“You’re been inside your whole life.”
“And now I’m realizing exactly what they are.” She squeezed my fingers. “If it was up to them, they’d sell me out in a heartbeat.”
“You’re probably right.”
“But I still don’t want to see Mona get hurt. Even if they didn’t touch her physically, she’d be broken if Vincent got killed.”
I nodded slowly. “You’re probably right.”
“I can’t do that to her.”
“So you want me to back out of the deal?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice was soft and twisted in the end.
“What do you care about, Amber?” I leaned closer to her, breathing her in. “What do you really want?”
“I care about—” She stopped herself. “I don’t know what I care about.”
“They’ve taken so much from you. So who are you trying to protect?”
“Mona’s innocent. She doesn’t deserve any of this.”
“She knew what she was getting into when she married that man.”
Amber let out a frustrated breath. “I know. But still.”
“You don’t owe her. You don’t owe any of them. You were nearly killed twice, shot once, and they’d do worse to you, I’m sure of that. They’d do worse if you let them.”
She was quiet for a long moment, staring down at her intertwined hands. I wished I could read her mind and understand what she was thinking. If I were in her place, I’d be ready to burn the whole house to the ground. After everything they’d put her through, they’d deserve it and so much worse. And yet she still hesitated, all because of this one friend she’d made, a woman she barely knew.
I truly didn’t care which way we went, so long as we found a way to keep her safe. I didn’t care if the Leone family burned to cinders and they all died in the conflagration, or if we turned our back on the Dusters and managed to escape on our own. None of that mattered, because to me there was only Amber.
“We can’t betray them,” she said finally, after an agonizing pause. “I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”
I released her hand and tilted her chin up toward me. “Then I won’t make you.”
I kissed her, slowly at first, but she responded with a shocking hunger. I pressed her tight against me, drinking her in, and held that kiss for a while. I wanted her to know that she was my answer. She was the only thing important to me right now, not the families, not this damn city.
There was just her.
I broke off the kiss then stood and helped her to her feet. “Come on,” I said. “We should get back. I think we have some planning to do.”
“If we’re not going to steal from the family, what are we going to do?”
“I have a thought,” I said, taking her hand again and leading her back out into the hallway. “How about I explain it on the way back?”
“Works for me.” She leaned against my shoulder as we walked, her arm linked through mine, her cheek pressed against my arm.
16
Ren
The mansion was dead quiet when we got back from the hospital. Mona headed up to the room to shower and I lingered downstairs, casing the place. The muscle was still there: big guys in dark clothes packing heat, the unmistakable bulge of handguns tucked into their belts, dark-eyed men that would sooner punch you in the teeth than say hello. The muscle in any mafia family was unpredictable, violent, and generally not very bright, but good at following orders and very well paid. The Leone family needed muscle like any good crime family, and I had a feeling their muscle was some of the best.
And yet, the Dusters managed to get the drop on Vincent. I couldn’t imagine what he’d done to put himself out there like that. It didn’t seem like Vincent to get exposed and shot up. As I walked down the hall, I made note of the quiet spots, the dark corners, the security cameras and the gaps in their vision. I couldn’t help myself really—even if I wasn’t going to rob the place, casing the joint was second nature.
I went back upstairs without a single question. The thugs gave me looks, but I was a known entity by then, which meant I had the run of the house. So long as I didn’t try to go somewhere off limits, they didn’t care about me one bit, which was probably a mistake. If I wanted to rip the place off, it wouldn’t have been too difficult.
Amber stepped out of the bathroom as I closed the door to her room behind me. She was wrapped in a towel, but didn’t seem self-conscious like she had before. I was tempted to go and rip the thing off her body and palm her gorgeous, still-wet breasts, but kept myself under control.