Page 155 of Fallen Rook

“So he planned all this as bait,” Luca rasped, unperturbed.

I nodded slowly. “Alex isn’t privy to his plan. Slava wants to bait the Camorra, attack you, seize the shipment, and get you arrested with the bodies still warm on the ground. Then he wants to go back to Vegas victorious, overthrow Alex, and conquer New York.”

Silence.

“You don’t seem surprised,” I said finally.

As if remembering he had a role to play, Luca tossed his head back, laughing at the ceiling. I waited for him to let it out of his system. He looked straight at me. “What happens if we don’t show up?”

“Well.” I laced my fingers together, sitting forward. “If you don’t show up, Slava will still be there, with his soldiers, his shipment, and his drugs. I’ll have no choice but to arrest them on those charges, of course.”

“Of course.” Luca grinned indulgently. “What’s the catch?”

“Arresting my own informant is verboten, so I’m going to have to arrest his men and somehow let him go. You’ll have to get rid of him for me before he opens his mouth.”

The implication of the words settled between us, a living, breathing thing.

The Camorra would have to kill Slava before he started complaining about what I’d done.

It’d still leave me to clean up the mess with Zeke, Sully, and rest of the FBI, who’d be asking questions, but it would eliminate the immediate threat of my being exposed as a dirty fed collaborating with the Camorra.

“Consider it done,” Luca said.

“Does this mean you’ll stick it out and not flee?” I studied him. “Despite Sofia.”

“Will the FBI finally get off our backs?”

“If I botch this operation, the case will be dead for a long time,” I admitted. “Years, at least.”

“I’ll stick it out, then. I’ll win Sofia back one way or the other.”

I applauded his newfound optimism, because from everything I’d seen, it didn’t look like his wife would agree to be in the same state with him, never mind house.

“Now can I ask a question?” he said.

“That you haven’t so far surprises me.” I leaned back in my seat.

“What’s in it for you? I tried to recruit you before. You said you were incorruptible.”

“I’m in love with your brother. And I plan on being with him. In the open. Marry him. Start a family with him.” If he’ll have me. “It’d be easier if his family accepts me.”

“Why should I believe that this is real and not another setup?” Luca furrowed his brow. “You just solved two of my three problems—the FBI and Bratva. When something seems too good to be true, it’s usually because it is.”

“I haven’t fixed your Bratva issue. My sources say Alex is pissed and eager to retaliate,” I pointed out. “But me and Enzo? It’s real.”

“Prove it.”

I raised my hand between us, showing him the bracelet Enzo had gifted me. I hadn’t taken it off once since our weekend at the lake house. Never would. I knew I’d be buried with it, too. It was a piece of my butterfly, and I wanted it with me at all times.

Luca closed his eyes, cursing softly in Italian.

“My brother…”

“Yes?”

“He is a romantic.”

“I know.”