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She didn’t bother looking at me as she nodded and turned back toward Frankie. “What else do I need to know?”
“I don’t like this,” Tommy muttered across the room.
“We’re out of options,” I retorted.
Frankie only addressed Sierra. “We keep this discreet. Nobody outside this room will know the truth—nobody. Not your brother. Not even my wife. As far as anyone knows, you’re a family friend, but we’ll never be seen together in public again. Ideally, you’ll have no outward connection to any of us.”
“It has to be that secretive?”
Frankie nodded. “The fewer people who know, the better. My wife…well, Bella tends to talk a lot more than expected. Your brother may get ideas in his head about how to help. We keep this a secret, and you get whatever information you can. Understood?”
Sierra hesitated, and I knew she was taking a last moment to think all of this through. I could see her reluctance back in the car, but we had no other option. I wouldn’t lose my brothers, and she was our only way inside. Sierra would do this, whether she wanted to or not. And I had no doubt I’d go to hell for making her.
“I understand.”
4
SIERRA
I rode in silence as Carlo brought me to my high-rise apartment in Manhattan, dropping me off at the front door. “I’ll have a taxi out front tomorrow morning at seven to take you to your car,” was all he said before pulling away. I stared after him, reeling from all I’d learned in the past hour.
The Bonanno brothers were involved with the mafia.
Carlo had a dead brother.
My new employer was involved with the same shit as the Bonannos.
Every realization felt like a new weight on my shoulders as I decided to skip the elevator and take the stairwell to work off some steam. By the time I made it past the seventh floor, I regretted my decision but pushed through the last two floors anyway. I was insane for thinking I could accomplish something like this. Certifiably crazy. But Carlo left me no other option by giving me the only ultimatum he knew would sway me.
I went to unlock my apartment door, stumbling over my key as I panted from the long trek up the stairs. When my door swung open, before I could so much as touch the lock, I gaped up at Hunter. “Did you forget again?” Shit. Our weekly dinner. “And why the hell didn’t you take the elevator?” he continued, assessing the sweat covering my skin.
I didn’t even know where to begin as I reached forward and gave him a hug around the waist, allowing him to wrap his bulky arms around me and pull me close to his chest. “Sorry, I had a really long day at work, and I decided to walk home to get a bit of exercise.”
Hunter gave me a skeptical look. “You work three miles from here.”
I didn’t give in, pushing further into the apartment and taking in the welcoming scent of the wax burner I just bought two weeks prior. I didn’t fail to notice a small basket with a few different scent options. A bottle of wine sat in the center of the basket, and I whipped back toward Hunter, scowling teasingly at him. “What happened to saving your money?”
“You’re dodging. What happened at work?” he asked.
“I’m not dodging. Nothing happened at work,” I said smoothly. I wasn’t technicallylying. I was already finished with work before Carlo pulled me into their SUV. “I told you to stop giving me gift baskets. You finally paid off your house. You should be saving.”
“Vanilla is your favorite, right?” he asked, moving toward the candle and going through the basket before holding up a vanilla scent.
I sighed. “Yes,” I conceded, taking it and smiling before nudging him. “Thank you, but stop spending on me. I can afford wine and wax melts without your help.”
He gave me a smug smile, but I knew he wouldn’t stop. From the time I’d been twelve, he’d taken me in, housed me, and gave me everything I could dream of having. He bought a duplex, rented out one side, and made fast friends with the neighbor on the other side, Carlo. Now that I was twenty-five and didn’t need his help anymore, he insisted on bringing me dinner once a week. I didn’t think he realized how much I valued the tradition. More than that, though, he had no idea how much I valuedhim.
“You know you love gifts,” he teased, guiding me toward the kitchen table in the center of the room. The apartment was barely 500 square feet, but it was all an open-floor concept, excluding a minimalistic bedroom and attached bathroom. It was perfect.
I rolled my eyes. “What did you bring to eat?”
For an hour, I expertly maneuvered the conversation away from my day and where I’d gone after work. Mercifully, I kept him talking about his construction work for most of the dinner while avoiding the topic of my life. We talked about the football game the Giants lost a couple of nights ago and how the duplex tenants kept throwing raging parties during the week and keeping him awake. When Carlo did come up, I acted disinterested as usual, and the conversations swiftly fled to some other topic.
I couldn’t tell Hunter what had happened because I knew the consequences. He’d made it abundantly clear when he first started bringing Carlo by the house years ago. If Carlo ever made me uncomfortable or any of his friends tried something, he’d kill them. To Hunter, friendships didn’t matter as much as I did. Maybe in a twisted way, I could understand Carlo bringing me into this situation. I had agreed to it to protect my sibling, so why wouldn’t he use his resources to protect his?
No matter what, I could never tell Hunter the truth. Carlo was too dangerous, and Hunter was too protective. It wouldn’t be a good combination, and I wouldn’t ever want to see that fight unfold. For now, I’d talk to him as if nothing new was happening in my life, and hope like hell I’d never have to reveal the truth.
* * *
