Page 20 of Pretty Lies

“What the fuck are you—”

The guy darted forward, already reaching for his back where he likely had a gun hidden.

Cory whistled a shorter, higher sound.

For him and Mace, it wasn’t about the tone at all. It was all in the whistle.

Mace went bark-shit crazy. Spittle flying and all.

With the Rottie and the gun Cory pulled out from his own back to hold at his front, Theo got his business done and the message across. He was sure the six-foot-four guy dressed in leather and combat boots with the scary dog and a gun helped with that. Another satisfying workday.

He doubted it was anywhere near over.

•••

“Get out,” Theo said once Cory had parked the Mustang in the circular driveway of the Trentini mansion. “Have a smoke with me.”

“All right.”

It was the only time he did smoke anymore.

Otherwise, his mother never got off his ass.

Theo answered his ringing phone while he exited the car. Cory, on the other hand, let Mace out of the back for the dog to wander the lush, well-manicured front yard. The man down near the gate—an enforcer for the Outfit’s boss who rarely left the property; the man even had his own rooms in the mansion—whistled low for the pup. It sent Mace running for the guy.

Since this was the last stop every day for Cory when he was acting as his uncle’s driver, the people who worked on the grounds knew his dog well. And for the most part, they liked Mace. Those that didn’t … well, Cory figured maybe that said more about them than his pup.

But who was he to say?

Cory settled in beside his uncle where Theo leaned against the hood of the Mustang. He’d taken those leather riding gloves off, and looked as though it could be him who owned the mansion in front of them what with his black, three-piece Armani suit and the thin gold chain he kept around his throat that matched the rings on his fingers.

Theo passed him a smoke.

Cory lit it with a silver Zippo he kept on hand whenever he needed to light the occasional blunt. Pulling a drag from the smoke, he eyed the mansion and then the phone that Theo was quick to tuck away.

“What was that call about?” he asked.

It’d been over before it even began.

Theo shrugged. “Tommas—wants to have a chat.”

“Isn’t that why you’re here?”

It’s why he dropped Theo off at the end of any workday. A meeting between the front boss and main boss of the operation kept things running smoothly. Not to mention, he knew his father, Theo, and Tommas were all friends beyond la famiglia.

A sigh echoed from his uncle. “No, he wants to talk to you.”

Oh.

“He’ll be down in a minute. Wants to catch you before you leave, apparently.”

That had Cory straightening up a bit. And maybe a little too warm under the collar of his leather jacket. Although Tommas Rossi was also his second cousin, but for the most part he’d called him Uncle, and his son, Tommaso, was one of Cory’s best friends … well, the older he became it seemed like all he called the man now was—

“Theo, don’t throw that butt in my yard. You know good and well my wife will have a fit when she sees it. And she will see it.”

“Learned my lesson the last time,” Theo said, glancing up with a grin as Tommas closed the main doors at the front of the mansion behind him. Stepping down the marble stairs and then out beyond the pillars, the Outfit boss barely glanced around at his surroundings. He’d never behave like that anywhere else. At home, he felt the safest, Cory knew. “You’re seriously going to put him with someone else? What the fuck am I going to do, huh?”

He didn’t have a clue what his uncle was talking about. Tommas was also now looking his way expectantly, reminding him of his place against the other man without saying a word.