The week passes by so slowly that it becomes absolutely agonizing as I'm practically counting down the seconds until Dante comes back from Arizona. I know that it's pathetic that he's all that I can think about, I know that it's probably slowing down my work both at Berardi and at Pantera but it's driving me insane, him being so far away.

He said that he'd be gone for a week but I don't know if he meant a business week or if he'll be gone for the weekend too. It's Saturday now though and I haven't heard a word from him. Denise thinks that I should call him first but my pride won't allow that. Because although I am thinking about him non-stop, I don't want him to know that.

Today, since I'll be back at Pantera, hopefully this new mission will help me get my mind off of Dante. Dante and his taught arms, his tattoos, his dry sense of humor, his hot tongue, his mysterious aura. Hopefully, I'll be able to stop thinking about all of it just for the day because it's seriously driving me crazy.

Driving over to the Renegade Casino, I keep both my burner phone and my cell phone that I use as Elisa on the passenger side seat just in case anybody calls me while I'm on the road. Dante, specifically because I'm hoping that he'll call me when he gets back to Vegas. Maybe he won't though, and I'll just see him at work on Monday.

Back at the Renegade, I find my father's office to let him know that I've made it back so that I can help out with whatever mission it is that they need help with. I haven't been briefed on it very well but I was told that I'm not needed for my tech expertise, they are just spread thin right now and need more bodies. Which makes me think that I'll be doing a lot of fighting. It'll be strange for me since I've spent the past few weeks behind a desk but I'm ready for it.

"Hey, Boss," I enter his office. "When are we leaving?"

"Soon. Gear up, it's going to be a long day," He tells me.

"Do I get to know what's going on?" I raise my eyebrows at him, leaning in the doorway of his office. Now that I've been in Giovanni's office a few times, I'm noticing how similar their offices look. Obsessed with money and their own status.

"Shipment of machines coming in," He explains to me. Machines are machine guns that are illegal in America. Obviously, not all machine guns are illegal but the ones that we move and sell are. "We've been tipped that they're going to try to cheat us so we need as many people there as possible in case it gets ugly."

"That's the big deal that you had me come back for?" I wonder. "You could have handled this without me."

He looks up at me, away from his computer, "I would like an update on your current mission."

"Hasn't Sergei been keeping you updated?"

"I want to hear it from you," He decides. "I want to make sure that you're doing alright."

"Well, I'm still alive," I state the obvious. "And I've been making a lot of progress on their security system with Coleman working here. If I have time, I'll look at it from this side and I think it's looking really good."

"So you'll be home soon? Good. You have a lot of work to do here," My father says.

"Is there anything that you are looking for specifically?" I ask him curiously. "Maybe it can be over sooner if I have a specific target or something. I'm just kind of grasping here and I don't know if I'm going down the right path."

"There is something specific," He confirms with a nod. "We're looking for a name."

"I need more information, Boss," I walk farther into the room and take a seat across from him at his desk. "What name?'

He looks unsure of it, if he should tell me or not, which is ridiculous to me considering the fact that he is completely dependent on me to get this mission finished so I can obviously do my best work if I know everything about the case. "Alma Berardi."

"Berardi?" I've never heard that name before and I've been hearing the Berardi names my whole life. Giovanni, Dante, and then the rest of their terrible criminal family. But Alma has never been mentioned.

"Giovanni's ex-wife," He explains. "We've gotten word that she's coming back and if she is, we need to know about it. She's dangerous and we can't take this lightly."

"I didn't even know that Giovanni was ever married," I mutter in confusion. I am also surprised that he's gone through all of this trouble to

"It was before you were born," My dad tells me. "It was a green card marriage so that she could come into the country and they were only together for three years. Anyway, she has some strong mob ties from Italy, I've heard, so if she is coming back into the picture then we need to know about it. It's not so dire that we had to send somebody into their office but I decided that this is the perfect time to make our move to put Berardi to bed for the last time. So even if you find the information we need on Alma, don't stop until you've turned over every rock."

"That'll take a long time," I inform him.

"Vera, you need to do what needs to be done," He reminds me. "It might take a long time and I know that it's risky but it'll be worth it."

"Alright," I sigh. "Sure. Whatever you say. I'm going to go check in on Coleman and then I'll be ready to go."

He nods at me and then I leave his office to find Coleman. I wonder if Dante knows that this Alma lady is coming back to Vegas, if the rumors are true. I don't know if she's his mother or not but I'm assuming so. Maybe I'll ask him about his mom when he gets back. Maybe that's too serious to ask about so early on though.

I turn into Coleman's work space and knock on the already-open door so that he knows that I'm there. "You look busy."

He turns around, away from the computers, to face me and when he sees me, he smiles a little bit. "Hey, good to see you still in one piece."

"Yeah, it feels pretty good on this end too," I assure him. "How are things?"

"Busy," He sighs. "How's your boyfriend?"

I thump him in the head really hard. "Don't bring that shit up here, what the fuck? And I never said that he's my boyfriend so you can give that a fucking rest."

"I'm not going to give it up because it's a stupid thing that you're doing and you're playing with fire and so until you realize that and start making better decisions, I'm going to keep being an asshole," He insists.

I take the seat beside his at the big line of computer screens. "Okay then, asshole, tell me what I've missed."

"This is what I have for the Berardi thing," Coleman turns back to the screens to show me all of the code and progress that's been made on this end of things.

I take a sticky note off of his desk with a pen and write down 'Alma Berardi', "I want you to start searching for this name. Keep it confidential, I don't know who's supposed to know about this."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I didn't want you to get involved with this," I remind him. "And if you want to stop, I'd really appreciate that."

"You know that I'm not going to stop," Coleman shakes his head at me. "If you're going to risk your life for whatever reasons then I'm going to have your back. It's what partners do."

I don't try to argue him on this because I know that he won't budge, so I just give it up.

When it's time to go, I suit up with a few guns and I tie my hair in a ponytail to keep it out of my face. I'm kind of hoping that I don't have to fight because I'm tired but if it's necessary, I'm prepared. Coleman goes with us to the spot along with six other guys and my father, all with guns and iron fists, ready for whatever lies ahead at the shipment delivery.

My wish to not fight does not come true. The rumors were right, the people giving us the guns were planning on only giving us half of the guns and taking all of the money. When we didn't take it lying down, they attacked.

There are a lot of them though, and not as many as us so it's understandable that my father had me pulled so that I could go with them. Because they snuck up on me, I don't have time to pull my guns and I end up having to fight hand to hand, taking on two of the men at once. I'm holding my own though, punching and kicking and elbowing them in the face, until my phone starts ringing in my pocket.

I kick one of the men in the face as hard as I can to get him away from me so that I have one hand free to answer my phone. It might be Dante.

"Hello?" I answer the phone and wedge it between my shoulder and my cheek so that I can use both hands to fight the other man that's still standing.

"Hey," It is Dante. "Are you busy?"

"A little," I breathe out. "What's up?"

"I'm on my way back to Vegas. What's going on over there?" He asks me curiously.

I punch the tall man in his face but he is still standing so when he throws his fist toward me, I have to duck pretty quickly. "I've been trying a boxing class. When will you be back?"

"Just in a few hours, will you be done by then?" I kick the man that I'm fighting and after I land the kick, he grabs my foot and knocks me off of my feet. I press my lips together so that I don't yelp out loud into the phone.

"I don't know," I tell Dante. "Maybe we can do dinner?"

"Something fancy," He decides. "I know that you're not into the fancy crap but I'm dying for a good steak and I'm also dying to see you in that black dress again."

I've scrambled back to my feet and I land a good punch to the man's jaw as I'm talking. "Alright, I'll wear the dress if you wear a pair of tight pants that show off your cute butt."

"Deal," He laughs in my ear. "How has your week been?"

I punch the man in front of me again and he stumbles back enough for me to grab my gun from my waist band. Knowing that a gunshot is too loud to explain to Dante as being anything but a gunshot, I quickly grab the phone again, push the mute button, and then aim the gun with my other hand. I pull the trigger and the man in front of me drops dead. Coleman is still fighting across the desert area so I aim and shoot that guy too.

In a matter of a few seconds, I have the phone unmuted and back on my ear. "Slow," I answer Dante. "Pretty boring without you around. What about your week?"

"Boring," Dante says. My dad orders us all to round up because we've got all of the guns and all of our men so our job is done here. The two men that I shot have to be dealt with so two of our men stay back to cover their bodies but all of the other men of theirs that had attacked us just fled without needing to be shot.

"Hey, I actually have to go but call me when you get into town and we'll meet up, okay? I'm excited to see you again," I say as I'm heading to the SUV that I rode here in. I also cringe at how disgusting that last part sounded but I'm so caught up in sounding normal that I wasn't really thinking about what I was saying to Dante. Before he can respond, I just quickly hang up.

"Were you just on the phone?" My father notices with raised eyebrows.

Benji, another one of our workers, hands me a hand towel because my face is bleeding so I start dabbing it on my face to try and clean up all of that blood. I don't know how I'm going to explain these cuts to Dante when I see him tonight.

"It was Berardi stuff," I explain to him. "Urgent, I couldn't ignore it."

Coleman, sitting beside me and a little bit bloody himself, rolls his eyes at me very noticeably and if we both weren't already incredibly sore, I would elbow him. Instead, I just give him a scowl.

I know that he's just being protective but he's acting like I don't know how stupid my decisions have been lately. I do know that they're stupid decisions, I just really can't get myself to care and there's nothing that either one of us can do about that.