Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“We’re probably going to hate each other,” she said to Gav, getting a nod of acknowledgment from him.
“Gav hates everyone,” Miko said with a shrug.
Salvatore was the first to head out, promising to check in on Lil the next day as Miko pulled Gavino to the far end of the room, talking in hushed voices.
“Here,” Lil said, handing me her tablet. “The surveillance video. “Take it with you. See if the cute watermelon pants guy can do anything with it.”
Then, as Miko joined us again, she looked up at him with her one non-swollen eye.
“Get the bastard,” she demanded, voice hard.
“That’s the plan,” he agreed, wrapping an arm around me. “Get some rest, Lil. And don’t be a hero with the pain meds. We can get as much as you need.”
“I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow too,” I told her.
“I’ll be fine,” she insisted. But I knew a guard when I saw one. I had too many of my own. And because I did, I knew all of the soft and squishy that was hiding behind that.
“And I will be back to check on you. And fuss over you. And make sure Gav here is doing enough fussing too.”
He gave me a little nod.
I got the feeling that while he wasn’t happy to be a nursemaid, he would do a good job. If for no other reason than Lil was in awful shape.
We said our goodbyes and heard Gav locking up behind us.
“He’s armed, right?” I asked when we both moved onto the street, heads on a swivel, keeping an eye out for Lil’s attacker.
“Yeah. I made sure. And he knows the protocols for coming and going or answering the door. Gav can be a bit of a dick, but he has a baby sister. Each time he looks at Lil, I’m sure he’s thinking about Lore and how he’d want her taken care of in this kind of situation.”
“Wait… Lore?” I asked as we started walking toward the cross street to grab a cab. “Isn’t that Zeno’s sister?” The Costa family was huge. It was hard to keep them all straight, but I was pretty sure that I was right about that connection.
“Yeah.”
“Wow. They’re… nothing alike.”
“Yeah, not at all. But all those brothers are very different. Ready to go home for a bit?” he asked.
I knew I probably shouldn’t be so happy to think of Miko’s place as home so quickly, but I couldn’t stop the warm feeling moving through my chest at the idea of being able to keep spending nights there, wrapped up in his arms.
“We never picked up my clothes.”
“I’ll order new ones to be delivered,” he said as we slipped into a cab.
I should have objected to that. But all I could think of was getting some alone time with him. The last thing I wanted to do was insist on going back to my apartment to grab clothes.
“On a scale of one-to-ten, how frustrated do you think Venezio is after a full day of Chuck?” I asked as Miko plugged in his code.
“Knowing Venezio, he won’t say anything, but you’ll see it in his—“ he cut off as we moved into the apartment.
And there was Chuck.
And Venezio.
But someone else as well.
“Cosimo,” Miko said, voice tight.
Cosimo?
Miko’s boss?
Shit.
I got a feeling things had just gotten even more complicated.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Miko
If I had been thinking clearly, I would have probably known to expect this.
There was no way I could run away from a meeting with Cosimo and not expect him to get suspicious.
I guess I figured it might be a phone call or a request for another meeting. Not a surprise drop-in.
But there he was.
Sitting on my couch in an apartment he’d never been in before, beside a tense-looking Venezio and a starstruck Chuck, who, I imagined, had been running his damn mouth since my boss showed up.
“So,” Cosimo said, looking past me toward Max. “You must be Max.”
“That’s me,” she agreed.
“Chuck here has been telling me all about you.”
Great.
“I bet,” Max said, giving Chuck a hard look. And the guy had the good sense to duck his head, knowing that he’d probably fucked something up.
“I’ve been doing some digging around,” Cosimo said, making my stomach twist. “Turns out Nero is on an out-of-state job for you. And Venezio here said he was doing a job for you. Gav mentioned you asking for Zeno’s address. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, I got word that Salvatore did an emergency job for you today.”
Fuck.
“So, now the question is: What the fuck are you keeping from me, Miko?”
This was exactly what I had been hoping to avoid. But, objectively, some part of me knew that the more people in the Family I brought into this clusterfuck, the more chance there was of Cosimo or Lorenzo finding out what I was up to.