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I jerk upward. “Falcon? Is he okay?” My vision adjusts and I see my brother’s face. “Vinnie? What are you doing here?”
He darts his eyes around the room nervously. “I don’t have much time. The sun’s about to come up. I’m getting all my stuff together to move in with Mom and Dad.” He frowns. “Well…Mom.”
“What’s this all about? What?—”
“Shh. Don’t wake Falcon.” He kneels next to the recliner and lowers his voice. “I want to talk in here, where I know we won’t be overheard. I told Grandpa I would check on Falcon this morning and also make sure you were okay. He’s not happy with either of you, of course, but I told him if he wants me, then you two are off limits.”
I grab his hand. “I never wanted that, Vinnie.”
“I know that, but I made a choice at the time. I see the way you look at Falcon, the way he looks at you.” He looks over at Falcon, who is still snoozing away. “The two of you deserve a chance. I’m not in love.”
“But you’re going to marry an eighteen-year-old?” I say. “And wait seven years to do it?”
“A lot can happen in seven years, Sav.” His voice drops. “I mean a lot.”
I nod. His eyes are laced with fire.
He’s still determined to take them down from the inside.
“Vinnie, you’ve been gone for so long. What makes you think?—”
He puts a finger to his lips, indicating for me to be quiet. “There’s a lot I can’t tell you for your own safety, but suffice it to say our theories were correct. They’re combining the business. And getting into…new ventures.”
God. I gulp. The Bianchis and the McAllisters are merging, and somehow Grandpa got talked into dealing not just in drugs.
But in people.
I swallow back the puke that feels like it will erupt at any moment.
“Vinnie…”
“Don’t say it. I can only tell you this.” His gaze burns into me. “Grandpa didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice, Vinnie.”
“In the abstract, I agree with you.” He swallows. “But given the facts as I now understand them, if I were Grandpa, I would have done the same thing. Agreed to the same thing. Even if it meant marrying you to Miles McAllister.”
I drop my jaw, ready to scream at him.
But he shakes his head. “Understand what I’m saying, Sav. This is big. Enormous, even. I can’t give you the details. I don’t even know all of them yet. Grandpa’s an old man, and he’s a product of his age, of his upbringing all those years ago. He didn’t see any other way out.”
“I can’t believe you’re taking his side,” I hiss out in a whisper.
“I’m not. I said if I were Grandpa.” He pounds a fist against his chest. “I’m not him, Sav. I would have made a different choice, but it’s too late at this point. All I can do is go along for now.”
“Christ, Vinnie.”
“Listen to me. I can’t tell you more. It would only put you in danger. I need you to trust me.”
“How can I? You just said our family is getting into?—”
“Shh. Don’t even say it.” He looks out the door of the hospital room. “Never say it out loud, Sav. You never know who is listening.”
I gulp again.
“Seven years, Sav. I have seven years to figure out how to take down my own family.”
“You’ll have to work with someone in the government,” I say. “Someone with the resources to help you from that side.”
