Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
She glances over my shoulder at Giorgio, narrows her eyes, and gives a terse shake of her head.
I swallow down my apprehension and lead her inside by the hand. She’s going to have to stand up for herself against Giorgio and Luigi. Like the rest of the family, they’re part of my life. I can’t avoid contact between them forever.
Giorgio shoves a wedge of orange into his mouth and mumbles something that sounds like, “Morning,” around the piece of fruit.
Ignoring him, Anya goes to her workstation.
Giorgio chews noisily, swallows, and wipes juice from his chin with the back of his hand.
I put her laptop bag on the desk and help her to remove her coat.
“I said morning,” Giorgio says with a spiteful smile and a mocking glint in his bloodshot eyes. “Maybe you didn’t hear me.”
I slap his ankles off her desk and pin him with a look. I’m about to tell him to apologize for speaking to my fiancée like that and to get the fuck out when she says, “I heard you. I’ll answer you when you mean it.”
“Mean what?” he asks.
She removes her hat and shakes out her curls. “When you greet me either because you’re genuinely pleased to see me or simply to be polite. You’re neither.”
He throws back his head and laughs. “Feisty.”
She hangs her hat next to her coat on the stand and removes her gloves. Then she sits down and opens her laptop, her concentration already elsewhere as if neither Giorgio nor I exist.
“You haven’t answered me,” I say, flinching as I pull off my leather jacket.
The cut over my side and lower back hurts like a bitch today.
“Working,” he says, throwing a wedge in the air and catching it in his mouth.
Right. As if he’s done anything constructive as far as the management of the club goes.
I lower myself into my chair, trying hard not to grunt with the effort. “If you’re not going to be useful, I suggest you go home. Your father won’t be pleased if he finds out you’re here.”
He glares at me, but he doesn’t take me on. He knows damn well he fucked up last night and that, once again, I saved his ass. That’s the vicious circle we’re trapped in. He has the right name and blood, and I have the brains and the balls.
Sometimes, I wish we could go back to how it used to be when we were young and power didn’t matter, when he was just the favorite target of our school bullies and I the kid who protected him. Things were simpler then. But we were always going to grow into what and who we are today. Luigi will always blame Giorgio for not being like me while resenting me for being a better underboss than his son. I was just too stupid to see it back then.
I have a feeling I’m going to have to split paths with the Bianchis, and Luigi isn’t a man who lets anyone walk away. I know too much. If I’m not on their side, I’ll be a risk. Plus, there’s the matter of After Dark that brings in the bulk of my wealth. I’ll soon have a family to provide for, a wife and a kid I have to protect. The only way of cutting the ties may be the good old traditional way—with a knife. But then there’s Raphael and Michele who pledged their alliance to Luigi to consider. If I take on Luigi and Giorgio, I’ll have to take on the whole damn mafia on the east side of the city as well as all the Mexican cartels Raphael deals with. It’s a catch-twenty-two situation.
A knock falls on the door, pulling me from my thoughts.
One of the bouncers opens the door and sticks his head around the door frame. “There’s a cop outside who wants to see you, Saverio.”
Anya looks up quickly.
“Says his name is Jordan,” the bouncer continues in his smoke-roughened voice.
I open my mouth to tell him no, but before I can get a word out, Giorgio says, “Send him up.”
The bouncer bobs his head and disappears.
“Are you out of your mind?” I bite out.
“What?” Giorgio asks, all pretended innocence as he raises his palms and pulls his shoulders up to his ears. “We’ll look guilty if we send him away.”
Fucking idiot.
The bouncer knocks again and opens the door for Jordan to enter.
The detective saunters into the room, taking in the space with a smirk on his face before he says, “De Luca, how very accommodating of you to make time for me. Mr. Bianchi, it’s good to see you again.” He nods at Anya. “Ms. Brennan, right? We haven’t been formally introduced.”
I don’t invite him to sit. “What can I do for you?”
He plonks down in the chair facing my desk. “There’s been a homicide last night.”