AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She follows me into my office, and I shut the door behind us. I don’t bother to sit. Neither does she.
She also, thankfully, gets straight to the point. “This might not be my place to tell you this, but I feel like you should know.”
I raise a brow, waiting for her to continue. She struggles to spit it out. So I stroll to my bar cart, pour her a glass of whiskey, and offer it to her.
She downs it in a single gulp and sets the glass on my desk. “Your brother is sneaking around with Carmela’s father, Rocky.”
I remain silent while replaying her words in my head. “Rocky … as in Marchetti’s Rocky?”
“Yes.” She absentmindedly pokes my rug with her sneaker. “Carmela and I live in the same building, and I’ve seen them together a few times. People are talking about Vinny attempting to kill Cristian, so it didn’t make sense for them to associate with each other.” She holds up her hand. “And if you know this already, please don’t kill me. I promise, you’re the only person I’ve told.”
If I ever touched Pippa, Damien would lose his shit. He’d lay down his life for her.
“Thank you, Pippa. Please keep this between us.”
Pippa is silent as I walk her out, and Damien arrives right before she leaves like last time. I’m smart enough to figure out he planted a GPS somewhere—on her phone, her car, wherever—and plans their run-ins here, making it appear as if they’re random.
He catches her by the elbow as she passes him. “Everything okay?”
“Of course.” She brushes loose strands of hair away from her eyes and gently pulls from his grasp. “I have a dance class in twenty minutes.” Without waiting for a response, she hurries to her car.
“You can’t follow her,” I say sternly as Damien stares at Pippa. “I’ll have Vito do it.”
“I need to?—”
I hold up my finger and talk over him. “We have serious business to discuss right now.”
Damien waits until we’re in my office before asking, “What was that about?” His attempt to hide the accusation in his voice fails.
“I’m not fucking Pippa,” I say point-blank. “She was here to inform me Vinny is sneaking around with Rocky and Carmela.”
Like me, it takes him a moment to digest the news.
“Rocky is flipping on Cristian?”
“Rocky is flipping on Cristian,” I confirm.
For decades, Rocky has held an unwavering loyalty to Cristian, doing his bidding and carrying out brutal murders on his behalf. His daughter, Carmela, has also been Cristian’s steady fuck for years. My guess is that he’s replaced Carmela with Natalia, and neither of them is happy about that.
What I would give to see the expression on Cristian’s face when he discovers his right-hand man and ex are betraying him.
If Vinny wasn’t involved, I’d love the news. Something is morbidly fascinating about watching a family collapse from within.
I snatch Pippa’s glass from my desk, refill it with the same whiskey, and pass it to Damien. Then I fill mine.
“Damn.” Damien lowers himself into a chair. “You can’t trust anyone anymore.”
I shoot him a look because my thoughts are the same. It’s always those closest who fuck you over because it blindsides you.
He flinches before waving his glass toward me. “Except me because, you know, I’ll always have your back.”
I circle my desk, settle in my chair, and knock back my drink before setting it down. Pressing my palms against my forehead, I rub them into my skull.
“What do we do?” Damien asks.
I lower my hand. “It seems my brother needs to die.”
Damien leans forward and rests his glass down on the desk. “Hopefully, Rocky is the one who kills Cristian, so we don’t have to clean up Vinny’s involvement.”
