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“What the hell?” My sister burst into the room with Fox right behind her. “Mind not attacking our office shit, Costas?”
Gio pointed. “Look.”
Mia stopped halfway across the room. So did Fox.
“Christ.” My sister’s boyfriend pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not again.”
I crossed my arms. “You people better start explaining this to me, and fast. What happened to the heavy bag last month?”
“It got torn up by a crazy bitch,” Fox muttered.
“What crazy bitch?” I glanced at Gio. “I thought you just said—”
The look he gave me told me to be quiet. Hell if I knew why.
Hell if I understood any of this.
Mia tugged on her recently fixed braid. She was fraying it all over again with her fussing. “Remember how you wondered why Slater wasn’t talking to us anymore?”
“Yeah. You said it was a friend thing, and he’d come around.”
“Not so much a friend thing. He’s dating a fucking psychopath.” Fox glanced at Mia, then at me. “The girl he’s with now has been harassing Mia.”
“Why would she do that?”
Mia only sighed. “Because she’s the daughter of Darren Winthrop.”
“Who?” Gio asked.
All of a sudden, you could’ve heard two MMA fighters take a deep breath.
They’d momentarily forgotten Gio was in the room. Even I had, and he was pretty much my focus at all times.
And now he would have questions. They were already burning in his eyes, turning the blue to something dark and menacing.
Giovanni Costas angry wasn’t something I ever wanted to see again. The little taste I’d gotten a few minutes ago had been plenty.
“I asked a question.” Gio’s gaze centered on me. “Who is Darren Winthrop, and what does he have to do with this?”
I started to reply—to say what, I didn’t know—but Mia held up a hand. “It’s okay. I guess it’s long past time he knows. It’s not a secret…exactly.”
“Ame,” I said softly. “You don’t have to tell him anything you don’t want to. Now or ever.”
The look Gio shot me didn’t do anything but make me straighten my shoulders. I cared about him, yes. Just not at the expense of my sister divulging something she wasn’t ready to share.
“Listen to your sister.” Fox rubbed his thumb over Mia’s knuckles like Gio did sometimes with me. “You don’t have to say a damn thing.”
“It’s okay. Really. The more times I say it, the easier it’ll get, right?” My beautiful, brave sister smiled and glanced at Gio. “Darren Winthrop is the man who kidnapped me and held me hostage for three months when I was fourteen. The girl who was stalking me before, who ripped up the heavy bag last month, was his only daughter Olivia.” She glanced past Gio at the chair and sighed again. “Guess she’s still not tired of her sick games.”
Fox’s eyes narrowed. “And I think it’s time we go have a chat with my old pal Slater.”
Fourteen
As shocked and disgusted as I was by what Mia had just told me, my brain was still whirling. Trying to make sense of what I’d seen now, and before, and how it fit in with the Andrettis.
They hated Mia due to an argument she’d had with Lorenzo, and the so-called disrespect she’d shown him. In truth, Lo had been running his mouth, and he’d had the punch coming that Mia had given him.
But in our world, punching an underboss could mean death. And it almost had.
