“He asked me for lunch earlier. He knew I was at the club, not sure how but I can surmise. And I guess he made assumptions that if I were the kind of girl who’d go into a sex club…”
My voice trails off. I can still see the sex-crazed venom in his eyes, still hear his oily proposal. I can still feel his snake-like fingers around my wrist. He’d clearly had something to drink and wasn’t thinking straight.
“Motherfucker,” Mario mutters, shaking his head.
Romeo looks at Mario as one might look at a teen out past curfew. “Fucked him up, didn’t you?”
“Of course I fucked him up. He was assaulting her!”
“And didn’t matter who he was,” Orlando says on a sigh. “Son of a bitch assaulted a woman, deserved a good, old-fashioned Rossi family beat down.”
I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic, or making excuses for Mario.
“You’d have done the same,” Mario mutters.
Tavi nods. “Fuckin’ have done the same, but then I had to mop up the goddamn mess I made, didn’t I?”
The others groan. Santo, the guy with the beard who looked momentarily human when he was chasing their adorable niece, grins. It’s the sort of grin that makes a chill run down my spine.
“So, you fucked him up. We find out now he’s a cop. Did he see who you were?”
Mario shrugs. “Don’t know.”
He looks to me next. “Did he know you had anything to do with Mario?”
I shake my head. “Definitely not.”
“Alright, then. That’s promising.”
Silence comes over the small crowd. They’re likely thinking things over. I am, too.
“Lance Grady,” Romeo mutters to himself. “Lance Grady. It sounds familiar.”
Mario’s typing on his phone, his brow furrowed in concentration. Santo’s tapping away on his keyboard. One of the brothers, the big, bearded one, nods his head slowly. “Let me consult with Dario. I have a feeling he’ll know something that’s pertinent here.”
“So let’s put this together,” Romeo says. “Your boss tried to make a move on you.” I feel Mario tense beside me. “First time?”
I shake my head. “No, he’s done it before but he got bolder today.” I purse my lips. “Asshole,” I mutter under my breath.
“And he don’t know you were with me last night?” Mario asks.
I shake my head. “No. Why?”
Romeo shrugs. “He could use that against you to leverage what he wants.”
Of course he could. I should’ve thought of that myself. But my mind’s on my apartment. My beautiful, immaculately clean apartment. “You think he had something to do with my apartment getting trashed?”
“I do,” Mario says. “He wanted to send a message.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to say, “You’d know all about that,” when I bite my lip. Don’t need to go there.
“Can you shoot a gun, Emma?” Romeo tips his head to the side.
“Of course I can.”
He whips a pistol at me and I catch it mid-air. I blink in surprise. “Show me.”
I look it over, disengage the safety, check for ammo. “Target?”
“Knotted rope, ten o’clock,” Romeo mutters.
I look to the target, aim, and pull the trigger. My shot’s on the mark. The rope frays and splinters, then falls to the floor with a soft thud.
I try not to think about what that rope was used for.
Slowly, Romeo nods and looks at Mario. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
Mario nods. My heart kicks up. I have no idea about what anyone’s thinking, but I doubt it’s good for me.
Still, I wonder if I can use this to my advantage…
Mario takes the gun back from me and walks over to Romeo. They speak in hushed whispers before he stands, straightens, and his eyes narrow on me.
“You betrayed us and stole from us. You know who my family is, and you’ve infiltrated our ranks. We should, by all our typical regulations, question then kill you. You know that.”
My throat feels tight. Of course I know. It’s why the mob is at the epicenter of my focus, the ones I want to bring down. They killed my father for less.
“I know, yeah,” I mutter.
“She don’t seem too serious about this, bro,” Santo says, his eyes narrowed on me with his arms crossed over his chest.
“It’s because she hasn’t fully accepted the danger she’s in,” Romeo retorts.
“Uh, hello. I’m right here. I can hear you,” I remind them. Mario’s hand comes to my bicep, and he gives me a firm squeeze. I close my mouth.
“You were attacked by someone who wants to hurt or kill you, Emma, and it wasn’t us,” Romeo says. “Mario attacked a man who assaulted you, so the chances are, the hit on you was a retaliation, or a warning.”
My pulse grows cold. I shiver.
“From whom?”
“We don’t know, and that’s what we’ll have to find out. They didn’t find you tonight, so they trashed your place hoping to send a message. Where’s your car?”