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“Fuck,” I hissed, raking a hand down my face, feeling the stubble grabbing my palm as I did so.
“I know,” Lorenzo agreed, misinterpreting my frustration.
He would, of course, think it was about the Cosimo thing. There was no way for him to know the frustration was less to do with that and more to do with how I was actively trying not to think of Avery standing there wide-eyed in my kitchen before suddenly stripping out of her clothes right in front of me.
It was a panicked, emergency situation.
I had no right to feel as turned on as I had when it happened, as my gaze moved over her bra that had her tits all but spill out of the cups, and the delicate flower-printed panties that dipped down low on the gentle slope of her hips.
I damn sure had no right to watch her ass as she rushed away from me to go get changed.
I’d stood there for a long moment in my kitchen, cock hard, trying to rationalize away my desire.
I didn’t succeed, which was why I set to cleaning up the water mess, why I had greeted the delivery men, why I had excused myself to go make phone calls.
Even hours later, when I finally made it up to my room, I could hear her tossing and turning in bed, and I felt my cock twitching to life again as I stripped out of my clothes.
I refused to give myself any relief, thinking that doing so would associate her and that, and I really didn’t want to muddy the lines of professionalism. If for no other reason than I didn’t want to have to do interviews again.
“Another hour or two,” Lorenzo added, flipping over his phone to check it for the tenth time in the past twenty minutes.
Cosimo was being arraigned as we spoke.
And only time would tell if he would be able to make bail or bond, or if he would be rotting away in a cell as he waited for his trial.
“Has anyone thought of calling Vega?” I asked.
“Vega. Mere’s cousin?” Lorenzo asked, meaning our cousin Cesare’s wife.
“Yeah. She’s a lawyer. Not to defend him,” I clarified, since we employed the best person in the city for that shit. “Just to bounce shit off of.”
“Guess it couldn’t hurt,” Lorenzo said, shooting off a text to Cesare. “I fucking hate this,” he added.
Lorenzo, being the boss, couldn’t show a lot of emotion about shit. Not around anyone else. But he knew he could do it with me, and we were alone, save for Ant and another guard outside the front door. Too far away to hear anyway.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
This was the first major criminal offense to come our way since Lorenzo took over the Family from his father.
Back in that asshole’s day, people were getting pinched and brought up on charges left and right.
But Lorenzo had been working his ass off to bring back the golden days to the Family. Which meant no one got caught. And if, on the off chance they did, they didn’t roll, they didn’t talk.
Family over everything.
Maybe it would have been different if it was some trumped-up charge, some bullshit our lawyer could easily help him get out of.
It wasn’t going to be so easy when it was murder. When there was a body to prove it.
Was most of the evidence circumstantial? We sure as fuck hoped so. But either way, this was going to be a big thing.
See, the city kind of forgot about the mafia when they weren’t hitting the news. Usually, there was a shitton of other senseless violence or worry-porn for them to focus on.
A big case like this, though, was going to bring scrutiny back on us. For the public as well as the cops.
It was going to be a fucking headache.
Especially when the trial started.
I was trying not to borrow worry from several months down the line, though. Waiting to hear the results of the arraignment was enough stress.
“If he gets out, he’s probably going to be wearing an ankle monitor,” Lorenzo said, working through his thoughts out loud.
“Yeah, probably,” I agreed.
Cosimo’s place was only a few blocks away, though. So we could go over there anytime we needed to and talk shit over.
He was a capo.
He had men under him.
They were going to need direction.
And it wouldn’t be good for his case if people like that were coming and going from his place. We’d have to find someone else to take over temporarily until the trial was over.
“You think Ant is ready to take on some responsibility?” Lorenzo asked, making it clear we were both of the same mind sometimes.
“If it comes to that, I think he could take it on temporarily, so long as we make it clear it’s temporary, that he isn’t a capo yet.”
