“You’re sure?” I say into my cellphone, a frown on my face. I’m standing in front of a counter in the back of Bathing Beauty, looking at a row of about four small TVs with camera feeds hooked up to them.

All is clear on the video feed, but as I listen to Diego over the phone, my frown only deepens. He’s been helpful in giving me updates as they come in. The heat might be turning up with the Cleaners, but at least I can rely on my own allies to keep me informed. But the news isn’t good.

“I see. I’ll update the men. Keep your ass safe out there,” I end the call while running a hand through my hair. The piece of news I just got is the worst yet. Just as I’m about to make a call to the men I have patrolling the block, I hear the door to the back room open, and Serena’s face appears in the crack.

“Hey, you alive back here?” she asks, glancing at the flickering screens. I smile warmly at her. She’s been incredibly strong through all this. Her store has practically become the front lines of a battleground she never wanted to set foot on, but she still manages to keep the doors of the shop open as if nothing’s the matter.

“As far as I know,” I say, and I stride over to her to pull her the rest of the way into the room and wrap my hands around her hips. “How’s business?”

“It’s going,” she says, tilting her head to the side. “I’m not exactly advertising that there are mobsters patrolling the streets, so it’s business as usual.”

“Maybe you should try that,” I say with a playful smile. “Think about it: ‘Bathing Beauty, so fresh it’s a crime.’”

She bites her lip and stares at me lovingly. “I...think we should leave the marketing to me.”

“Probably,” I say, and I plant a kiss on her forehead. She giggles and hugs me after a quick glance to make sure the front of the store is quiet, then looks back up at me with a slightly more serious look.

“Really though, you look kind of uneasy. Is everything alright? The streets have been quiet all day.”

I pause, glancing down at my phone, and I decide it’s best to be totally upfront with her. It’s never done her any favors to leave her in the dark about what’s happening in her own life.

“That was Diego on the phone,” I say. “We knew the Cleaners had cops in their pocket—that’s not unusual for any organization.” Serena nods slowly, and I go on. I squeeze her hips gently and give her the most reassuring look I can. “It goes deeper than I thought. They have someone on the take who’s higher up than I thought—a detective.”

Serena’s eyes widen. “A detective?”

“Detective Will Price. He’s a piece of shit,” I say, and that’s something I can say sincerely. “He’s been crooked from the start, but he deals with drug runners and traffickers—the kind of man that helps scum like the Cleaners thrive.”

“Is he going to be a problem for us?” Serena asks, but the look in her eyes tells me she already knows the answer. I run my hand through her hair, letting my strong fingers play gently with her golden locks.

“We don’t know yet,” I say. “Diego knows he’s in the area, and he’s making it easier for the Cleaners to do what they want, but none of our men have been in touch with him.”

Serena nods, and I hug her close to me, kissing her on the top of the head. “I’d take on the whole NYPD before I let any danger come too close to you, Serena. We’ll cross this bridge when we come to it. For now, we have enough on our plate.”

Serena looks up at me, pink lips smiling, and the sight of her smiling softly at me is enough to give me all the strength in the world. “I’m glad you’re here, whatever happens,” she says, and then she steps away from me, heading back into the front. “It’s about closing time, so I’m gonna start wrapping things up out front.”

“I’ve got an eye on you,” I say with a wink and a nod back to the CCTV feeds, and she blushes before heading back to the front.

Half an hour later, Serena is closing the blinds on the windows of the shop, and soon there’s nothing but the lights keeping the shop bright inside. I step into the front of the shop as she closes up some of the displays and finishes cleaning a few surfaces off, and she turns to quirk an eyebrow at the two long objects in my hand.

“What are those?”

I hold up the two sheaths, then set them on the front counter. “Remember the tussle on the boardwalk the other night?”

“Sure.”

“I wasn’t kidding when I said you handled yourself well,” I say, unbuttoning the sheaths and taking out the objects inside. I pull out two rubber knives, holding them up to show them to her. She cocks her head to the side.

“Are those…?”

“Not real,” I say with a grin, “they’re rubber. Training knives. Me and my boys are going to keep you safe, but if things get too hot,” I say, stepping closer to her and looking down at her, “I won’t let my passerotta be caught defenseless.”

She looks up at me silently for a few moments, then down at the hilt of the rubber knife I’m offering her. She takes it and feels its weight, getting a firm grip on it. The way she holds it tells me she’ll be a natural.

“I got lucky on the boardwalk,” she says, brandishing the knife around a little experimentally. “I don’t think I could go toe-to-toe with someone like that guy you took down.”

“It shouldn’t come to that,” I say, stepping around behind her and adjusting her stance, bending her elbow just so and turning her hips. “But just in case, a little extra luck doesn’t hurt,” I say with a smile down at her.

“By ‘luck’ you mean a few inches of steel, right?” she says with a coy smile, and I grin.

“That helps, too.”

“Okay,” she says, taking a deep breath to relax as she tosses the knife up and down in her hand a few times and catching it. “I’m game. No problem. Soap shop owner and knife-fighter. I can make that work. Where do you want to practice?”

“This will do,” I say, looking around the front of the shop. She raises her eyebrows at me, and I carefully slide some of the tables in the center out of the way to give us a little more room.

“Are you sure? Going out back might be a little more convenient.”

“You don’t get convenient space in a fight,” I say, “and besides, unless you changed your mind about branding this place as a mob front, I don’t think a knife-fight out back will be the best public image.”

“Fair enough,” she says, and she sinks back into the stance that I showed her. As I finish moving the tables, I look at her and smile. Her body is good at remembering the posture.

“That’s good,” I say, “managing your own center of gravity is half the fight. You’re light, you’ll need to use that to your advantage a lot.”

“How do I do that?”

I square up with her, holding my own knife at the ready. “I’ll show you step by step. I’ll move in, and I’ll show you how to move yourself so you can use my weight against me. You might not be able to push me around, but I can’t lift myself. Like this…”

I start showing her the basics of knife-fighting, the sounds of our feet scuffling around the shop the only noise besides my instruction.

Serena proves to be a good student. She seems naturally able to move where I tell her, and half the time, she anticipates what I’m going to tell her. I can see her athletic youth shining through, and her muscles serve her well.

I show her the basic moves, how to keep an enemy from using his height to his advantage, how to move quickly and effortlessly to match an enemy’s better reach. I have to be careful not to run into the displays in the shop, but it’s good practice in using the limited space.

While I teach her how to use her body, it isn’t long before she starts making use of the knife to fight back with the movements. “That’s good,” I tell her as I parry one of her quick jabs, “let the movement come first, and the attacks can follow. That’s the trick—they’ll see you coming from a mile away if you come in to attack. Let him come to you and make him regret it.”

She nods and slips around me to make a stab at my kidney, and I roll around to pull her arm behind her back, gently. I tap her on the collar with the knife, and she huffs, getting back into position. “Again.”

She gets into the swing of things fast, and soon, we’re going back and forth at a steady rhythm, our pace only getting more regular. I move in, she moves around me, and I catch her.

After a few minutes of practicing a set of about five maneuvers, I finally feel a tap of the rubber on my kidney, and she gives a triumphant little laugh, skipping back and smiling brightly. “Ha!”

“Not bad,” I admit, grinning proudly at her. “Now do it again.”

Soon, the sound of our heavy breathing is in the air as we run through the routines until I feel that they’re coming almost unconsciously to her. She moves in like a viper, and she’s starting to learn my openings. I don’t fight people as small as her, so she soon finds openings in my defenses even I didn’t know were there. She’s impressive.

And I know that the guys she’d potentially be fighting are no different than me. They don’t fight women like her. They simply…

I shake my mind of the thought. I can’t go back to that night. I can’t let myself think of what would happen if I didn’t show up.

I parry another stab, but Serena gets too bold soon, and when she tries to dart under my arms and bring the knife up to my throat, I catch her by the wrist and whirl her around, holding the knife to her own throat with her back pressed against my front.

We freeze there for a moment, our heavy breathing filling the air, and I let the rubber blade brush against her skin.

“Playing with fire, carina,” I whisper into her ear. She smiles and twists away from my grip, twirling the blade in her hand a moment before darting in again. This time, she gets up under me, and I catch her before she can draw her knife across my thigh, but she shifts her weight the way I showed her, and I go down to one knee to keep her from getting out of my grasp.

I bring my knife down to her throat, but at the same moment that my rubber touches her neck, I feel a prod at my gut from her knife.

We look into each other’s faces a moment, both of us ‘dead’ by the other’s hand.

“You learn fast,” I say in a low tone, between breaths.

She’s panting as well, her skin glistening in the light of the shop. “Have to, with a big brute like you coming after me.”

“It’ll take more than that to keep me from coming after you,” I say, my voice lowering into a husk, and before she can respond, I descend upon her and press my lips to hers.

Surprised, she moans into the kiss, her heart still beating fast from the exercise, and I soon drop my knife and use one hand to lower myself over her while the other slides up under her neck to lift it ever so slightly into my kiss. She squirms under me, and I hear her rubber hit the ground too as her hands slide up to my shirt, feeling the tight muscles under the thin fabric.

I let her explore me, her fingers going from my swollen pecs down to my abs. She feels my wounds, but the dull twinge of pain is nothing to me with Serena in my hands. The pleasure she gives me is worth a fresh gunshot wound. She wraps her arms around me, and I feel her ankles go around my waist as she clings to me tight, our lips still locked.

I stand up with her wrapped around me, and with no patience left in my body, I take her to the front counter and set her down on it. My hands run down her sides before they reach her leggings, and I roughly jerk them down as she wiggles to help them slide off.

“Spread your legs,” I order her, and she puts her hands back to lean on as she obeys, color flushing into her cheeks. The fabric reveals her lips, looking as swollen as needy as ever, and I feel my hunger for them overwhelm me.

I kneel down and run my hands over her smooth thighs, gripping the sensitive skin. She seems so delicate, even though we’ve just spent nearly an hour teaching her how to be all the more deadly.

She’s deadlier to others, at least. To me, Serena is already my fatal poison.

I lean forward and breathe in her scent, letting my breath wash over her pussy, and I hear her gasp as she grips the table, knuckles white already. I breathe along her slit, taunting her by coming so close, so very close to touching her, and when my stubble finally grazes her skin, she whimpers, trying to close her legs.

My strong, gentle grip holds them apart, though, and she pushes her hips in a little, begging for me, needing me.

“Do you think you’ve earned this?” I ask, teasing her with a smile curling on my lips.

“Fuck, Bruno, don’t do this to me!” she whines. Her face smiles, but as I let another quick breath roll over her lips, it fades into desperate need.

“Am I torturing you, carina?” I ask, using my thumbs to tease her inner thighs before I run my mouth along them, teeth grazing them, five o’clock shadow teasing them.

“I’ve been thinking about this all day,” Serena whimpers, “fuck, I wanted you to bend me over the counter since you walked in this morning.”

“That’s not very professional,” I growl, and I wait for her to open her mouth to reply before I let my tongue out over her cunt.

She tenses immediately, and I feel the beginnings of her honey on the tip of my tongue as it travels from the bottom of her slit, deep into her lips, then up to the tip of that sensitive nub that’s so very desperate for attention. I’ve teased her, but she’s done well tonight—she deserves a proper reward.

I let loose, my tongue attacking her clit relentlessly. Its tip rolls back and forth over it, up and down, rhythmically, slowly at first. But as I build up a little speed, her jaw hangs open, and I feel her hands go to my head to get a grip. My hair pokes through her tight fingers as she holds onto me, and I feel her honey start to flood my face freely. Her body is uninhibited—it knows what it wants, and what it wants is my mouth.

I let my teeth graze her as I lavish her clit with attention, and each time they touch, I feel her tighten her grip, hear another gasp escape her pretty mouth.

My tongue moves back and forth, darting in and out to kiss her swollen nub, and I feel her start to buck her hips ever so slightly, rhythmically, needfully. I hear her gasps start to get more regular, more like a steady pace of whining breaths, and her fingers start to tighten on my head.

“Oh, oh, oh Bruno, Bruno, fuck!” she gasps, breathing in sharply as my name dances across her tongue, and I feel her whole body convulse and tighten as she comes for me, hard. Exercise always makes your body more ready for release, more needy to get rid of all that tension. I feel my face getting so wet as she lets out a wonderfully satisfied sigh, head falling back as she struggles to keep herself up, the poor thing.

I don’t give her a moment to breathe, though. I keep lavishing her clit, and soon, I let my tongue roll over the rest of her pussy, too. It runs deep, drawing out as much honey as she serves up to me. I’m devouring her, and it isn’t long before she tenses up again, orgasm crashing through her frame.

Her beauty might be my weakness, but the things I can make her body do is my secret weapon against her.

I rise up to face her panting expression, and her hazy eyes meet mine, full of so much need that I haven’t tapped yet. I smile and let out a rumbling groan from my chest as I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and pull her into a kiss. Her wetness gets all over her face as we messily embrace each other, and she brings her hips forward to push against my black pants.

“Baby, you’re so wet,” I groan between sloppy kisses. “You weren’t kidding.”

“We’re making such a goddamn mess,” she half-laughs as I bring my mouth down to her neck to tickle her with kisses, getting more aggressive and nipping her, nearly biting her as the scent of her drives me wild.

“You make me a mess, baby,” I whisper, my accent coming out more thick as I get almost dizzy in the heady scent of her lust. “Now I’m going to give you what you want.”

Without further warning, I seize her hips and slide her forward, smiling wickedly as I loom over her. I pick her up with ease and flip her around so that her ass is facing me, and I bend her over. She gasps as I press on her back, and I let my hands run down to her ass. I squeeze her, a low growl escaping me as I look on her body. We aren’t naked, we’re still in the clothes we’ve gone through the day in. It makes it feel so sudden, so wanton, and my cock grows at the sight of her with her pants pulled down, exposed and vulnerable before me.

While her ass taunts me, I unbutton my pants and let my thick shaft spring free. I stroke it, letting my fingers play across the veiny girth and up to the bulging crown. It’s so stiff and ready for her that I could explode at any moment. But I want to savor her. I pick her hips up to help her get to just the right angle, and I slide my cock to caress her soaking-wet lips.

She whimpers and pushes her hips back, desperate for me to fill her. I bring my crown to her lips and just barely penetrate her, letting the stiff tip wander around her lips like my tongue did just moments ago.

“Oh, fuck you,” she whimpers, “God, I need you in me so bad, Bruno!”

“Every night I don’t have you sheathed on my cock, Serena,” I whisper in a husk, “I feel like something’s missing.”

“Glad it’s not just me,” she gasps, looking back at me with heavily lidded eyes, her mouth hanging open and her cheeks blushing.

“Better make up for lost time, then,” I say, and seizing her hips, I enter her from behind.

The gasp that escapes her lips is a sound I could never get tired of. I feel her inner walls tight against my cock. My shaft pulses within her, as if roaring in triumph at being united with the depths it was meant to be in.

I thrust forward, and she arches her back for me, even as I hold her up. Her golden hair spills over her shoulders and hangs down as she grips the other end of the counter. This place is her livelihood, and I’m fucking her hard within it. I feel a ripple of pleasure run up my body as I thrust further up into her, rocking back and forth and caressing her ass with each thrust.

Serena never asked for any of this to fall into her lap. She never asked to get attacked by a mob, dragged back into a life she came so close to escaping. I still know in the back of my mind that this is wrong, that it’s irresponsible to be with her like this…

But the one thing she did ask for is me. And I can’t deny my girl anything.

I hear her gasp as I thrust hard against her upper walls, sliding against the slick, wonderfully hot sheath that is her pussy. My cock swells within her, and I grunt as I pound her fiercer, harder, faster.

Her gasping is getting louder, and she’s letting whimpers and cries of pleasure flow more freely. I know if she’s much louder, someone outside might hear, but I don’t care. I’m taking her, now, and that’s what she wants—that’s all that matters right now.

She clenches her pussy, and I slap her on the ass with a sound that rings through the whole room. My heavy balls swing under her, and the sounds of our flesh slapping and grinding keeps me red-hot, harder than ever, and my whole body feels poised.

She gets a rhythm going, tightening each time I slide in, making it all the sweeter when I touch that sweet spot far within her, and she lets out an exasperated gasp. As the orgasm floods my cock, her strength gives out, and I have to hold her hips up entirely on my own as she loses her grip on the counter for a moment.

“I’ve got you, dolcezza,” I growl, hoisting her up into me, and the way I bring her to sink onto my cock sends a shiver up her back that even I can feel. She stifles a yelp that sounds almost like a musical note, and the next moment, she’s back on her hands, pushing her pert ass back onto me, and I do not hold back.

I feel tension building up within me, but I’m not ready to let it go just yet. There’s a monster within me that wants me to give into my instincts, to let loose hard and fast with abandon. But I’m no beast—I’m a man who will please his woman well, and I’ll finish when I’m good and done fucking her.

I start bucking into her like a piston, my rhythm unstoppable like a machine, and her shoulders freeze as her cunt clenches. She starts to look back at me, but her eyes are shut tight and her mouth hangs open. I can feel pressure in her body winding up like a spring. I don’t let up, every muscle in my body driving forward with unstoppable heat.

And just before her spring uncoils, I withdraw from her.

The whimper she lets out his heartbreaking, and her eyes open wide, begging me for mercy. “Fuck, Bruno, I’m so close!”

“And I’m going to take you there,” I growl, slapping her on the ass before I pull her leggings the rest of the way down until they’re off her legs, leaving her bare from the waist down in her own shop, but for the oversized shirt. I take a handful of her hair and gently tug her back until she’s standing up in front of me. “Hold on tight.”

Without warning, I sit up on the counter, my cock standing upright like a mast. Serena looks at it hungrily for a moment before I seize her by the waist and lift her up. She makes a surprised squeak as I lift her up high, but when she sees the waiting cock below her, a bead of precum glistening above the sheen of her honey she spreads her legs and starts to wrap them around me.

“I want to look into your eyes when we come,” I say thickly, and I let her sink to the hilt onto my hot, throbbing cock. My precum mixes with her wetness. The sound of her loving sigh as our sexes are united again is like honey to my ears.

She rests her hands on my shoulders and looks down at me, but I’m supporting her hips with my hands. She’s safe in my grasp, and I can see in her eyes just how much she trusts me.

When I start rocking my hips, it takes her no time to join right in with the rhythm again, as if we hadn’t paused at all. Serena bites her lip and knits her brow, and her flushed face tells me she’s using the last of her strength to work with me as I rock forward, my cock harder and stronger than ever.

My Serena feels like nothing I’ve ever felt in my lap, my cock perfectly sheathed deep inside her. Every time I help her rock forward and her hips dig deeper for more, we’re both finding parts of her that we’ve never felt, feeling sensations only we can unlock in each other.

In a bold move, she reaches to the hem of her shirt, letting go of the support of my shoulders for a moment. She pulls it up over her head, but she manages to keep balance on my cock, even though I don’t stop rocking and bucking up into her. It takes her a few moments, but she gets it off and shakes her gorgeous locks of golden hair out before tossing it to the side. Instinct kicks in, and I reach up to unhook her bra, which comes off next.

She exposes her breasts to me and rests her arms around my shoulders again. It brings her close enough that I reach behind her with one hand and put my teeth to her breast. She leans her chin against my head as I lick her nipple until it’s soaked, then suck it between my teeth and toy with it more. I give both her breasts attention, never breaking pace for a moment, and her whole body begins to coil up in ecstatic tension once again.

“Bruno...oh, Bruno,” she murmurs, almost chanting as I rock her into a trance-like pace, pumping up and rocking with her, my cock getting stiffer as pressure mounts in me, too. I feel her nails dig into my back, and I know it’s time.

I pick up the pace, pounding up into her, any hope of finesse or precision getting thrown to the wind. My pounding gets savage, relentless, and I hold one hand in her hair in a fist while the other grips her hips, pulling her into me.

She breathes in sharply, and she starts losing control of her body as the pleasure wells up into an unstoppable flood. Just as she reaches the peak of the cliff, I let myself go. The incredible tension in my cock unlocks, floodgates opening as my seed bursts up into her at the same time as she lets out a scream of ecstasy, her whole pussy tightening and pulsing around me as I throb into her.

It isn’t until the second pulse of hot seed that I realize a loud groan is escaping my lips too, and as we finish together, we melt into each other, soaking-wet sexes locked into each other, and the tide of bliss rocks us into a daze as I bring the rocking rhythm slower, slower, until we’re just sitting there, sweating on the counter of her shop, seed spilling out her pussy onto my balls.

It’s a mess, but god, I wouldn’t trade that moment for the world.

Finally, she pushes herself up, shivering as my still-stiff cock twitches inside her, and her glowing face looks down at me like an angel. We’re both at a loss for words. Smiles play across our faces, and we finally start laughing, bringing our foreheads together to rest on each other until we settle down and kiss playfully.

“So, do all knife-fights end like this?” she asks.

“Of course,” I joke, grinning. “At least, the ones with us will.”

“I might have to get more serious about this, then,” she says, and I brush a lock of hair out of her eyes as I smile up at her before picking her up off my cock and setting her down gently. She wobbles a moment, but keeps her balance, putting her hands on her hips proudly.

I wet my lips as I button my pants back up. “You’d better get your clothes back on unless you want round two to be sooner than you think.”

She raises her eyebrows and tilts her head to the side. “Oh yeah? Maybe we should take it back to my place.”

I smile wickedly, but I put up a hand for her to wait as I move to the back room. “Hold that thought. I have something for you.”

She blinks, confused, and calls after me, “Uh, seriously though, if gun practice is next then I might need a breather.”

“Later,” I say as I pull out my bag and dig through it to get two little black boxes. One is a long rectangle, the other is a square. I carry them back into the main room to find Serena pulling her leggings back on. She peers at the little boxes curiously.

“What are those?”

“A couple of things I want you to have,” I say, setting them down on the counter. “You know, gifts. One of them I didn’t want to give you until later, but I think you’re ready.”

Serena’s eyes are wide with surprise, and she’s even more surprised when I pick her up to set her on the edge of the counter and hold out the rectangular box first. In my massive palms, it looks a lot smaller than it actually is.

“Oh! Is there an occasion?” she asks. She looks at the box shyly, but I know my girl—she likes presents, and I like to spoil her.

“You want me to say something cheesy like ‘every day is an occasion with you?’ I mean, it is, but…”

“Stop!” she giggles, kicking playfully at my leg before she bites her lip. “Kinda.” She takes the thing and sets it on her lap to open it carefully, sliding an inner compartment out, and her eyes shine at what she sees inside. “Oh my god, Bruno, is this-”

“Yours,” I say proudly. Inside the box in a foam casing is an ornate switchblade, its handle jet-black. “Be careful, it’s brand-new and sharper than just about anything I’ve handled.”

Her careful fingers reach in and take it out, holding it up to the light with round, wondrous eyes. “Woah, it’s...a step up from the one I had. Bruno, I don’t know what to say!”

“Open it,” I urge her, and she points the blade away from us to push its switch. With a click, the blade pops out.

“It looks sharp,” she says, experimentally holding the thing in her hand, and that’s when she notices something on the base of the blade. She brings it closer to her eyes to squint at and read. When she reads it, I see tears start to well up in her eyes.

I start to say, “It says-”

“Passerotta,” she finishes, smiling and looking up at me.

“A passerotta for my passerotta,” I say, taking the blade from her hand and sheathing it again. “My sparrow. I had it made specially for you.”

She throws her arms around me, and I chuckle as I hug her tightly. “That’s the most dangerous and romantic gift I’ve ever gotten, Bruno.”

“I thought it was fitting,” I say, kissing her on the forehead, “but that’s not all.”

“Oh, the square box!” she says, reaching over and taking it as I stow the switchblade. She opens the next box, and her face lights up—this one needs no explanation.

“Oh my God, Bruno!”

She reaches in and draws out a necklace, silver glittering in the lights above us down to the set topaz pendant. “It’s beautiful,” she breathes.

“Serena, you deserve nothing but the best in life,” I say, reaching out and sliding my hand around the back of her neck. She looks up at me, tears still welled up in her eyes, and when she blinks, they roll down her cheeks as she smiles, still glowing. “We’re going through hell, but I wouldn’t want to go through it with anyone but you. And if we’re going through hell, I’ll treat you like we’re going to die tomorrow. And if we pull through this, I’ll treat you like the princess you are, every day of our lives.”

“Bruno, I-I don’t know what to say,” she says softly. She sniffs, and I wipe away a tear, which makes her smile. “Thank you. For everything.”

“Come on,” I say, nodding to the door. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Let’s? Are we going back to my place?” she asks, hopping down from the counter and finishing getting her shirt on.

“As much as I’d love to, not tonight,” I say. “Rafaela agreed to let you stay at her place tonight. I messaged her earlier. Things are a little hot right now, and I don’t want to make us easy to find until we can get a better grip on the situation.”

“I’ll text my mom and let her know. And… maybe suggest she stay in a hotel for the evening. Treat herself.”

I’m about to say something when I hear my phone buzzing in the other room. I stride over to it and pick it up. Nico.

“What’s up?” I answer the phone, my brow knit.

“Bruno, where are you tonight?” he asks, sounding urgent.

“Why? What’s the matter?” Serena is looking over at me with concern on her face.

“We got a tip, Bruno.”

“I’m not walking into another trap, Nico,” I say.

“If we got any more bad informants on our radar, you can take my kidneys,” Nico says. “This one’s good, so good most of the Cleaners don’t even know about it. Comes from someone we got among the Irish.”

“The Irish? What the fuck do they want?” We’ve had a long history with the Irish—a lot of ups and downs, but things have been quiet from their end for a long time. The last thing we need is another front in this war.

“There’s a meeting going down tonight, Bruno,” Nico says. “The Cleaners are reaching out to some of the higher-up Paddies. Probably want to sweet-talk them into an alliance if they can persuade them we’re weak enough to take a shot at.”

“Fucking hell,” I hiss, pacing around the back room, and Serena comes to lean on the side of the door, biting her lip. “Tell me you’ve got something else.”

“I do, and you’re gonna owe me for this one,” Nico says.

“Not if you keep me waiting, Nico.”

“I got where the meeting’s happening,” Nico says in a low voice, and my eyes widen. “Some of the biggest names from both sides showing up to parley. Probably a drug handoff, as a show of good faith. Something that shows the Irish that the Cleaners are worth their time.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“There’s more, Bruno,” Nico says. “The Cleaners aren’t even telling a lot of their own men—Bruno, Lorenzo’s gonna be there to oversee the handoff personally.”