Chapter 4
FOUR
Sable
One week into the new year and I still hadn’t managed to get Milo out of my head. I had even gone so far as to research the man who had occupied my thoughts for the last seven days.
Dark, dangerous, and mysterious. Three qualities that should make any sane woman run. If those attributes didn’t turn me off, the fact that he had my brother beaten up should have.
His family owned a luxury car dealership in the city where all the celebrities purchased their sports cars.
On the surface, he appeared to be a legitimate businessman, but all it took was a deep dive into the internet to see who he really was—mafia royalty.
And the women in this city seemed to eat it right up.
I found a few social media pages where beautiful women posted about Milo, his brother, and his father. These seemingly desperate women were always tagging them in pictures and making sure they checked in at the same places where the Accetti men were. Those men had quite the following.
Why do I care? I had seen firsthand what Milo was capable of. But then again, he could have killed Chance for what he tried to do. He spared my brother. Was a man like him supposed to have a heart?
How twisted was that? I wanted to be grateful to a man who spared my brother’s life? Should Milo have been threatening to kill Chance in the first place?
I straightened up our one-bedroom apartment, trying to think of anything or anyone other than Milo.
As I fluffed the worn pillows on the couch that Chance slept on every night, my thoughts drifted to black, silk sheets that smelled of spice.
The same scent that lingered on my skin hours after leaving the club on New Year’s Eve.
Damn! Why can’t I get him out of my head?
I plopped down on the couch and rested my head on the back of the old sofa that came with the run-down apartment. The only good thing to come out of this day was hearing the landlord say that the rent was paid.
I didn’t know how Chance managed that. I probably didn’t want to know, but at least that gave us thirty more days. Maybe I would find a job in the next day or so and we could catch up on our bills.
“Sable!” Chance charged through the door, quickly shutting and locking it. “Good, you’re here.”
“What’s up?” I asked as he glanced out the window before shutting the blinds.
“Nothing.”
“Why are you out of breath?”
“I ran up the back steps.” He checked the doorknob on the door he had just locked. “Has anyone come by? ”
“No.” I stood and tilted his face so I could look at his bruises from Milo’s men.
“I’m fine.” He swatted my hand away. “You’re sure no one stopped by?”
“Does this have something to do with the rent?”
“What about it?”
When my phone buzzed with an alert, I pulled it from my pocket and rolled my eyes.
How could I expect to evict Milo from my thoughts if I followed all of these accounts that made it their mission to track his every move?
Tonight he was having dinner at some fancy Italian restaurant where all the high-profile mobsters ate.
Franchi’s Bistro was the in place, and Milo could often be seen there.
“Sable?” Chance raised his voice. “What about the rent?”
“Oh.” I shoved my phone back into my pocket. “I spoke to the landlord because I wanted to see if we could work something out, and he said the rent was paid.”
“By who?”
“I assumed you,” I said.
“Where would I get money for rent?” He peeked out the blinds. “If I had the money, the rent was the last thing that would get paid.”
“What does that mean?” An unsteady knot formed in my stomach. “What have you done now?”
“Nothing.”
“Chance.” I grabbed his arm and turned him to face me. “What’s going on?”
“I borrowed money from Romeo.” He gazed down at me, and his imposing height made me feel more like the younger sister, even though I was three years older than him. “I’m late paying it back.”
“Shit!” I slapped his arm. “What’s wrong with you?” I paced the small living space. “We narrowly escaped Milo, and now you borrowed money from Romeo Bello?”
“I borrowed the money from Romeo before the thing happened with Milo.”
“Why?” I shouted. “What was the money for?”
“To buy the drugs that I wanted to sell at the club.”
“There is something wrong with you! You borrowed money from one gangster to buy drugs so you could sell them in an even bigger gangster’s territory?”
“I thought I’d make a huge profit on the drugs. I didn’t think I’d have any trouble selling them on such a busy night.” He glanced out the window again. “Everyone was partying and having fun, but no one wanted to score.”
“They were Milo’s people.” I clasped my hands together to stop from fidgeting. “No one was going to buy from you.”
“I know that now.” He shrugged. “Anyway, Milo’s men confiscated the drugs, and now I owe Romeo a lot of money.”
“How much did you borrow?”
“It wasn’t that much.”
“Chance.” I pointed at him. “Don’t do that.”
“You can’t fix this one,” he said. “We have to run.”
“Run?” I threw my hands in the air. “Run where?”
“I don’t know.” He motioned toward the bedroom. “Pack light, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Stop!” I ran my hand through my hair. “We’re not doing this again. I’m tired of running.”
“This is different from before.” He grabbed a duffel bag from inside the closet by the kitchen.
“Is it?” I asked.
Chance and I left home when he was seventeen and I was twenty to escape our abusive father. Our mother had abandoned us a few years before that when she couldn’t take the mental and physical abuse anymore.
I never forgave her for leaving, but she did what she had to do.
I tried to make a home for Chance, but when our father started hitting him, we both knew it was time to flee.
We ran from Brooklyn to New York City, not going far, but our father never looked for us, so it didn’t matter that we were only a few miles from where we grew up.
Chance was right, this time was different, because when we ran the first time, no one cared. If we ran this time, Bello would chase us.
“We’re not having any luck in this city,” he said. “Let’s get a fresh start.”
“A fresh start?” I paced the room again. “We don’t have any money. How are we going to start over? We can’t even afford bus tickets.”
“We’ll get jobs.”
“We’ve been trying to get jobs.” Chance usually got fired, and I often got let go because of the crap economy. My associate degree hadn’t proved helpful. Even entry-level jobs wanted a candidate to have a bachelor’s degree. “How much do you owe him?”
“Ten grand.”
“What?” I shook my head. “How stupid can you be? Who did you buy these drugs from for that price?”
“I didn’t borrow that much, but this isn’t the first time I’ve been late repaying him.” He tossed some clothes into the bag. “I owe Romeo. He charges a ridiculous amount of interest. Can you believe that?”
“He’s a fucking loan shark!” I grabbed his bag from the couch and tossed it across the room, even though it probably was for the best that I get my clueless brother out of the city and away from people like Bello .
“That’s why we have to get out of here.”
“There’s nowhere for us to go,” I said. “He will hunt you down.”
“I can’t pay him back.” Chance leaned against the wall. “Not without the money I was supposed to make from the drugs I was going to sell.”
“Do you hear yourself?” How had we gotten here? “This is not who you are.”
“We can’t afford rent, and we haven’t had a decent meal in months. Not even on Thanksgiving or Christmas.” He looked down at the floor. “I hate living like this.”
“I do too, but it’s going to get better.” It has to. I had failed him on so many levels. I had convinced him to leave home because I thought we would be better off.
“You keep saying that, but we’ve been struggling for years. I’m tired of being poor.” He placed his hand on my shoulder. “We can’t catch a break.”
“I’m tired too.” I hugged him. “I wanted to make a better life for you.”
“We can still do that.” He let go of me. “Let’s get far away from here.”
“I…” Maybe he was right. We did need a fresh start. “Okay.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s not working out for us here, so—” A loud bang at the door made me jump. The pounding sounded like it came from someone with large hands. “Oh God!”
“Chance, you fucking idiot,” the person on the other side of the door shouted. “Did you really think you could run?”
“Fuck!” Chance looked around the room before grabbing my hand. “The fire escape.”
“What? ”
The man outside of our apartment kicked at the unstable door, rattling the old frame.
“He’s going to get in.” Chance tugged me toward the balcony. “We have to go now.”
“Go where?” I followed him. “What do we do once we get out of here?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t stay and find out what will happen if we don’t get out of here right now.”
“Once I get in there, you are a dead man,” the guy yelled. “Mr. Bello is tired of your games. There is no one to protect you.”
Yes, there is.
“Come on.” Chance opened the door that led to the narrow stairs of the fire escape and carefully maneuvered his way down. “We’re only on the third floor, we’ll be fine.”
My heart raced as I shimmied down the treacherous stairs, which was covered with a coating of ice from the sleet storm that fell earlier that day. I didn’t have a jacket or my bag, but those things didn’t seem that important, considering what would happen to us if we didn’t hurry up.
Chance was a few feet ahead of me. I tried to keep up, but my foot slipped out from beneath me. I caught the frigid railing as the wind whirled through my hair and steadied myself before taking another step.
“You can do it.” Chance offered me his hand. “Just keep going.”
I took my brother’s help as we both descended down the stairs to the street. Once we were on the pavement, I breathed a quick sigh of relief. At least I didn’t break my neck.
“Let’s go.” Chance pulled me down the street.
“Wait.” I took my phone from my pocket and searched for a location. “I have an idea. ”