Owning the building means I was able to reserve the top five floors for my personal use before the realtor sold the rest of the development a few years ago. We have our own elevator and rear entrance from the parking lot so we maintain complete privacy. The rules are clear—no one entertains guests unless they have been previously approved. Safety is key, and it’s important we don’t give our enemies easy access to attack us. It’s one of the reasons why I have never brought a woman here or to my house. Why I always met my fuck buddies at hotels. It’s also one of the reasons why I had a small pool of women to call on when I needed sex. Trust is difficult when you’re in my line of work.
Guarding my reputation is also of paramount importance, and all my soldiers represent me through their actions and their words, so I expect them to be above reproach. Alessandro and Leo have their own apartments, and we have a bunch of guest apartments that are rotated among other soldiers as the need arises. Sometimes, visiting members of la famiglia stay here.
Sierra follows me up the stairs to the second level where the three bedrooms are. I open the door to the middle bedroom and stride across the room, peeling the comforter back so she can lay our son down. He barely stirs, exhausted from the day. We haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet because it was too noisy in the helicopter and he fell asleep almost instantly when we were on the plane, but it will be the first thing we attend to in the morning.
Sierra removes his sneakers and carefully maneuvers his hoodie off, leaving him in his long-sleeved shirt and sweatpants. She tucks the covers over him, as he snuggles down into the bed, before pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. I lean down, softly brushing his dark hair away from his forehead, before kissing his warm skin. My hand curls around Sierra’s as we stand beside the bed, staring silently at our son as he sleeps. The steady rise and fall of his chest is comforting because I know how close I could have come to losing both of them today.
We walk hand in hand out of the bedroom, and I love that Sierra is leaning on me instead of pushing me away. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but tonight, she needs me, and I want to be there for her.
“The doc is here,” Leo tells me when our feet hit the lower level. “I put him in your study.”
“Can I get you something to eat or drink?” Alessandro asks, looking more alert. He slept the entire plane journey and the car ride here, so I’m hoping it means most of the drugs have left his system by now.
“Order food,” I say when Sierra’s stomach rumbles. I doubt she has eaten much all day. I know I haven’t, and I’m suddenly ravenous. “And I want the doc to check you out when he’s finished with Sierra,” I add.
“Sure thing, boss.”
Placing my hand on Sierra’s lower back, I guide her across the full length of my living area toward my study.
“Your apartment is beautiful,” she says, drinking everything in as we walk.
I had an interior decorator design and furnish the place. It’s largely monochrome with the odd splash of color on a painting or a rug or the cushions on the couch. The space is more clinical and less homey than my house, but that’s on purpose. I stay in the city during the week to be near work, and my apartment is mainly a place to rest my head at night. I don’t even eat here most nights, choosing to dine out instead. I wanted something stylish yet practical, and it suits my needs perfectly.
“I’m betting the view is stunning in daylight,” she adds, staring at the successive floor-to-ceiling windows that run the full length of the apartment at this level.
“It is,” I admit, steering her over to the right, to where my study is enclosed behind the large white and gray kitchen. “If it’s not too cold in the morning, we can eat breakfast on the terrace.”
I also want to show Rowan the rooftop terrace because you can see for miles across the city and I have something up there he will be excited to see. If he hadn’t fallen asleep, I would have taken him up there tonight to watch the stars through my new telescope. I purchased it and one for the Greenwich house after our conversation last Sunday. I had hoped one day to watch the Skywatch Weekly show with my son in person, and it seems like I will now get my wish much earlier than anticipated.
We enter my study, and I make introductions, staying with Sierra as my personal doctor attends to her injuries. Using steady, skillful fingers, he applies a line of small paper stitches to the gash in her cheek and examines her wrist, to double-check it’s not broken, before wrapping it in a soft brace. With deliberate tenderness, he probes her bruised throat for permanent damage. Sierra winces, confirming her neck is sore, and I stuff my clenched fists in my pocket. I attempt to cage the fury swirling through my veins because I don’t want to spook Sierra, but it’s not easy.
I will murder any asshole who dares to lay a finger on her without stopping to think about it.
No one is hurting her again on my watch.
I make my other request, expecting Sierra to vehemently argue with me, but she agrees to the procedure. I take her palm in mine, letting her squeeze my fingers until it feels like there is no blood circulating in my hand while the doc inserts the chip in her upper arm. “We need to implant one in Rowan too,” I add, kissing her cheek as the doc wipes her arm with rubbing alcohol and applies a soft circular bandage.
“Can you do that while he’s asleep?” Sierra inquires.
“I could inject a mild sedative first,” the doc suggests, “to ensure he doesn’t wake and then perform the procedure.”
Sierra’s brow’s knit together. “I don’t like the idea of giving him a sedative.” I’m not surprised to hear that, given what Sierra does for a living. She looks up at me. “Could we wait and do it another time, when he’s awake?”
I don’t want to delay implanting the tracking device in our son, because it’s added protection, but I don’t like the idea of injecting him with a sedative either. “Could you come back in the morning?” I ask the doc.
“Of course. I am at your disposal.” I’m glad to hear it. I pay him a massive retainer and huge on-call fees so he’s immediately available to me.
I call Alessandro in next, and Sierra leaves to check on Rowan. I wait as the doc examines him and asks him a few questions. He takes a blood sample for testing, but he’s unsure if there will be any evidence of the drug left in his blood stream. His guess is Alessandro’s coffee was spiked with Rohypnol, which can be fatal if too strong of a dose is administered. Sierra mentioned she believed her tea had been drugged, and I’m so fucking glad she didn’t drink it. If the dose Alessandro was given knocked him out for hours, who is to tell what it might have done to my Firefly. She could have been killed.
Our food has arrived by the time the doc leaves, so we sit at the dining table and chow down. No one speaks. All of us are too hungry to do anything but eat.
After, we move over to the seated area, and I pull Sierra down on the leather couch alongside me, circling my arm around her shoulder and tucking her into my side. Leo and Alessandro sit on the couch opposite us, the latter sitting stiffly, looking rigid with stress.
“How did this happen?” I ask, working hard to keep my tone neutral.
“They must have gotten to the new receptionist,” Alessandro says. “She has been buying us drinks all week, so I didn’t suspect anything.”