“Great. Everyone knows,” I grumbled and pulled a metal stool over to sit.
“Are you okay to discuss this now?” Brey murmured softly, pushing a piece of her dark hair behind her ear before she continued. Aubrey Whitfield had attended the same high school as me, and we’d shared too much back then to ever sever ties. She’d become a friend I couldn’t let go of even though I knew having ties to no one was smarter.
She ended up marrying Jett’s brother, Jax, becoming a Stonewood just like Vick.
And I knew the Stonewoods did business with the family. Their name, along with the Armanelli name, ran the whole city.
I just wasn’t sure how much they knew, how much I could tell them, how much I wanted to. We didn’t mention business when we hung out. “I’m tired and have to work, guys.”
“Not true,” Jackie sing-songed as she wiped down one of her espresso machines. She motioned around the shop. “No one here to work for, and they’ve been frothing at the mouth more than my frother to talk to you about God knows what.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “You’re no help.”
She shrugged in her green sweater. “Just being honest. I have a million things to do in back, including calling the owner of this place to figure out my lease. Watch the door and talk to them.” She glanced their way. “They look too worried to be in here enjoying coffee. Bad for the aesthetic of the place and all.”
With that, my excuse to avoid the conversation walked through the back door. I sighed and took another long drink.
“Brey’s too sweet to start, so I’ll go. We’re all aware of who Bastian is. At one point in time, back when I was just dating Jett, you gave us all a scare by dating Bastian. We thought it fizzled out. Come to find out, maybe not.”
I sighed. It was a long time ago when we’d staged Bastian dating me. We’d done it for a few moments to be seen by a target and that was it. Vick and Brey had only witnessed it because the target had worked at Stonewood Enterprises.
Vick continued, “Jett told me you two are seeing each other again.” Her tone was grave, and coming from Vick Blakely, that was epic. She was never anything but optimistic.
I glanced at Brey, who’d pursed her lips and widened her green eyes a bit as if to say that I should at least indulge her.
Vick seemed so innocent, so naïve to the fact that life could be about making sacrifices and taking risks rather than just fairy tales and butterflies. It’s what I think both Brey and I loved about her.
She was light while we were not.
Brey sighed. “I actually really like Bastian.”
“As you should. The man would die for you,” I said. “And Jax would be the one killing him.”
I smiled, remembering a time Bastian had danced with her in a club, remembering the way he and Cade had acted as if they didn’t know me. Back then, we weren’t so high up, just kids of the mafia boss and a girl trying to fit into the family. So many nights I’d acted like I’d known Bastian, Rome, and Cade only as well as Brey and Vick did.
Now, Vick and Brey had married some of the most influential men in the city. Stonewood Enterprises had to have ties with the mob. So their women did too.
How long would they know my past wasn’t exactly my past? How long would they believe I hadn’t been a part of the mob until now?
The mob family kept their ties low-key. We weren’t supposed to react when we saw each other. It was a new way, a way to keep our ties hidden, making it harder for enemies to figure out structures, dynamics, and mostly our weaknesses.
I was one of the biggest secrets of all.
Brey nodded like there was no denying my statement, her soft dark waves bouncing over her white top. “Jax and Bastian have nothing to fight over, though. At least, not right now because you want to be dating him, right? He’s not forcing your hand?” My best friend looked at me with concern. She wanted to know that I was okay, that there was no danger.
I’d lied to them time and time again about the men I was with. But they were both involved with Stonewood men now. “You both know you’re hypocrites, right?”
“Excuse me?” Vick almost shouted, her straight blonde ponytail whipping around as she turned to glare at me.
“Vick, your husband owns one of the biggest corporations in the city—you think he isn’t involved? You think he isn’t working closely with Mario and Bastian?”
She stuttered and put her manicured hand to her mouth. “He’s not . . . well, we aren’t . . . the business is as clean as it needs to be.”
I shrugged and pointed to Brey. “You know she’s lying, right? All of Chicago couldn’t be clean if they scrubbed their asses all day long. The Armanellis are everywhere. My family is—”
“Your family?” Brey asked, her eyebrows raised.
I groaned and pulled a hand through my brown-and-blonde-highlighted curls. “I should get to work, you two.”