared at each other. I sensed he was just as concerned as I was, likely given Lucia had almost fallen apart when she’d heard. Now she was on her way over and I could only imagine the kind of anger she’d display.

Not that I fucking blamed her.

I’d never allow my guard to fall the way I had in Zurich. Never.

Enzo grumbled under his breath then grabbed the glass from my hand as he walked by, taking long strides toward the bar. “Tell us again what the fucker said in the train station.”

“Just that a ghost would continue haunting me.”

“Me or the family?” Dar asked.

“How the fuck would I know? I had to catch a train,” I snapped but Dar was right. I’d been thinking of this more personally but in truth, I had a feeling the person responsible wasn’t targeting just one of us.

“Sven mentioned the Ghost as well. Yes?” Dar asked.

I’d demanded my old friend be tracked down, but I knew both men were right. Sven wasn’t behind the attack. The crude method used made it seem like the opportunity to hunt and kill hadn’t been anticipated. Maybe the phone call had been detected. That was possible.

“Yes.” My nerves remained on edge. I had no desire to leave Sophia alone for long. While I felt safe in the old family compound, the security tightened and dozens of our soldiers surrounding the grounds, I didn’t want her out of my sight any longer than necessary.

Fuck. I had it bad for the woman. There was no doubt about that.

“Then we need to go through our list of enemies and determine who’s alive and capable of doing this.” Enzo’s suggestion was good, but in my mind would take far too much time.

“I called the Five Families. As you might imagine, they are not eager to have a face-to-face meeting, but I’ve scheduled a Zoom call for tomorrow. We will have their support.” Dar took the drink being offered, lifting the glass in my direction. Maybe he was offering an olive branch.

“We’ll pool all our resources and figure out who’s after us. We can use Sophia’s help to ensure the additional security systems set in place are working,” Dar encouraged.

I threw back half the drink, knowing that Sophia was already pestering me to allow her to be behind a computer. “I know. Just give it another day. Okay? She was pretty shaken up.”

We heard noise, a door slamming in the background, and I braced myself for my sister-in-law’s entrance.

She was almost seven months pregnant, but that didn’t stop her from taking long strides into the living room toward me.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Lucia snapped as she faced me, fury in her eyes. Before anyone had a chance to stop her, she stormed toward me, cracking her hand across my face.

“Lucia. For God’s sake,” D’Artagnan said and shook his head. “We don’t need to do this now. We’re all upset.”

“Yeah? Well, my sister almost died because of this pig. He’s responsible!”

“It’s okay. Lucia had every right to be upset.” I meant what I said, even if I was angry with her for helping keep Sophia and me from being together.

“No, she doesn’t. You’re not going to treat the man I love that way,” Hearing Sophia’s softer voice as she entered the room drew our attention. Joy bounded in after her, obviously concerned that Sophia had left our suite.