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Sunny parked behind us. He and Sienna hopped off laughing. “That was incredible,” my sister said. “Do you have a bike? Will you teach me to ride?”
“Yes and yes.” She hugged him, then Sunny landed on us over her head. “Everything cool?”
“Everything’s fine,” Genny breezed. “Your girl here was just putting me in my place.”
“No easy task. Did she kick and scream going in?” he asked me.
Genny flipped him off. “Thanks for growing this for me, but you can have one back.” She hopped off, hooking me around the waist and dragging me along. “Let’s go. He’s about ten miles in.”
“Ten?” Sienna and I cried.
“That’s right. It gives you three plenty of time to tell me exactly what’s going on.”
Sunny obliged. We made our trek through the woods, explaining everything that happened over the last couple of weeks. She interrupted a lot—asking us to clarify this or explain how we knew that. At first introduction, I thought Genny didn’t care about our problems. I was wrong. The woman raging and cursing while she kept a bewilderingly tight hold on me, cared very much.
“The snake-faced shitcocker. I can’t imagine what Liam went through. When I get my hands on that bomber, I’m going to slice him open from shoulder to waist, keeping him alive long enough to watch me rip out his insides. Bastard!”
Yep, quite a temper.
“I had a thought while you two were talking earlier,” I spoke up. I, and Genny, climbed over a fallen branch. “Is it possible the person coming after the Merchants is who’s coming after you, Genny? This Vito guy.”
Her brows snapped together, but she didn’t confirm. “Keep going, Feisty. Explain your thought.”
“Well,” I continued. “If he wants to reclaim the glory of his grandpa’s old gang, he’ll know it wasn’t a twentysomething lady with a biker gang that took it away in the first place. If he wants to take Harlow, and keep it, wouldn’t it make sense to destabilize your organization, then when the time is right, get rid of all the Merchants?”
Genevieve and Sunny shared a look. “It’s possible,” Genny said slowly, “but it’s not likely. Vito has friends but none with the money or resources to mount the kind of operation you’re talking about. Plus, Liam, Bane, and I have dealt with a few possible sabotage attempts over the last several months, but the attacks on Sunny have been relentless.”
Sunny inclined his head. “My crew’s been the focus. This is all going down in North Quay, North Quay is where it starts.”
“North Quay is not where this started,” Sienna said, so forcefully we stopped and turned on her. “I can’t get a clear picture, but this is bigger, Sunny. So much bigger than you can see.”
“What do you see?” he asked.
“I see...” Sienna tilted her head to the sky, vision growing unfocused. “A man with... blue hair.”
Genny and Sunny moved at the same time, converging on Sienna. “Dad?”
“There are other men too. Blonde, black, brunette.” Sienna tossed her head. “So handsome, so beautiful. They shine brighter than the sun... and it does nothing to pierce the darkness surrounding them. They’re all there, with a gorgeous woman, loved by them all, but... it’s the blue-haired man. He hates him. Oh, he hates him!” I jumped at the shout. No matter how many times I experienced my sister’s visions, they unsettled the mess out of me. “He would give his life to see everything he loves destroyed. Everything he touched.” She dropped her chin, her gaze sticking Sunny through. “Everything he created.”
Genny flicked between them, confusion written on her face. In our description of events, we hadn’t gotten to my sister’s psychic abilities. “Are you trying to say this all started when our mom and dads ran the city? When Sinjin ran the city?” she said. “You think he made an enemy that hates him so much, decades later when he finally set out to get his revenge, he went hardest at Sunny because—”
“I’m the only other Bellisario,” Sole finished. “Huh.” Sunny did not look put out by this. On the contrary, he bobbed his head, mouth-shrugging, and replied, “Well, that would explain a lot.”
With that, it was Sunny and Genevieve tromping in front of us while Sienna and I trailed behind. Pieces of their conversation floated back to us—making me dig my nails deeper in my palms.
“...she’s psychic...”
“My ass,” Genny snapped. Sunny made an effort to lower his voice. Genny did not. “I now believe in psychics even less than I did an hour ago. Everyone knows about our parents, and everyone knows about Daddy Sin. There’s a photo of him grinning with a knife between his teeth next to the word psycho in the dictionary. That this is about some old grudge is almost as obvious. In the end, all things lead back to our family taking over Cinco. And with the number of people our folks have killed, good fucking guess someone somewhere might be mad about it.”
