AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His jaw clenched. “Nobody deserves to knowanythingin this business.”
Why was I putting myself at risk? I’d been so enamored by the brothers—by Carlo in particular—that I hadn’t considered all my options. I’d moved forward with helping them to protect my brother, but I didn’t need to do that. I didn’t need to do any of this, and if he was going to act like I didn’t belong here, I wouldn’t help him.
“You know what?” I asked, straightening my back and giving him a triumphant smile. He narrowed his eyes but didn’t say anything. “I don’t have to do this for you. I don’t have to doanythingfor you. You can shove it and figure this out yourself. I’m done putting myself at risk for an asshole like you. You don’t deserve another second of my time.”
I turned to walk away, but his words halted me. “Then I’ll go to your brother. The same deal as before stands, Sierra. You made your choice. Are you changing your mind now?”
I looked over my shoulder. “You won’t touch my brother. Because if you do, I’ll go to the police with everything, and he won’t be the one implicated.”
In all the time I’d spent around Carlo, I’d never seen such an undiluted rage fill his expression as right now. He moved toward me too quickly for me to do anything. He grabbed my arm and jerked me toward the door, nearly throwing me off-balance. He didn’t seem to care as he continued forward. “What the hell?” I shouted, trying to tug away from him.
“I thought you’d know better than to threaten to tell the cops,” he said, shaking his head. “You can hate me. You can think I’m scum. But you won’t implicate my brothers and me with the law, and I will show you why.”
“What do you mean?”
He didn’t say anything as he dragged me to the passenger’s side of his car and threw the door open, shoving me inside.
11
CARLO
I knew I’d been rough with her—harsher than she’d likely ever experienced. But when it came to the law, we didn’t fuck around. Too much shit had happened when people got the police involved in our business, and the thought of her being in the middle of it…
Chills raked down my spine. She had no idea the kind of pain she’d bring down on all of our heads if she tried that shit, but I’d show her. I’d make her see it.
She rode alongside me silently, but I could feel the anger seeping from her in waves. She wasn’t going to get over whatever it was that she hated me for, and I could accept that. I could live with it. But I couldn’t get over the fact that I’d given up an entire lifetime of freedom for her safety, and she still hated me. Even if I told her why I’d left and what I’d given up—even if she understood the complexity of the entire situation—I didn’t think I could cope with her still being angry after learning the truth.
I couldn’t tell her what I did for her only to be shunned. Iwouldn’t.
I pulled into the empty bar parking lot, a sliver of spaces compared to the four-tier garage across the street. But with the bar no longer operational, nobody parked here during the evenings. We were alone as we got out of the car and stared at the abandoned building. “Why are we here?” she asked, following as I strode inside. Police tape covered the door, but I flicked out a pocketknife and sliced through it before pushing inside. She followed, pausing in the doorway. “Carlo,” she whispered.
I knew she saw what was inside. Blood stained the floor and walls, despite the forensic cleaners disinfecting the whole place. Police markers still sat in a dozen different places in the room, despite it having been processed months ago. “Did you hear about this place?” I asked her, looking around.
“It was a sting operation,” she said. “It was all over the news.”
“Out of spite, a man went to the police and gave information on our guys. The police brought him here to identify people, but that’s not what happened. It turned into a shootout where two of them and twelve of us died. Twelve loyal men were just here for a night out, and they died because the police don’t give a fuck about mafia members.” I shook my head. “One of the twelve men who died was the informant because the police don’t care about informants, either.”
She didn’t say anything for a few minutes, and I watched as she took two more steps into the area, shaking her head as if to deny what had happened. “There had to be a reason,” she said.
“They were known figures in organized crime, and the police have no mercy for us. The informer was collateral; nobody even mentioned him in the news reports. Nobodycared.That’s what happens to people who go to the police. They’re killed, and they’re forgotten. And then more people are killed because of what they did.”
I saw the thoughts formulating in her mind, but she didn’t voice one of them—not for long minutes as she took in the whole bar. She walked deeper into the place, and goosebumps rose on her exposed arms. “Take me home,” she demanded.
“You need to see the consequences of what you’re thinking about doing.”
She didn’t give me any warning before whipping around and marching up to me. She pointed a finger at my chest, and I only raised a brow at the gesture. “If that’s what I have to do to save my brother, it’s exactly what I’ll do. This is on you at this point.”
“I’m theonlyone interested in protecting you,” I snarled back, getting right in her face. She seemed entirely unfazed. “And you’d be wise to remember that before turning your back on me.”
It surprised me to feel the sharp sting of a slap on my cheek. I nearly laughed as I realized she’d slapped me, and she did it with no regret. Only fury vibrated through her as she used the same hand to shove my chest. “Fuck you!” she shouted.
I didn’t know what surprised me more. The slap, the push, or the vulgar words that came from her lips—words I didn’t think I’d ever heard her use before. The kind, smiling person I had fallen for years ago was replaced byher.A feisty, entirely pissed-off woman who had the audacity to turn and stomp away from me. If she had been anyone else, she’d be dead. But she wasn’t.
I grabbed her wrist and whipped her back around, pushing her into the bar with enough force that she’d know precisely how serious I was. She gaped at me as I got in her face and spoke in a deceptively soft and dangerous tone, one that should have dulled the sharp edges of her anger. “What is your problem?” I asked. “I’m not going to continue through the same motions of fighting with you when I don’t know what this is about. What the fuck is your issue?”
“You talk a lot about being the good guy and protecting me—”
“I’ve never said I was a good guy,” I interrupted, but she continued speaking as if I hadn’t said anything.
