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"Golden Flame or nothing. This is a loyalty test, Loren. Pass, and you join. Fail, and I track down wherever you've hidden that little family of yours and let the bullets fly."
Nausea explodes in my stomach. I've hacked the hell out of any records of where my mother and Evelyn and I live, where we go, our vehicle records—everything. All in an attempt to keep the Wild Seven from tracking us down. But if they did…
"I just need more time," I swallow.
His gun is out before I finish speaking, and the cold barrel of it presses against my temple, just below my stitches. "Fine. You've got thirty seconds to agree."
"You said we'd just talk," I blurt, beginning to really panic as I edge toward the door. We're in the middle of a busy, slow-moving street full of people. Surely, he wouldn't shoot me if I could just get out of the car.
Right?
I have no idea, but I need to try.
"Fifteen seconds. Think faster, Loren."
I can't think. All I can do is panic. If I grab the door handle, he'll pull the trigger anyway. I've seen him kill in a car before. He says it's a nice and easy cleanup. Oh, God, I'm about to be an easy cleanup. They'll shoot me here, drive the car off into some bay somewhere, and then—
Boom!
I scream, thinking the gun has gone off, but then I realize that the car I'm riding in has been T-boned by another vehicle. They were driving just fast enough to push us out of our lane and into another car, jolting us to a stop. Honking breaks out all around, and I can hear loud cursing.
Thank God the impact didn't make Ace pull the trigger. Instead, he looks out the window in time to see a massive figure rip the back door open and reach inside.
I startle when I realize it's Big Luck. He's got a savage look on his none-too-handsome face, and he snarls at the members of the Wild Seven as they promptly flee the car wreck, too worried about being identified. Ace vanishes quickly after the others—he's always been the slipperiest of the group. I probably couldn't count the number of aliases that man has on all my toes and fingers.
"You hurt, hacker girl?"
I swallow hard, then once again. I'm shaking. "N—no."
"Good. Get out. I'm taking you to Domenic, and you better be ready to face him after this shit you’re obviously involved in.”
Chapter 14
Domenic
She's with the Wild Seven boss in their car. They're having a nice, long chat.
That's what Big Luck told me mere minutes ago, but it still takes time to sink in.
I clench my teeth as I pace back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass window in my grand suite at the Golden Flame. My day went smoothly until I saw Loren walk out with a woman in business clothes without going on her lunch break or saying a word to me. Big Luck had followed her, of course.
Good thing he did. Now I know she's in cahoots with the very people she told me she was being threatened by.
She's going to double-cross me. Maybe she reached out to the Wild Seven herself after they attacked her, giving up the security of my casino in favor of her own protection with that group of fuckers. Maybe they made the offer to her, but it doesn't matter because she clearly accepted it.
Or maybe she's been with them all along...
No. I don't believe it goes back that far. But riding around with the Wild Seven? What the fuck was she thinking?
I was beyond worried when Big Luck first told me she got into a Wild Seven car. It made me angry when he told me they were talking, but it hasn't stopped the residual worry over Loren's safety. They're a group of criminals far worse than my family. The Caputos have codes and protocols. We may be violent and do plenty of wrong, but family never betrays family.
The Wild Seven? They're fucking lawless and dangerous, and I'm pissed that Loren dared get into that vehicle with them. Big Luck said she got in with no visible threat forcing her to do so.
I can't let her see how much the idea of her betrayal affects me. I force composure to wash over me as I adjust my suit and tie, breathing in deeply to fend off the concern for her welfare that's still clawing at my insides.
Loren was going to cross me, I'm sure of it. And I won't tolerate disloyalty. There's only one course of action.
The moment she steps through my suite door with Big Luck at her back, I say coolly, "You're fired."
