by Sam Mariano
Virginia texts back a brief, “Got it.”
I alternate between screens until Cassandra makes her first stop. I zoom in to get the location, then open up the browser app on my phone to type in the address and see where she’s at. Just a gas station. She’s only there long enough to fill up, so that’s nothing to worry about.
I shoot Virginia another text. “Hey, why don’t you bring me out a snack?”
A few minutes pass before she sends back, “Seriously? Do you know how busy it is in here?”
“The better question is, do I care?”
“Give me a few minutes,” she tells me.
A short time later, Virginia shows up outside my window with a to-go container and a sealed bottle of water. After handing them over, she leans in and frowns at the screen. “Who are you watching?”
“Nobody important.”
Frowning, she asks, “Carla?”
I frown right back. “What? No. Who cares about Carla?”
Virginia shrugs. “Well, it’s her address in the bottom corner there; forgive me for drawing a logical conclusion.”
What the fuck is she talking about? I point to Cassandra’s home address in the corner. “This address, right here? This is not Carla’s address.”
“Yes, it is. I had to give Gio a ride home one night when he was too drunk to drive—well, not his home, he wanted to go bang his girlfriend first. I didn’t stick around for all that, but that’s where I dropped him off.”
No. No, no, no. Please no. That crafty fucking whore could not have done this to him again. Leaning my head back against the headrest, I ask a pointless question. “You sure?”
Virginia nods once. “You know I don’t forget addresses.”
She doesn’t forget anything, that’s why I like to have her keep an ear to the ground for me, see if there are any signs of trouble. She’s not an effective all-around informant though. She’s completely loyal to Rafe; if she caught wind of him turning on me, she’d stop talking to me, but since she doesn’t know about that yet…
I need her to be wrong. She has never been wrong before, but I need this to be the first time. “You’re positive this is the address you took him to?”
“You can keep asking if the world is round, Sin; the answer won’t change.”
“God-fucking-dammit.”
Cringing, she says, “Why is this such bad news?”
Because if Gio is fucking Cassandra Carmichael, that changes everything. There’s not a snowball’s chance in Hell I’m going to find myself working for Cassandra Carmichael, and if she’s the one behind this, if she’s grooming for Gio to take over, it’s not so she can be his side dish. Does Gio not realize how ambitious she is, or does he not care? What about Lydia? What about Skylar?
All that aside, Rafe would be fucking crushed. Seeing as he tried to have my ass killed, I probably shouldn’t care, but loyalty doesn’t just drain out of you in a couple hours. I’m mad as hell on his behalf. If someone is going to take him down, Cassandra Carmichael shouldn’t have a hand in it. That’s not right.
Maybe she’s not a dealbreaker. Maybe Gio hasn’t been caught up in her web the way Rafe was. Maybe he only likes fucking her and the takeover has nothing to do with her. Maybe I can push her out of the picture. If I’m going to work for Gio, I have to have to make sure she doesn’t come bundled together in that deal, because fuck no. I’d rather be hungry than work for a snake like her, and if she’s involved, no matter how much Gio thinks he’s the one in charge, I’ll know differently.
“Sin?”
I look over at Virginia and she’s frowning at me again. “I don’t know yet. I’m gonna have to look into it.”
“This is not a commensurate response. If that’s not Carla’s house, who is Gio sleeping with that it would bother you?”
“Don’t do that. Don’t try to puzzle it out. You know too much already. Go give people breadsticks and keep an ear out for anything Gio says about anything.”
“It’s not Laurel,” she says, ignoring me. “She’s staying with Rafe. I did notice Gio giving Marlena looks. Is it Marlena’s address? I’m going to check her employee file,” she says, more to herself than me as she pushes off the car.
“Wait, back up. When was he giving Marlena looks?”
“The other night they were eye-fucking on the sly. Well, on the sly for normal people, obviously I noticed. I hope you didn’t bang her, and if you did, I hope you wrapped it up. She’s not very discriminating. I’m gonna fish and see if I can get an admission out of her.”
Nodding my head, I tell her, “If you get anything, let me know.”
“Got it, boss.” With a mock salute, she turns and heads back inside the restaurant.
It’s basically morning by the time I crawl into bed. Between spying on everyone, disposing of Theo, and running through a fuck ton of nightmare scenarios, I’m fucking beat. It’d be nice if that meant I’d fall right to sleep, but that’s never the case anymore. Too much on my mind. Now I have even more weight on my shoulders than I did when I got out of bed this morning, and I thought I had a lot then.
I grab my phone off the night stand, opening my messages and looking at the ones Laurel sent me last. Her fucking dolphin emoji. I wonder if she’s awake? I wouldn’t text her first, not in the middle of the night like this anyway. Too great a chance Rafe would see it.
I close the messages and tap my saved pictures, pulling up the picture of Laurel by the water. The one Rafe sent me from their date—fucking asshole. I always warn his ass, and he never fucking listens to me. Don’t let Laurel get away if you want her, don’t test my fucking patience, don’t forget who brought your ass up to the level you’re on now, don’t fuck the waitress.
Trying to put Rafe and Laurel out of my mind, I plug the charger into my phone and roll over, hitting my pillow and closing my eyes, hoping I fall asleep before the sun comes up.
The next day is more of the same shit, but now that Gio has made me an offer, I’m on borrowed time, and I don’t know how much of it I have left.
I don’t know how I’m going to get all this shit done, and on top of all that, Virginia texts me from the restaurant. “I need to talk to you.”
“Is it important? Kinda busy,” I tell her.
“Yep. Meet me for dinner? I’m off in a half hour.”
Scowling at the phone, I send back, “I have to wine and dine you for information now?”
“I’ll buy, cheapskate. Let’s share a pizza though. I’m poor.”
The last thing I have time for is going out to eat, but I tell her to meet me at Giordano’s. I was supposed to talk to him last night anyway and I didn’t, so at least this way I can knock something off my to-do list.
When I get to Giordano’s and Virginia flashes me a smile and waves me over, I feel overwhelmingly uncomfortable—and not for any sane reason, like I have to be an asshole to a nice old man who makes good fucking pizza, or I don’t know what kind of information she has for me, but because I have the feeling Laurel would be pissed off if she knew I met another woman for something like dinner.
“What’s funny?” Virginia asks as I drop into the seat across from her.
“I’m fucked.”
Cocking a skeptical eyebrow, she asks, “That’s funny?”
“It’ll be all right.” I meet her gaze. “What have you got for me?”
“All right, so, bear with me because this is going to get weird. Last night you piqued my curiosity with my mission.”
“Occasionally a good thing,” I remark, though since I’m straddling the line of loyalty right now, I wonder if this is one of them.
Virginia is like a dog with a bone when I give her anything to do, so I try to only use her sporadically. She doesn’t work for us in any official capacity outside of being Rafe’s waitress. Literally Rafe’s waitress—he only goes to the restaurant on days she’s working—says he likes the way she takes care of him. Rafe is the least habitual person I have ever met in my life, so that he is so set in
his routine with Virginia is an oddity, but I get it. I don’t like people, and I like Virginia. Of course, I like her because she’s not just free labor; she’s a sure fucking thing. I don’t think he’s ever fucked her, so I don’t think he likes her for the same reason.
When I wanted to collapse Ben’s empire and weed out the unshakably loyal, I couldn’t use my men in every situation. I used Virginia to fill in the blanks. I think she’s some kind of genius—not the stuffy sort Laurel probably reads books by, but anything I tell her to do, if she doesn’t know how, she can figure out and master like she wrote the manual herself.
Rafe would be pissed if he knew how many times I’ve used his waitress to do illegal shit—and her law school probably wouldn’t be too psyched, either—but sometimes you’ve gotta do what you gotta do. Virginia would do anything for Rafe—not because she has some lame crush like all these other girls, but because she actually cares about the guy. I don’t know why, she never gave me the story and I didn’t ask, but her actions over the years—while simultaneously serving an endless string of disposable women who go home with him afterward—have made that pretty clear. I don’t think she’s waiting around on him to notice her, I think she’s just his loyal subject, and she doesn’t ask for anything in return.
Resourceful, smart, and loyal—yes, I’ll take her help. Well, usually. Right now I’m switching sides, and I might actually have to worry about Virginia. She doesn’t know how to fire a gun right now, but give her a weekend and the knowledge that I plan to hurt Rafe, not only will she be able to fire one, she’ll be able to build one from paperclips or some crazy shit.
So, if she already started looking into this on her own, it’s possible she brought me here to ferret out whether or not I’m planning to turn on Rafe, and if I am, she’ll kill me with some kind of lethal weapon she forged from bobby pins on her lunch break. Then later she’ll feign horror and sympathy for Laurel while she’s feeding her and Rafe dinner tonight.
Why do all the women in Rafe’s life have to be some kind of crazy?
“Okay, so, I decided to investigate Marlena today, poke at her while I trained her hopeless ass.” Switching to a ridiculous old timey detective accent, she plucks an imaginary cigar off the table and holds it between her fingers. “I put the screws to her, see.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Don’t do what you’re doing. Not in my presence.”
“God, you’re no fun. I don’t know why Laurel likes you.”
I give her a dead look, but she doesn’t linger. At least it’s unlikely she’s onto me if she’s being a giant nerd.
Rolling her eyes at me, she says, “Anyway, I’ll skip the fun stuff since you hate fun. Gio is fucking Marlena. And Cassandra. And I think Carla, though that doesn’t seem to be relevant. He has curated a harem of troublemakers, and he’s using them to his advantage. I don’t know exactly how or why, didn’t have enough time to get my Veronica Mars all the way on, but I will if you want me to. I have tonight off, so I could use a project.”
I stare, mildly horrified, at the energetic brunette across from me. Deciding to fill the silence with activity, she flips open the pizza box and plates pizza for me, slides it over, then plates some for herself. She does all this casually, like she didn’t just deliver me a fuck ton of bad news. Closing the lid so the pizza stays hot, she asks, “Any questions, or still processing?”
I have a lot of questions, but since she’s never given me bad information before, the one I go with is, “You’re sure?”
Virginia nods her head, lifting a piece of pizza to her mouth. “Positive.” Before I can think of what to do next, who to confront first, what to ask Virginia, she finishes her bite and says, “Sweet baby Jesus, why is this pizza so good?”
“No one knows,” I murmur.
Looking at the basic menu board with blue block letters over the register with faint astonishment, she says, “I never even knew this place existed.”
“You and everyone else. He’s about two months from shutting down. After I finish eating, I have to go have a little talk with him.”
Scowling at me, she says, “A talk? That’s Sin speak for hand-breaking, isn’t it? If you break his pizza-making hand, you’re a legitimate monster. Also, please don’t, because I want to come here more.”
“Hey, you think you can convince him to pay his bills in a more timely fashion, be my guest,” I mutter, grabbing my own piece of pizza and taking a bite. Fuck, it is good. Maybe I can avoid hurting the hands so I can keep buying until he’s out of business.
I was joking, but Virginia doesn’t appear to understand that. Nodding once, she says, “Deal.”
“That wasn’t a serious suggestion,” I inform her.
“I’m gonna take care of it,” she assures me. “Rafe only cares that he gets paid, not that the pizza maker gets hurt. Violence isn’t the answer here. There’s no reason this man shouldn’t be making money. That doesn’t even make sense. I’m going to volunteer my services and straighten out his books for him. With great marketing, you can move a large quantity of shitty product, and this is delicious product, so this guy should be spending his summers on a beach. From the look of this place, he probably needs help marketing.”
“What do you know about marketing?”
“Well, not a whole lot, but I’m gonna talk with—is his name Giordano?” I nod. So does she. “Giordano. I’m going to get the scoop on his financial situation, then I’ll do some research over the next few days. Rafe will get paid next month on time, you have my word. If he doesn’t, he can take it up with me.”
Cocking an eyebrow in amusement, I ask, “You’re going to vouch for a perfect stranger to the mob? You must really like that pizza.”
“I’m exceedingly confident in my abilities. Call me cocky, but I’m not worried. Also, perfect cheese to sauce ratio is worth risking my ass for,” she tells me, closing her eyes in exaggerated ecstasy as she takes another bite.
Shaking my head, I tell her, “You’re crazy.”
With a cheeky smile, she winks at me. “All the best people are.”
30
Sin
After making sure Virginia would be kept busy fixing Giordano’s pizza place, I have a few decisions to make.
One: do I waste more time investigating Gio’s harem of troublemaking mistresses, or do I just go to Marlena’s apartment and confront her? Cassandra’s a psychopath; she’s not going to crack. Carla is useless. Marlena seems like a somewhat normal woman who just got mixed up with the Morelli charm. I don’t see Gio having much of it myself, but women eat their crazy shit right up. He’s never tried to fuck me, so I guess I just don’t get to see that side of him.
Two: do I put some trust in Gio and call him out on his association with Cassandra to see how deeply she has rooted herself in him? She got her hooks deep into Rafe and gutted the guy, so while I don’t understand her appeal, clearly she has some. Then again, I don’t like crazy bitches. Weird and nerdy? Sure, okay. A psycho bitch that’s only out for herself? No fucking thank you. Call me crazy, but I’d rather wake up to a surprise blow job than some bitch with a knife she’s about to plunge into my back.
Three: if Cassandra is part of the deal, is there any way I can handle that? My initial response was an enthusiastic fuck no, but Gio offers Laurel. I really want Laurel. I could arrange an accident for Cassandra down the road and get her out of the way, so she’s not necessarily a permanent problem. As long as Gio can’t trace it back to me, we’re fine.
Four: do I give in to the overwhelming temptation I have right now to go see Laurel? Since my life is in such fucking chaos all because I’m trying to figure out how to get her and also stay alive, it would be really nice if I could see her face. Pulling out the spite photo Rafe sent me isn’t good enough. I want the feeling she gives me when we’re together in the same room. I want her kneeling on the ground at my feet, looking up at me like I’m her sun and she’ll beg for the chance to revolve around me.
I want her mouth aroun
d my cock, her pretty blue eyes looking up at me when she’s already so fucking full of me and I can see how much she craves more. Before I had to stay away because of Rafe, but right now, Rafe is a temporary problem. If I go with Gio, fucking the face of his baby mama is not the worst thing I’m going to do to Rafe, not by a long shot.
Plus, Laurel’s as good as mine, so I’m not stepping on his fucking toes anymore. He’s had more chances with her than he’s earned, and he’s clearly failed to capture her interest or she wouldn’t still want me.
The problem is his security. He must have checked it when I was alone with her last time, so I have to assume he’s checking tapes now every time Laurel is left alone. I could technically sneak in though, because I know where the blind spots are. All I have to do is park my car somewhere else and walk up to the house.
I don’t want to get Laurel involved, though. If I show up there wanting things I walked away from the other day, I’ll have to explain why. Won’t I? I suppose I could confuse her. It’s not like she’s going to tell Rafe on me. I could show up at her door with a gun and she wouldn’t tell Rafe about it, provided I told her not to.
Hey, that’s not half bad. Laurel would have no fucking idea what’s happening, but at least if something happens and shit goes sideways, I got to feel myself in Laurel’s mouth one last time. Even if Rafe catches on that something happened, Laurel can’t be blamed for it under those circumstances. Anyone would tell her to cooperate under threat of duress, and while Rafe wouldn’t believe I would hurt Laurel, if I jump ship, he would believe I would trick her into believing I’d hurt her. I’m a crafty bastard when I want to be.