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My hyperfocus today was split between working on a precarious stairwell situation and focusing on Virgil’s whereabouts. The second coat of paint on the stairs made them pop, and I stared at the finished product from the loft. The dual-staircase home made it easy for Virgil and his visitors to make it upstairs using the second winding staircase while this one dried, and tomorrow, I’d get started on the other.
“Hard at work, I see,” Virgil said as he strode out of his office and locked the door behind him. I sat at the top of the steps, taking a breather. From his eye, it looked like I wasn’t doing much of anything, so I stood and gave him a courteous smile.
“I actually just finished this stairwell. What do you think?” I asked, gesturing to my hard work.
He approached, and I couldn’t help the slight sinking of my stomach, stopping a mere inch from me and looking over my shoulder at the stairwell. There was plenty of room in the wide hallway, and my heart dropped as he met my eyes with his predatory ones. “You’re not busy now, are you?” he asked.
“I am,” I said shakily, but my mind couldn’t concoct a response better than that one.
He turned so that his body fully faced mine, and he took half a step forward. I took one back but froze as I realized my back pressed tightly into the half-rail. On the other side was a drop that would certainly mean death, and I held my breath as Virgil glanced behind me, smirking at what he saw. He certainly realized that short of throwing myself over the railing, I had nowhere to go.
“I had someone I was supposed to meet, but I can arrange my schedule to accommodate a…conversation.”
“There’s nothing I need to discuss with you, sir,” I said, grabbing the railing and holding it for dear life.
“Sir?” he repeated, placing his hands on the rail beside mine and pressing his body weight into me. His chuckle sent icy prickled down my skin. My body seemed to be warning me of the dangerous situation I’d found myself, and I struggled to even breathe properly as I shook my head slowly. I needed Carlo. I neededsomeone,because I didn’t know what I could do to stop this alone. “You can call me ‘sir’ all you want, baby.”
“Mr. Lucchese, this is inappropriate,” I said, moving a hand and placing it into his chest to press him back lightly. His smile widened, and I knew in that moment that all courtesy and kindness was off the table. I needed to get out, and I needed to do it now. I pushed at his chest, but he grabbed my wristhard.He pushed it back into the railing, and I lifted my other arm and slapped him. I tried to use my body to push away, but he had me trapped.
His smile dropped as the slap registered, and the grip on my wrist tightened as he reached behind my head and wrapped a hand around the nape of my neck, gathering the hair there and pulling my head back. I gaped, trying to fight his grip, but there was nothing I could do but hold perfectly still as I balanced precariously over the railing, a bruising grip on my wrist and another tangled in my hair. If he released me right now, I’d topple to the ground below.
I held my breath as he spoke. “Fighting me only makes it more fun, little one,” he said, pulling me just a touch further over the railing. “What are you going to do, Sierra? Are you going to give up this project of a lifetime because I took an interest in you?”
“Let go,” I demanded through gridded teeth.
He made a move as if to release my hair, and I felt myself toppling backward. I wrapped my free arm around the one that held my hair. He had my life in his hands, and he knew it. “I know you like danger. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have snuck into my office,” he said in a sensual tone that had me freezing. He knew. “Do you not think I keep a close eye on all my household employees?”
I shook my head, my lower lip trembling in a way that gave away what I was feeling. I didn’t want him to see my terror, but there was no getting out of this situation now. I’d made a grave mistake, and now I had to live with it. “Please,” I whispered. “Don’t.”
My words were only met with his front door opening and closing. I couldn’t see the person who came inside, but I heard a voice that sent potent, catastrophic terror through me. “Boss, we’ve got to go do inspections.” That voice…it couldn’t be possible.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Virgil replied, his gaze never leaving mine. He pulled me back onto sure footing and released his grip on my wrist. I pulled it to my chest and stepped away as he looked me up and down. “Don’t get any ideas, little one.”
I didn’t say anything as he turned and walked down the freshly painted steps, tracking the mint paint through his foyer. My eyes, though, didn’t remain on him as they turned to the guy at his side who didn’t give me a second glance. He was tall and handsome—handsome enough that I’d chosen him on my twentieth birthday to be with. He walked just as confidently now as he had then, and when he spoke to Virgil again, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind who I stared at.
He was the man who had tried to take me from the club. He had scarred my face and damaged me in a way nobody else ever had. And now, he didn’t even notice who stood in his presence as he turned and guided Virgil out of his house.
27
CARLO
I went through the personal file of another made man, looking through all his past history with the mob and anything that could be considered incriminating. Frankie sat across from me, using his desktop to do the same. Louis’s pile sat nearly untouched while he went to the kitchen to make himself another drink. We’d need to have a conversation with him about alcoholism, but right now, this took priority.
“Who the fuck did it?” His voice came from outside the office door, and I furrowed my brow, looking over my shoulder. I expected him to be looking at us. But he wasn’t. His menacing tone promised death as he stared toward the front door. “Sierra, give me a fucking name.”
Hearing her name was enough to have me catapulting from my chair and rushing into the hallway. She stood there, her eyes glazed with unshed tears as she held an arm to her chest and trembled fiercely. She looked otherwise put together, but something had happened, and I could see it in her eyes as she shot her gaze up and met my eyes.
I didn’t consider Louis’s ferocious declaration as I moved toward her immediately, gathering her arm in my hands gently. She winced lightly, and I saw the signs of a bruise around her wrist. I could tell from the shade of green that it would be ugly and purple by tomorrow, and everything around me went still. A collected calm overcame me as I straightened. “Who did it?” I asked.
“I—I—” She couldn’t finish her sentence as she shook her head, her cheeks going paler.
Tommy came around the corner, and I realized how small this hallway was with all of us inside it. He took in Sierra before looking at Louis and me. I’d never seen Tommy look so wrathful, but he clenched his jaw and stepped forward. “Sierra—”
“Stop!” she shouted, pulling her arm out of my grip, mouth trembling. “Stop asking questions.” Nobody spoke as we all stared at her, watching her as she attempted to cope with whatever had happened. She took a few deep breaths before looking at me in the eyes. “Can we be alone?”
Despite the rage that had entirely encompassed me, that request melted something within me. I only nodded, knowing that if I dared to speak, it would come out as a menacing demand to tell me what had happened. I placed one of my open palms on her back and guided her through the barrier that was my other two brothers and into the kitchen. As I went, I clenched and unclenched my other fist, and my brothers stayed behind. I knew, though, that they would be right there, trying to listen in on the entire conversation. If one of those fuckers tried finding the person who did this before I got my hands on them…
I stood behind her, rubbing her back as she took a seat at one of the stools and buried her face in her hands. I moved around the counter, grabbing her a glass of juice and resting it in front of her as I waited. “Do you remember when I told you about the scar? About what happened?”
