Page 102 of Power & Punishment

I don’t answer him before slipping out of his office.

Air rushes back into my lungs as I make my way toward the elevator, and just when I think I’m free and clear, another jerk almost crashes into me. But this time it’s the stranger’s fault because I’m fully aware of my surroundings.

“Sorry, miss,” he replies, his voice rough and uneven. He doesn’t give me a chance to respond as he stalks toward his destination.

Any other day, I’d nod my head and keep moving. We live in a city of accidental bump-ins. Most people are too interested in their own lives to pay attention to where they’re going. But this man piques my interest instantly.

Especially with the new medical sling securing his right arm.

And the fact that he walks right into Adrian’s office without so much as knocking.

Like he belongs there.

How convenient.

29

LEO

“What do you mean you can’t find her?” I ask, two seconds away from taking my aggression out on Michael.

“She must’ve ditched her cell, hasn’t touched her laptop, and I’m keeping tabs on all of her regular places,” he says, taking a slow drag of a cigarette before tossing it on the pavement and stamping it out. “Nothing so far.”

“If she’s this good at going off the grid, I don’t know how we were tracking her so easily before. It’s almost like she wanted you to find her and now she definitely doesn’t.”

“Or she’s fucking dead in a ditch somewhere,” I say, feeling bile crawl up my throat.

I’d been avoiding that exact thought all afternoon as I continued to call and send her an absurd amount of unanswered text messages.

“Relax,” Dante says, interrupting a conversation no one asked him to be a part of. “She’s crashing at my place. One of my guys just called me.”

“Your place?” I ask, my voice becoming dangerously low. “I thought we agreed that was a bad idea.”

Dante shrugs, making me want to wrap my hand around his throat and squeeze the stupidity out of him.

“I haven’t talked to her yet. She just showed up according to my men,” he says, his dark brown eyes dancing with an unnecessarily cocky energy. “The better question is what did you do?”

I unbutton my sleeves and roughly roll the material up my forearms.

“I don’t have to explain shit to you, Russo,” I spit out.

He has the audacity to smile, practically asking me to break his already crooked nose. “She found out about the suspension, didn’t she? I’m disappointed, DeLuca. I thought you were better at keeping secrets.”

My foot barely moves an inch before Michael’s arm shoots out, blocking my path yet again. I quickly retreat, taking a few deep breaths to block the red hue beginning to cloud my vision.

“We can deal with this later. We need to get in position,” Michael says firmly before turning back to me. “Remember the plan.”

I am so fucking over the plan.

Winning this war would be meaningless without her.

But I know if I drop everything and go to her right now, she’ll tell me to fuck off. Mia won’t speak to me until she’s ready, and begrudgingly I have to be okay with that…even if I think this whole space thing is fucking overrated.

She can ice me out for now.

It won’t change how this ends.

“Fine,” I mumble, making sure my gun is secure and tossing on my jacket. “Let’s get this over with.”