Page 91 of Pretty Lies

Frankie’s answer came out flat, but honest.

Della sat back into her chair with a sigh. “Well.”

“And what is your plan?” Tommas asked.

He only looked to Della for an answer.

Cory still felt like a fly on the wall.

“My plan?”

“I said you, didn’t I?” Tommas frowned openly. “One of your partners is dead—where’s your other? You work with another girl … a friend, yes?”

“Jennika, yeah. She’s, uh … what about it?”

Cory didn’t miss how Della was careful not to expose the fact her friend was currently MIA while she was having a sit-down with the Outfit boss. Nothing was ever easy. Friendships made shit like business particularly hard sometimes.

“Bit of a brat, isn’t she?” Tommas asked, still looking at Della but his question was meant for the man sitting across the desk. “Mouthy, quick with a response … toes the line a bit. That’s what it is, Cory, isn’t it?”

All at once, Tommas turned around in his chair to stare at Cory from across the room. The other pairs of eyes quickly followed.

“What?” Cory asked.

“She’s … well, she’s a lot like you, isn’t she? Or how you were not long ago. Grew up a bit, I think.”

Cory cleared his throat. “I mean—”

“Back to business.” Just as fast, Tommas swung back around and put his attention on Della whose eyes were about as wide as saucers. “She is a bit of a brat, Frankie.”

Della gaped. “I am not.”

“A little,” Frankie muttered. “You can’t look to her for answers on the operation as a whole when like I said, she only handled her part. Getting her up to date on all the rest is going to take a bit of time.”

Tommas hummed, nodding as he gave Della a shrug. “You won’t have long to catch up—money can’t stop moving on these streets, not unless you want someone else to pick up where you have started to slack. Do you understand me, Della Costello?”

“I—”

“Get back to work. Be on the streets. No one is going to run up on you when the attention on all of us is this hot. There’s no good end to that. First and foremost, we keep business moving in times like these because it flexes our control. Your father has people—people who will take orders, who know how shit is done, and who will do it for you where you cannot. Use them. There is only one appropriate answer here. Your money is mine, girl, and I will not wait for it.”

Well.

Tommas really wasn’t playing around now.

Della dragged in a heavy breath. “Yes, I understand.”

“Good.” Nodding across the way to Frankie, Tommas added, “And Damian … has asked after Cory. I said I would bring it up while I was here.”

Della’s father glanced his way. “What about him?”

“You’re aware there’s something … going on in private, yes?”

“Could have asked me that,” Cory spoke up.

Especially since Tommas didn’t have to say it straight up for his point to be clear. He was asking Frankie if he knew something was going on between Cory and Della beyond his job here. As if he hadn’t taken the information to the man in the first place quite a while ago.

“I know how to act, Tommas,” he muttered.

“But do you?” the boss returned. “Frankie?”