Page 58 of Love’s Strongest Soldier

My brow lifted. “And how do you know that?”

“Brielle told it all before I killed her,” she said and took a seat on the couch.

“You killed Brielle?”

“Yup. Don’t worry. Grim is cleaning it up.”

I opened the file to take a look at everything she had gathered on this Dominic Valenti. This nigga was a crime boss, one of the most powerful ones in the world, and we were gon’ have to go up against him to kill his ass to keep her safe. What the fuck had we gotten ourselves into.

“He’s looking for that painting because something of value was hidden inside it. I’m gathering that he thinks I know what he had in there. Whatever it is, he’s willing to kill to keep that secret.”

Peeling my eyes away from the papers, I asked, “And have you told Savion?”

“You’re the only person I’ve told.”

“We have to tell Savion so that we can come up with a solid plan. This nigga has too much power for us to go in there alone and blind. Shoot, your family might even have to go.”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.”

Spinning on my heels, I went to leave but I halted. “I’m proud of you, but I’m pissed, too, because something could’ve happened to you.”

“I know,” was her answer.

I went into the bedroom and grabbed my phone off the nightstand. Dialing Savion’s number, I waited until he answered. “We finally have a name, and you’re not gon’ like this shit.”

“Who?”

“Dominic Valenti.”

They had come up with an entire plan to get Dominic Valenti. I wasn’t sure if the shit was gon’ work, but we were gon’ do the best we could to make sure we took his stupid ass down whether if we went down with him or not. My brothers were involved. They weren’t about to let me walk into that shit alone. Savion was using me as bait and walking me straight through the front door to Dominic himself.

At first, Daddy was completely against the idea. He said that Savion was trying to get all of us killed, but Savion assured him that he was pulling all his men for this mission and taking my brothers with him. The only concern he had was me getting out of there alive.

My heart palpitated as I sat there on that jet. We were flying to LA where Dominic was currently residing. All I could think about was what if we didn’t make it out of there. What if we failed? I hadn’t even been able to walk down the aisle to Ghost yet. I’d only gotten a tiny glimpse of what our life would look like. No way I was ready to die, but I damn sure was ready for all of this to be over with.

The jet landed, and my heart dropped to my ass. Normally, I wouldn’t care about walking into danger. In fact, I thrived off it, but this felt different. I wasn’t sure if it was because I actually had something to live for or what.

We all got off the jet. My family had flown in separately because they didn’t want to alert Dominic. Savion played it smart and told him to meet him in a public place because he didn’t trust him. Dominic decided on the pier. It was one of the most public places there was. A lot of things could go wrong with so many people around.

We climbed into the truck that Savion had waiting for us, and the driver drove off. The ride to the pier seemed long as fuck. I clacked my fingernails together to try and calm my nerves. Ghost rested his hand on top of mine, coaxing a grin out of me.

“Everything is going to be fine,” he assured me.

He had already proven that he’d do anything to protect me. I was hoping that everything didn’t go left this time, because I didn’t know what I’d do if I was to lose him.

The truck finally came to a halt. We climbed out and headed up the pier. From where we were, I could see Dominic sitting on a bench in the center of the pier with an ice-cream cone. The vanilla dripped over the sides, and he licked the shit out of it. Nigga was calm and collected. That was the scary part about it. He didn’t know that he was walking into a trap and didn’t seem to care for that matter either.

We stopped in front of him, and he continued to eat his ice-cream cone. “Luxe, Luxe, Luxe. You’re a tough one to get rid of,” he said.

“You know you could’ve just come to my office and talked to me,” I told him. “I know you’re looking for that painting, and I don’t have it anymore. I never hold on to items that I get to sale. I don’t know what you wanted with that painting, but it had nothing to do with me. I never knew that it was stolen before I sold it, and I don’t know who stole it after it was sold. Turns out, your little friend Brielle was taking the real and replacing it with fakes. Maybe she should’ve been the one you were trying to kill.”

His eyes finally cut to me. Dominic wasn’t a bad looking guy. He was a bit overweight, though. His tawny cheeks turned beet red as he stared up at me.

“Sounds like you know more than you’re leading on.”

“I don’t know nothing. I just know how to put two and two together. And don’t worry about Brielle; she’s dead already.” I confidently grinned, knowing I put a stop to that bullshit.

A red beam landed in the center of Dominic’s forehead. Another appeared on his ice cream cone. The grin I once wore grew wider. Guns cocked and were pointed at us. I assumed that they realized we were about to take him out.