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CARLO
Sierra paced back and forth across the rug as my brothers and I sat on our respective sides of the room and pondered options. “What you’re doing isn’t enough,” Frankie admitted, shaking his head. “I was hoping it would be, but we need to take another step to get information. Our sources say they’re getting bolder. Getting closer to our assets means they’re closer to us. We still don’t have any information on the inside man, and that’s another risk.”
“She’s doing all she can,” I argued to Frankie. Hunter’s words resonated through my mind as I said it.If you get my sister involved in any of this shit you and your family are in, I’ll kill you.…Promise me you’re not putting her in danger.…That’s my sister, Carlo. If anything happens to her, I have nothing left. If you’ve ever been a friend to me, don’t put her at risk.
Hunter had said everything he could to ensure his sister was safe, and though I couldn’t do anything with the words—though I lied to my best friend’s face—I still considered them. He didn’t know I would give my own life to see his sister safe. Hell, I’d already done it once.
“She isn’t,” Frankie countered. “There has to be more information in that house, and she’s not getting it.”
“You can talk to me, you know,” she said, pausing and looking at Frankie. “I’m open to suggestions, but I don’t want to get myself killed. He’s always there; when he’s not, I slip into the office and get what I can. But that’s a rarity. I don’t know what else to do.”
“Can you listen in on his conversations?” Frankie asked.
“I tried once, but he caught me, and I think he’s been suspicious since.” Her eyes flashed a hint of fear, and I wondered if anything had come of that encounter—anything she hadn’t mentioned. “I need other ideas.”
“Maybe start trying harder,” Louis shot at her.
“Louis, shut the fuck up!” I shouted at him, pointing and narrowing my eyes.
“I’m doing everything I can,” she shot back at him. “You think I want to watch you all be killed? I don’t. Instead of being a conniving asshole, why don’t you try to help fix the situation?” He raised his brows and nodded, making an almost approving face.
Tommy sighed. “I have a few extra devices that can magnetically pull information from a desktop. They double as listening devices,” he proposed. “I can electronically connect them to the home’s IP address, and they’re small enough to go undetected. Most of the work can be done remotely, but you’d have to physically place them.”
“Why didn’t you offer this solution before?” Frankie chastised.
“If he finds one of these bugs, he’ll up his defenses, and there won’t be a way to get information at all at that point. But we’ve explored all the other options, and this is what we’re left with.”
“Where would I need to place it?” she asked.
“Against the hard drive of his main desktop. It’ll both listen to the room and draw information from the computer for me to use. I also have a jump drive, but that’s noticeable. This should go undetected for a while, if placed properly.”
She took a sharp breath and nodded. “I can do that.”
“If you get caught beside his computer, do you even know what will happen to you?” I asked, standing and shaking my head. I glared at Tommy. “You know better than anyone, Tommy. Why the hell would you be giving such a recommendation?”
Everyone turned and looked at me with varying degrees of confusion, uncertainty and frustration. I saw the irony of my animosity for what it was, and I wasn’t foolish enough to wonder why. I’d been the one to recommend her, to bring her into this. But now that it was growing riskier, everything was quickly changing. After being around her for weeks—after beingwithher—I knew my priorities were swiftly changing. I needed my brothers to be safe, which was why we were doing this. But more than that, I neededherto be safe.
“Trust me, I know what I’m risking here,” she said, glaring at me. “And I asked to get out of this shit weeks ago, but you were the one who insisted I had no choice. Do you remember that, Carlo? That if I don’t do this, you’ll involve my brother?” She unclenched her jaw and took a deep breath. “And now I’m invested, and I care what happens to all of you. I’m going to finish this.”
I wanted to turn and slam my fist into the wall, but I kept my composure as I stared into those fuming emerald eyes and read the unflinching resolve there. Sierra wouldn’t change her mind now—not after all we’d been through.
And I knew it wasn’t just for me.
I knew that she and Tommy shared a friendship, and she had a mutual respect for my oldest, cruelest brother. Sierra had always had a big heart, and for the first time, I wished she didn’t. I wished she was still willing to turn away from this and never look back. I wished she still hated me enough to turn her back on all of us.
“Once she gets this placed, it’ll limit the risk involved in her job,” Tommy told me. “She just has to put it there, and then she won’t have to snoop anymore.”
“Can you do something like that?” Louis asked her. “Do you think you can make it in without killing yourself first?”
I heard the harshness in his words, but she didn’t address it. “I want to help so that all of you can be safe,” she admitted. “I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to do it, but I’ll try my hardest.”
Louis stared at her for a long moment, and she stared back until Tommy pulled her attention away and began explaining what she’d need to do. Something like respect flashed in Louis’s eyes—something I’d never seen in Bella’s presence. He was a harsh skeptic, but to see him offering Sierra more than a hateful scowl hit something deep in my chest.
But as she and Tommy spoke of logistics, my fingers tingled from the blood that rushed through me viciously and without restraint. Why the hell had I done this? Why had I given up so much to see her safe, only to bring her back into this now? I’d weighed the consequences and put my brothers above her, but now, something had changed. Something fundamental. Because I knew that if a gunman came into this room right now, it wasn’t my brothers whom I’d defend first. It’d be Sierra.
I didn’t notice when Frankie stood and walked toward me until he pressed a palm to my back. “She’s going to be fine,” he said. I only shook my head. “The Luccheses are getting bolder every day, and this is our last option. They’re going to succeed if we don’t do something, and without us making it harder for them to expand their businesses, New York will be a lot more dangerous for her. She’s not just doing this for us. She’s doing it for herself, even if she doesn’t realize it.”
“I’m not going to lose her,” I told him. “I won’t let her be caught up in this.”
