offer. Give me the week to close everything down, and then I'll be in Chicago by next week."
"Good. Best decision you'll ever make. I promise."
"I'll hold you to that." The thug on the other end of the phone caused me to chuckle as the line went dead. We didn't have time to help, but it was a good way to show him what he was entering into. Though we were dysfunctional as hell, we were still family.
I leaned down and pulled at the drawers on Freddy's desk, going through the few that opened and standing to look for a key for the ones that didn't.
The key ring by his door had large keys with numbers on them that went to various shipping crate locks, but nothing small. I turned back to the desk and paused as my mind registered the imprint of a small key on the dusty board where they all sat.
Turning back, I reached up and ran my finger along the place where a small key had to have laid. "Where are you? Who took you?"
I pulled out the keys to my bike and walked back through the warehouse until I found my sister.
"I gotta run. Something has come up."
She lifted her eyebrow. "Something always comes up."
"Did you, by chance, take the key to Freddy's desk? The one that unlocks his drawers."
"Nope. It's hanging on the keyring by the door. I kept telling him that he needed to put it somewhere else, but he felt like having it out in the open and obvious would keep anyone from thinking too much of it." She shrugged. "Just grab it and check the drawers on your way out."
"Right, I can't. The key is missing."
She huffed and walked back toward the office as I moved toward the exit.
"It's right here, D. I swear if it was a snake it would have-" She paused as she ducked into his office. "Well, it was here."
"When is the last time you saw it?" I knew where it was. Either Thomas Kallup had in in his pocket, or my woman did. Something told me it was the latter of the two options.
"Friday morning, I believe."
"See you later." I pushed the door open and swallowed the sinking sensation that Izabella knew more about Freddy's situation than she was letting on. She loved her mother, but Vivian was dead. There was no protecting the dead, but the living?
She was hiding Freddy. I was almost sure of it.
Chapter 10
Izabella
"This isn't personal, is it?" I glanced over toward D as our plane landed in New Orleans early the next morning.
"What? Us taking Billy Turner out?" His voice was gruff and sexy as fuck.
"Yes." I sat up and pulled at the window shade.
"Not really. Marcus is about to become part of the family. He needs us as much as we need him." He reached up and brushed his fingers down my exposed shoulder and arm. "Are you sure you're comfortable doing this?"
"I love killing." I glanced over my shoulder and smirked at him. "You can stay in the hotel room while I take the bastard out, or you can come with me. Either way, just make sure that you don't interrupt me."
"Never." He licked at his lips and turned his attention away from me. "There's a bag in the lockers near the baggage claim here, or there should be."
"Good." I got up as the door opened to the plane. "I assume you're feeling better about bringing Marcus into the family?"
"Was I ever feeling badly about it?" He followed me down the short flight of stairs and moved up beside me as the wind picked up and blew my hair around wildly.
"It's me, D. I know more about you than you know about yourself." I got into the back of the black Cadillac that waited for us. The man who got in and moved to sit beside me looked like sex incarnate. So strong and full of dangerous power. He would be the next Don in my family regardless of the blood that flowed through his veins. That thought alone turned my insides into liquid heat.
"Tell me what's going on with Freddy." He reached over and gripped my hand tightly. A warning and a show of affection.
I pulled his fingers toward my mouth and kissed each knuckle slowly as I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent. The sound of his