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“She’s my sister, and she’s working for one government agency or another,” he explained, rather succinctly. “Tried to serve our asses up in Mexico.”
Well, I guess that did pretty much sum it up.
Nico gave Leeri another cold look.
Leeri glared back. She was either fearless or really damn stupid. My money was on the latter at the moment.
“We just need somewhere to stash her for a while, Nico,” I said, jumping straight to the punchline.
“And what happens after ‘a while’?” he asked.
It was a fair question.
“You kill me,” Leeri snapped, speaking up for the first time “So, why don’t you just get it the hell over with now?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted to Nico, ignoring all of…that.
“Obviously, there are certain things that can’t happen,” Brute said in that easygoing, king-like tone, making my head try to bob in unthinking agreement.Geez, the guy was potent.
“You never know,fratello,”Gabe said, laying a hand on Nico’s shoulder. “Once she sees what’s really going on, the woman might have a change of heart.”
Of course, that was presuming she had a heart—and I wasn’t entirely convinced she did. Still, there was always a chance.
Nico nodded. “We’ll keep her here,” he said, then turned to Brute. “She’ll be confined to one of the upper rooms, and I’ll have two men outside it at all times. If she’s… disruptive, I’ll have to move her to Onyx. I won’t have my nephew’s life impacted by this.”
Gabe smiled. I tried to stifle mine, but it didn’t really work. It was easy to forget sometimes that Gabe’s son, Nic, had everyone wrapped around his little finger—including his big, scaryZiettoNico. And yeah, I was on that list too.
“Fair enough, my friend,” Brute said.
Me, I wouldn’t have been so quick to agree. On the surface, Onyx was just a nightclub owned by the Costas, with their girls working the rooms below it. Beneath all that, though, the heart of Onyx was the concrete-walled room with bloodstains on the floor from the countless men Nico had killed there. I’d seen it. Not really the kind of place that flashed “good times” in big, neon letters. Still, for Leeri, it had to be better than a hole in her head.
I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief—it was done and I could finally go get some sleep—when one of the bedroom doors upstairs opened and Raven came bouncing down the steps.
She was dressed in scrubs like she was getting ready for work, which she probably was since the sun was already coming up.
“Greta!” she called halfway down.
“Hi, Raven!” I called back, plastering on my happy and awake face for my best friend.
She didn’t stop when she reached the bottom of the stairs, but kept coming and wrapped her arms around me.
“Now, this is what I call a greeting,” I said, mock-glaring at Gabe while I hugged her back.
Gabe rolled his eyes playfully. “It’s not my fault Raven hasn’t figured out that you’re just a giant pain in the ass.”
“Not true,” Raven said, stepping back, still smiling. “I figured it out a long time ago. I just choose to love her anyway.”
I shrugged. “You love mebecauseI’m a pain in the ass, babe, not in spite of it.”
Raven turned to the tall, hulking man standing next to me. “Hi, Brute,” she said, smiling up at him just a little too knowingly. She might have heard a passing comment or two I’d made about the biker god. “And Brute’s… girlfriend?” she added, looking politely at Leeri then down at where Brute had a hold on Leeri around her bicep.
Raven’s brow furrowed.
Gabe laughed.
“Not exactly,amore mio,” Nico said, taking her hand and pulling her next to him. He turned to address the two Costa men who were still keeping us company. “If you’d escortSignorina Hastingsupstairs,per favore,”he says.
“Of course,Signor,”one of them said while the other latched an arm around Leeri’s free bicep.
