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She threw out her arms in exasperation. “Coming here to confront your family was one thing, Raven. Nico Costa is a whole different ball game—a game that ends with knives and a pair of concrete shoes if he figures out what you’re up to.”
“He’s not going to find out. It’s not like I’m going to come out and tell him.” I was going to do whatever it took to make it believable.Whateverit took.
“Even if he doesn’t figure it out, what if it equals nothing? What if you do what I think you’re planning to do with him, and it doesn’t bring you any closer to what you want?”
“Then I’m no further behind, am I?” I said with a shrug. “I’m prepared to do this.” And a bit crazy scared too, but Greta didn’t need to know that.
She sighed. “I’ve created a monster,” she said with a quick quirk of her lips.
I laughed and flopped back on the sofa, still hyperaware of the brush of my dressing gown against my skin. It seemed the hormones hadn’t ebbed completely.
Greta plopped down next to me and put her hand on my arm. “I’m here for you—you know that—but you haven’t even figured out how you want to use the Costas to—”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” I sat up straight. “I was hoping Harry Belemonte could have confirmed it for me, but I think the casinos are the way to go. The Lucas must have dumped a fortune into getting one established—it’s still in the construction phase. It would be stupid of me to try to stop it, and besides, I don’t want to cripple my family. I just need to find a way to keep the Costas’ casinos on top, even if it means sabotaging my family’s casino a little bit.”
Greta cocked an eyebrow, waiting for me to continue.
“For the Costas, it would be a smart move. Even in a different territory, the Lucas’ casino is going to be drawing some of the business away from the Costas’ casinos.”
“Maybe,” Greta said, but the look on her face was pained. “But territory is a big thing with mafia families, right? If you get the Costas to sabotage a casino on Luca territory, you might unwittingly incite a war, Raven. A war, you know? Where things get real bloody and people get really dead.”
My shoulders sagged, and my stomach turned a little. I’d been looking at moves and countermoves from a strategical standpoint, not a human one. Trying to prove myself useful to the Costas was one thing, but starting a war where people died because of me was something else entirely. I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t. But that left me back at the drawing board.
I slumped back against the sofa, defeated for the moment, but even more than that, a bit disgusted with myself. I wanted to be a nurse—someone who helped people—and yet, I’d been completely ignorant of the harm I could have caused.
“There’s something else,” Greta said, flinging an arm over my shoulder and pulling me a little closer. “You know I love you, and I hate that you’re hurting, but are you sure about this?”
“No, you’re right about the casino. I can’t risk doing something that ends up really hurting people. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
“I don’t mean the casino. I mean, what happens if you succeed, hon? Do you really think it’s going to make you feel better? That it’ll undo what they did to you?”
“No, nothing could undo that. But I have to do this,” I said, willing her to understand but knowing she couldn’t. Not really.
Greta didn’t understand what my family had stolen from me or how they’d torn me apart with their lies. It made no sense to her that I had to do this because the only way I could show myself to my family was to be the success they’d never given me the chance to be.
Still, I leaned closer against her. The truth was, I had no idea how to make it happen.
She dropped her head on mine. “Then of course, I’m here for you. But you have to promise me you’ll be smart, and that means no Nico—”
“I’m going tonight, Greta. I won’t do anything stupid, but I can’t throw this away. Next to Lorenzo Costa, Nico is the most influential man in his family.”
What I couldn’t admit aloud was that it wasn’t entirely for the plan that I was going. Right or wrong, I wanted Nico.
She sighed. “All right, then I suppose as your best friend, I’m supposed to help get you ready.”
I shook my head, remembering the way he’d looked at me when I’d opened the hotel room door.
“No?”
“If I keep trying to be whoever that girl was last night, he’s going to figure it out. That wasn’t me.” In truth, it was just a cookie-cutter copy of the women Nico had every night. “If I want any hope of pulling this off, I’ve got to be as real as I can be.”
“Eighty percent truth, twenty percent lie?” she asked with a wicked little grin.
“Exactly.”
And the way he’d looked at me like he wanted to devour me had nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing.
Chapter Seventeen
