“Do you doubt me?” Luca tilted his head to the side and placed his hands on the table as he pushed himself to a standing position. “Clearly, you do, otherwise you would be handing over the head of the Alfero family on a silver platter.”
“Why in the hell would I hand over the head of the Alfero family, especially when the person calling for his head is nothing but a treacherous snake?” I looked at Phoenix and glared. “So you listen to me.”
Luca’s eyebrows lifted just slightly.
“I will discover who murdered Frank Alfero’s son and daughter and when I prove what I’ve suspected all along, you will leave.”
Luca leaned back on his feet and laughed. Phoenix briefly made eye contact with me and shook his head, just once. But it was enough to catch me by surprise. What the hell kind of a dangerous game was he playing? I was about five seconds away from pulling my gun out and opening fire on everyone in that damn room.
“I will hurt those you love most,” Luca whispered. “Is that what you want?”
“I love no one.”
Luca laughed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out an envelope and lifted a lock of hair out of it.
A lock of dark, silky brown hair. He held it to his nose and sniffed. “Coconut? Lavender? Do remind me to ask your little girlfriend what she uses. It’s absolutely… divine.”
I gripped the seat until my knuckles turned white.
Chase burst out laughing and slapped me on the back.
What the hell was he doing?
“Phoenix, you always were such an ass. Luca, can I call you by your first name?”
Hair still lifted by his face, Luca looked between me and Chase. I remained emotionless on the outside, while on the inside I was praying for my cousin to pull his head out of his ass. What the hell was he thinking?
“And who are you?”
“I go by Chase Winter—my mom’s last name and all that—but I’m an Abandonato. I’m the boss’s cousin. I’m also a bit confused as to what Phoenix must have told you.”
“Well, allow me to clear things up.” Luca gritted his teeth and pointed at Phoenix.
“I’d rather you not.” Chase stood. “You see, every minute I hear you disrespecting Trace is another minute I’m adding on to the time I get my hands around Phoenix’s neck and personally introduce him to Jesus Christ, when he will surely receive his just reward—an eternity in Hell. So allow me to clear things up with you. If you touch my girlfriend, I will kill you. I won’t stop in my pursuit to pull your beating heart out of your damn chest and feel its last beat through my clenched fist as your blood drips from my fingertips. I suggest, Mr. Nicolosi, that you get your information straight before you come to our country, our city, and our family. I’m warning you: Don’t push us too far, because we sure as hell will push back.”
The hair fell from Luca’s fingers onto the table. In an instant, Phoenix was pulled out of his seat and slammed against the wall, a gun held to his neck.
“What else are you lying about?” Luca pushed the gun further into Phoenix’s neck. “Hmm? Is your only goal to destroy the family standing in the way of your ultimate power? Wake up, child. You are not a man, you are a vessel that I am using in order to make sure our business dealings are not discovered by either of our governments. Allow your jealousy to make you weak and I will show you the true meaning of pain.” He released Phoenix and let him fall to the floor. In an instant he was giving orders to the other two men in the room.
One of Luca’s men stepped forward, producing a thick envelope. Inside were pictures.
Of Chase and Tracey.
I almost lost it right there.
Chase had put his life on the line for both of us, and now I knew there was no going back. It had to be real. I had to help them make it real because if they knew we’d lied…
We were all going to die.
“This.” Luca pointed at the first picture. “Is this what you’re talking about?”
Chase was on top of Tracey, pinning her to the ground. I stared at the picture and prayed I was keeping my expression bored when my heart was breaking inside my chest. I knew what they were doing; I knew it was part of their KI class training session. But still.
We’d been spied on for the past week; that much was certain. I was suddenly thankful that Chase had been the one with Trace the whole time. Chase had used his security detail as a brilliant excuse for their relationship.
“To be fair,” Faust said next to Luca, “they could be sharing her.”
This time Tex spoke. “No offense, Faust, but men in our family don’t have problems catching women. Unlike some people…”
Faust’s nostrils flared but he said nothing.
“This.” Luca pointed to the pictures. “This is true? The Alfero heir and you; you are together?”
Chase rolled his eyes. “Why else would I be on top of her in class. I’m trying to get as close to her as possible even when the professors are looking.”
My heart slammed against my chest. I knew it was a lie, but damn if it didn’t feel like truth.
“If you are lying…”—Luca sighed—“things will not end well for you.”
“We don’t lie. We aren’t rats. Now, tell us how we can help you. The way I see it”—I leaned forward on the table and folded my hands—“is the quicker we work together, the quicker you row, row, row your boats back across the Atlantic.”
“Straight to the point. No threats, just questions?” Luca nodded. “I like that.”
“I’m a likeable guy.” I flashed him a toothy grin and licked my lips, pausing for effect. “We have kept order for a very long time. My proposition is this. Allow us the rest of the fall semester to continue to dive into the De Lange family, without interruption. Hand over Phoenix, allow us to do our jobs, and in the end, if we cannot find a solution, we hand over Mr. Alfero and you leave. All of you.”
“Time. You want time.”
“And Phoenix. Don’t forget him.” I nodded to Phoenix. “We have some unfinished business. I don’t suppose Faust told you about the rape allegations to Chase’s girlfriend.”
“I did not think it necessary,” Faust interrupted.
“Not necessary?” Luca threw his head back and laughed. “Do you ever feel, Mr. Abandonato, that you are the only one who is not an idiot?”
I grinned and leaned back in my chair. “All the damn time.”
“Me too.” In an instant, Luca had his gun pointed at Faust and pulled the trigger seven times. Faust fell to the ground. The men around him pulled his lifeless body into the corner.
“Now.” Luca reached his hand across the table. “I believe we have a deal.”
Chapter Eight
Chase
I’d lost my damn mind. But I panicked. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t see any other way out of our predicament. And I knew, I knew it was possible they’d been watching us. The photos would prove my story. Now I just had to make sure my cousin wasn’t going to shoot me and throw my body into Lake Michigan.
We walked silently to the car. I started it and headed back toward Nixon’s house. Nobody said a word. All I could focus on was the faint music of AWOLNATION in the background and Nixon’s heavy breathing—which meant he was pissed.
Great.
“So,” Tex finally said ten minutes later, “That was a rush.”
I smirked and then heard Nixon chuckle next to me. Soon all of us were wiping tears from our eyes because we were laughing so hard.
“It’s like living on a bad TV show.” I chanced it and looked at Nixon. He was still smiling, but the smile wasn’t reaching his eyes. Stressed. He was stressed.
Nixon sighed. “It’s so much worse than that. I uh”—he licked his lips and reached out to touch my shoulder—“I owe you man. I wasn’t thinking clearly—I couldn’t think. When he pulled out a lock of Trace’s hair, I just—”
“We all panicked,” I interrupted him. “I was just hoping you would catch on to what I was doing.”
/> “Took me a few minutes because I blacked out at first with visions of strangling you.” Nixon moved his hand from my shoulder and hit my chest.
“Ouch,” I huffed.
“Thank you,” Nixon said. “Both of you. For protecting her. For helping me redeem my family’s name.”
“Well… guess we get to torture it out of Phoenix and the rest of their family,” Tex said from the backseat. “Our mission just turned a hell of a lot bloodier.”
I pulled into Nixon’s driveway and waved at one of our men standing outside the door.
I turned off the car and faced Nixon.
“Don’t hold back,” he whispered. “When you interrogate, don’t hold back. Pull fingernails off, rip skin, use hammers; get as graphic and scary as you can. Because if we don’t figure this shit out soon—”
Trace’s grandfather was going to die. But it was so much more than that. When someone was killed—it never stopped with the boss. No; the Family normally took out the entire line. The Sicilians did a cleansing, and Trace would be included in that. She would be cleansed, just like her grandfather. And a new leader would be appointed.
One we had no control over.
Nixon sighed. “Phoenix has to know something we don’t. There was a moment…” He shook his head. “I don’t know, a moment when he seemed genuinely scared.”
“Um.” Tex raised his hand. “Who wouldn’t be scared? That was Luca Nicolosi. Rumor has it that he and his brother are still at odds from some sort of drama that happened over twenty years ago. Last time they saw each other they were both in the hospital for months.”
I looked at Nixon. He pressed his lips together and pulled the car to a stop.
“Tex,” he said without turning around, “give me and Chase a few minutes, okay?”
Tex reached for the door and paused. “You guys gonna kill each other?”
“No,” we said in unison.
“Because if you are—”
“Tex,” Nixon growled. “Go.”
“Fine, fine.” The car door slammed and again we were blanketed in silence. Shit.
Nixon pulled out his favorite antique gun and began playing with it. Hell, all I knew was that if his finger slipped it would be no accident. I leaned back in my seat and waited for him to say something. I tried to look unaffected—but Nixon only pulled out that gun when he was feeling sentimental about the person’s death. Great.
He unloaded the gun and played with one of the bullets, weighing it in the palm of his hand before loading that one single bullet back into the chamber. With his other hand he pulled back on the hammer and aimed the gun at my head. Well, shit.
“Just because you’re blood doesn’t mean I would hesitate to pull this trigger,” Nixon said, calm as a freaking sunny day. “My love for Tracey trumps my love for you—always. While I appreciate what you did tonight, I can’t seem to get over this sinking feeling that you’ve been just waiting for an opportunity this whole time, and I’ve been blind as sin while you swept in.”
I swallowed. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
Nixon laughed. With the gun still pointed at my neck he leaned in. “That’s the damn problem. I trust you more than anyone.”
“Why is that a problem, then?”
Shaking his head, Nixon pulled the gun from my neck and put the safety back on. “It’s a problem because you’re my family. You’ve been to hell and back with me. If I lose you—” Nixon cursed. “You’re like a brother to me, Chase. Being betrayed by you? Well, I can’t imagine a worse fate, other than being betrayed by Trace. So how do you think it makes me feel, to put the two most important people in my life together? She loves you. I know she loves you. I know you love her. And I’m forcing you together… I can’t control what happens and in the end, if I’m betrayed… Shit, Chase, I don’t know if I could actually survive it. Do you get what I’m saying?”
“Yeah,” I croaked. “You’re scared as hell.”
“Got that right.” Nixon laughed. “But I guess if I wasn’t scared shitless, she wouldn’t be worth it, right?”
“She is.” I swallowed and paused. “Worth it, I mean.”
“It would be a hell of a lot easier if she wasn’t.”
“You’ll have to tell her tonight.”
Nixon exhaled and rubbed his eyes. “I know.”
“And then—”
“I said I know,” Nixon snapped. “Just, give me tonight, give us tonight and I’ll see about putting her in her own room next to yours, all right?”
“For appearance’s sake,” I said out loud, more to convince myself than anything.
“Yes, just in case Luca decides he wants to have a family dinner with us and we have to invite the devil into our promised land.”
“Right.”
The car fell silent again. I didn’t know what to say; I mean, what are you supposed to say? If I’d been hanging by a thread yesterday, then you can damn well assume I was hanging by thin air at this point. I would never betray Nixon—never. In that moment I decided—I would rather die than hurt my family, and I’d rather die than hurt Trace. This meant only one thing: Even if it killed me, I could no longer put myself in a position where I was lusting over Trace. Yes, we had to make it look real, but I needed to be mindless about it, just like I was mindless about killing… Right now, both of these things were my job. My heart screamed in outrage, as if the idea of ignoring its pulsating rhythmic chant of Trace’s name was a cardinal sin. But I knew it wasn’t. No, the great sin would be to give in to myself—and if that happened Nixon wouldn’t have to kill me, I’d put the bullet in my own frantic heart. It wouldn’t be worth it. There would be no justification for my actions, just a very dark future in the seventh circle of Hell.
Chapter Nine
Nixon
I slammed the car door and jogged inside the house. Pino, one of our men, was waiting outside the door.
“Any action tonight?” I asked.
Pino laughed. “No sir, not if you count several of the men begging the young ladies to turn off the Godfather action.”
“The Godfather?” I repeated. “I thought they were watching chick flicks.”
Pino sighed. “Yes well, Trace and Monroe thought it would entertain us more to watch a movie about our lives.”
I chuckled. “Our lives?”
“Yes.” He rolled his eyes.
“I’m trying to figure out if I like the idea of Marlon Brando playing me.” I patted him on the back. “Make a call to Uncle Tony, would ya? We have some business to take care of tomorrow night and I’ll need his help.”
“Right away sir.” Pino pulled out his phone and opened the door for me.
I stepped inside was immediately hit with the smell of chocolate chip cookies. Without thinking I walked into the kitchen, eager for food. With all the stress of the evening I’d forgotten to eat.
Trace had on one of my ma’s old aprons. TI’s newest song was playing from her iPhone; she was singing super loud and off-key as she spooned up cookie dough and placed it on the sheet.
“Tasty.” I winked.
Blushing, she stopped dancing.
“Nope, you have to pretend like I’m not here. Go ahead, shake your ass. I’m sure somewhere on that little bucket list of yours is singing off-key in the kitchen while your boyfriend watches. Only, my bucket list includes you in nothing but the apron; but hey, I’m not picky.”
“Very funny.” Trace turned up the music and twirled around then walked up to me and pulled me into her arms. “I was worried for you.”
“Don’t worry.” I kissed her mouth. She tasted like chocolate chips and suddenly I forgot about everything—about Luca, Chase. It was only Tracey and the faint taste of chocolate chip cookies on her tongue.
Without breaking our kiss I lifted her into my arms and walked down the hall. My father had been a paranoid freak, so all the bedrooms were on the first level in case of a need for an easy escape.
I kicked open my bedroom door and slammed
it closed behind me. If this was our last night for a while, I wanted to savor it; I wanted to savor her.
Trace moaned into my mouth as I continued to suck the chocolate from her tongue. Damn, I would miss her taste.
She pulled back and took off the apron, then wrapped her arms around my neck and attacked me—really, there was no other word for it.
Hot. That was the first word that came to mind when Trace’s lips pressed against mine. Urgent, that would be the second word as her tongue ran along my lower lip, causing me to curse aloud—just before I jerked her against my body and slammed her against the bedroom door. And then—nothing. Words left me. It was an out-of-body experience kissing Trace. It scared the hell out of me, that one touch could devastate not only my body but my soul—it scared me to my core and I hated that in her arms I was unable to show strength, only total weakness.
Maybe that was the third word. Weakness. When I lifted her into my arms and felt her body pressed tightly against mine—when her soft moans drove me insane, causing my hands to tug her shirt from her body—I realized one thing.
Weakness meant death, especially now.
And it was only a matter of time before they discovered mine… only a matter of time before everyone found out that she wasn’t Chase’s, but mine. Time was of the essence and I only had a limited amount of it.
Desperation, the final word that echoed into my conscience as I urged her to wrap her legs around my waist and promised myself I would protect her at all costs, even if it meant my own life. I’d already lost my heart. Losing my life? I pulled back and looked into her big brown eyes. Hell yeah, it would be worth it.
“Nixon?” Trace’s breath tickled the side of my neck as she leaned in to rest her head against my chest.
“Yeah?”
“Tell me it’s going to be okay.”
Sighing, I kissed her soft cheek. “I’d rather show you…”
A knock sounded at the door. With a curse, I dropped Trace onto the bed and stomped over to the door. Who the hell had the nerve to interrupt me?
I pulled it open. A grinning Chase stood on the other side. My idiot cousin knew better than to barge in when I was alone with Trace and he sure as hell knew I was alone with her. Hadn’t we decided that I needed to have tonight with her? He was going to get her for months! I wanted one night.
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