Keep Him Like Secrets

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

Saff

“This better be good,” I said, slamming the door to the boss’s penthouse with more force than necessary, making it rattle the jamb as I stalked inward. “Kalinda was just about to disembowel the man who’d terrorized her as a kid.”

“Who the fuck is Kalinda?” Renzo, my boss, asked the other capos gathered around.

“And then,” I went on, “presumably, she and Link are going to fuck in the man’s blood for a solid twenty pages. And you’re keeping me from that.”

“You’re upset about a book?” Renzo asked.

“Not just any book. This has been the slowest of slow burns I’ve ever read. Six books. Six for them to get to this point. And I waited a year for this one to come out. So, yes, I’m upset about a book. So this better be worth my time.”

“This is probably the part where I’m supposed to remind you that I’m the boss and you work for me,” Renzo said, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. “But (A) I know that won’t work on you, and (B) my wife would probably side with you and remind me that she once forbade me to speak to her for a full sixteen hours while she binge-read that orc book.”

“What I’m hearing is you’re going to make this quick. And what the hell are these two doing here?” I asked, nodding my chin toward Serano and Bastian. An unlikely duo to be gathered. The former, a loner with almost no social skills who didn’t like to work jobs with other people. The latter, Rico’s cousin, still pretty fresh out of prison and learning the ropes around the new family structure.

“A shining example of restraint and respect for your chain of command as always, Saff,” Renzo said, shooting me a smirk.

“I once threw a pool ball at your head, and you’re expecting decorum from me?”

“Fair enough. Anyway, I have a job.”

“For me?”

I’d been around long enough that I generally created my own jobs.

“No, for the fucking ficus behind you. Yes, for you.”

“And you want me to work with those two?”

“Nice to see you too, Saff,” Bastian said, sending a wink in my direction.

For almost any woman eighteen to eighty in the tristate area, that little wink would have had panties melting and legs spreading. Bass had always been kind of hot. But he’d clearly put his years behind bars to good use, taking his body from the scrawny guy he’d been when he’d gone in to a chiseled god in just a few years’ time. He had one of those angular faces with the granite jaw and dark brown eyes with lashes that made a woman forget she had morals. Or a husband.

That said, the wink did nothing for me.

Because as hot as every damn capo in the Lombardi family was, the fact that they were my coworkers made them one of those male dolls with no package to speak of, if you catch my drift.

Sure, Cinna—the other female capo—had managed to sleep with one of the guys and not lose her standing in the family. But I couldn’t help but think that no matter how “modern” these guys thought they were for working alongside women in a career that almost exclusively catered to men, letting them slip it in would change their feelings about me.

“Bass. Glad to see you could claw yourself out from under a pile of women to join us,” I said, seeing a smear of blush on his white shirt and a black mascara smudge lower down near where his shirt tucked into his slacks.

“You know I’d never miss a chance to see you, Saff. Your charm really lights up a room,” he drawled, his eyes dancing.

“Like a Molotov cocktail,” Serano mumbled under his breath.

Serano, like Bastian, was undeniably hot. He had one of those strong, square jaws and golden eyes that suggested a warmth I’d never really gleaned from him.

Also like Bass, Serano had been away from the family for a long time, coming back when he was eighteen, all surly, standoffish, and menacing.

I was pretty sure the only time you could find any sort of emotion in the man was when you offered him a home-cooked meal.

And I didn’t cook.

“Serano, chatty as ever, I see.”

“Christ, you three are going to be a pain in the ass,” Renzo declared.

“I could do the job alone,” I said.

“You don’t even know what the job is.” He made his way over to the bar, pouring himself a drink like a frustrated father with three disobedient teenagers.

“Okay. What’s the job?” I asked after he had a sip of his whiskey.

“Business has been picking up lately. And while we have the meat shop and the plant store and shit like that, it’s not enough.”

“We need more ways to wash the money.”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s easy enough. Open a bar or something.”

To that, Renzo sucked in a deep breath before letting out with a sigh.

“Right now, it’s not that easy.”

“Why?”

“We got a new AUSA out of EDNY. She’s young and hungry to prove herself. Especially after the last one was ousted for taking bribes.”

“And let me guess, she’s got a crush on you,” I said.

“She thinks she’s gonna make a name for herself by taking this family down. So we gotta start keeping a low profile. It’s not the time to open a new legit business. She’d be all over it. Rico is already locking down the meat shop hard. And we barely move anything through the plant store, so we’re not worried about that.”

“But the money still needs to be washed.”

“Yep.”

“So, who are you using?”

There was no shortage of money launderers to turn to if you had a stack of cash you had to legitimize. It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes you had to invest in art, jewelry, gold, or simply stocks. You had to layer that shit so it was impossible for the cops or district attorney’s office to trace it back to its original origins.

“No one that is known for it,” Renzo said. “They got too much heat on them too.”

“Okay. Then who?”

“Soren Vale.”

“Soren Vale?” Bass repeated, tone very ‘who the fuck is that?’

I was always just a bit more blunt.

“Who the fuck is Soren Vale?”

“On paper, he’s considered a ‘nightlife impresario.’”

“Nightlife impresario. Is that a fancy word for a pimp?” I asked, getting a snort out of Bass.

“It’s what the papers call a man who owns a bunch of nightclubs.”

“So, what, you’re gonna funnel the money through one of his clubs?” Bass asked.

“Not exactly. You,” Renzo said, looking at me, “are going to become a silent investor. Though I went ahead and didn’t tell Soren that you aren’t likely to be silent about any goddamn thing.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the only one here with plausible deniability. You’ve never been arrested. Which is a fucking miracle, given how unhinged you are. And as far as we can suss out, you’ve never had a police detail. No one’s looking at you.”

“That’s… incredibly insulting. I pull in more than the two of them combined. We can even throw in Coal and Cage for good measure. I out-earn all of them. Put together.”

“It’s one of the few times when your sex works in your favor, I guess. No one has linked you to the family in any official way.”

“I’m always around, though.”

“So are a lot of women.”

“I’m not gonna pretend to be someone’s escort.”

“I’m not asking you to. I’m saying you need to keep doing what you’re doing. Keep your head low, your hands clean. I don’t want you getting linked to the family. At least not until the ink is dry for the nightclub. Don’t wanna spook Soren. But once the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, it won’t matter as much anymore.”

“Wait, does Soren not know who I am?”

“He’s… not asking.”

“Am I supposed to not say?”

“Look, you don’t lie. If he asks, you can’t lie. But if he doesn’t ask, you don’t need to volunteer information.”

“But he knows you’re funneling your money through me and into the club?”

“Jesus,” Serano said when Renzo exhaled hard.

“Wait, he has no idea? You’re going to funnel money into his club without telling him?”

“No, actually. I’m not. You are.”

“Okay. Right. But I’m gonna be doing that under his nose?”

“Right.”

“Why would he want a partner? If he has a bunch of nightclubs, wouldn’t he be rich enough to do it without me?”

“Because I—soon to be you—am the only person who owns a building that would, for one, be suitable for a nightclub. And, for two, has a liquor license and falls into the 500 and 200 foot rules that an establishment that is open that late and serves liquor has to adhere to.”

“Did you do that on purpose?”

“No. I took it as payment for some pretty substantial debt owed to us. I’ve been sitting on it for years. It’s a shithole. But if he wants to spend his money fixing it up, that’s on him.”

“So I’m just some random woman who happens to own the exact building he wants?”

“Pretty much.”

“And what do I do for a living?”

“Babe, am I supposed to hold your hand through all this? Figure it out. And don’t fuck it up.”

“Fine.” My chin jerked up, angry at being chastised, but knowing I had to toe the line. “And what are they here for then?” I waved over at the other two men.

“They work for you. Don’t imagine Soren is going to demand to know their titles and salary.”

“But why do I need them?”

“We should bottle that charm of yours and sell it,” Bass said, shaking his head.

“Look. I’ll level with you here. I don’t know much about this Soren guy. He’s got his shit locked down tight. Until I know shit is safe, I want to know you’re not alone in this.”

I wanted to gripe about not needing babysitters, to demand to know if—if the roles were reversed—he would feel the need to send Bass or Serano in with a bodyguard.

But I just barely managed to keep my mouth shut. Because whether I was showing it outwardly or not, I knew how big a deal this was, how much trust Renzo was putting in me to give this job to me. Even if I was mostly chosen for my anonymity, Renzo was still entrusting me with the family money. That was huge.

I couldn’t fuck this up.

Which meant that I had to do something I’d never been any good at. I had to show restraint.

“Okay. Got it.”

Renzo’s brows rose, but he didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Oh, there is one more thing, though.”

“What?”

“You gotta dye your hair.”

“What? Why?” My hand shot up, running down my dark blue strands.

“Because you’re supposed to be a businesswoman. You gotta look the part.”

Maybe it was silly, but I didn’t want to give up my hair. It was partly how people knew me in the neighborhood. Despite not being known to law enforcement, I did have a reputation to uphold.

“What next? I need to take out my nose ring?”

“Think if you dye the hair and wear something an adult would wear, you can leave the hoop in.”

Sure, I could go off about how—while his capos were standing there in suits—he was wearing black jeans and a tee. Not exactly ‘adult’ either.

But, again, I kept those thoughts to myself.

“Fine.”

“Fine?” Renzo asked, brows pinching. “No arguments?”

“Nope.”

“You got a fever or something?”

“What? You want me to fight you?”

“Just not used to you not being a thorn in my side is all.”

To that, all I managed was a shrug. Because I was worried if I opened my mouth, my tongue would run away with me like it was known to do.

“Alright,” Renzo said, still watching me curiously. “I will get the papers drafted up and shit for the property. And there will be more to go over then. But I’m gonna need you to hand off some of your workload to your soldiers and associates. At first, you might need to be spending time with Soren.”

Oh, joy.

Just what I wanted to do.

Spend my time with some stuffy old businessman.

I shook those thoughts away, thinking instead of the revenge romance I had waiting for me at home.

I could think about Soren Vale some other time.