Chapter 8
Dean
“He looks like he packs a punch.” Gabriele’s accent was thick. “Are you willing to sell him to me instead?”
Roxy gave him a sultry smirk. “Oh, Romeo is one of my best. Which is why he isn’t for sale.”
Lucia huffed her disappointment.
“Romeo. That is an Italian name.” Gabriele stood, his expression calculating as he slowly moved closer.
He was several inches shorter than me, but maintained his authority in every movement.
Every step. He knew he had the money and reputation to do as he pleased. The oily smirk on his face proved that.
But I also had a reputation. Mostly an issue with people who believed they had more authority over me without proving they earned it.
“My sister seems to have taken a liking to you,” Gabriele said. “Do you speak the language?”
“No.”
He scoffed and glanced over his shoulder at his sisters, and then spoke Italian. “He doesn’t speak Italian, but this has never stopped you before.”
Lucia giggled while Beatrice’s lips curved into a sadistic grin.
“Just to be clear,” Roxy cut in as she positioned herself between me and Gabriele with more sway in her walk.
“My fighters are only here for fighting. I figured it was a better place to start fresh. Especially since your father failed us when it came to protecting us from the law... I want to teach Antonio a lesson just as much as you do.”
Gabriele smirked at her — mostly at her chest. “I like how you think, mia cara…”
Roxy’s smile widened. “So, do we have a deal? Can I enter my men in your fights?”
Antonio’s only son glanced back at his sisters. They seemed to communicate with that weird triplet connection. Or maybe it’s a sibling thing I never understood.
Gabriele turned back to us and lifted his arms out wide, like a proud ringmaster about to start a show.
His smile was cunning. “Welcome to Castello di Vetro.”
Seb knew about the investigation and swore to keep his mouth shut after I filled him in on what was going on.
I never doubted he would blab, but with the way the night had gone, I was a little agitated.
Until I stepped through the entrance of Lily’s apartment block.
Someone had propped the front door open with a rock. I kicked it out from beside the door once I was inside and then headed upstairs via the elevator.
Getting a key hadn’t been something we discussed. Not that we were avoiding it. The conversation just hadn’t happened yet.
It was Kira who answered the door when I arrived at it on the third floor.
“Hi, roomie— Should I call you roomie?” She stepped aside to let me in, speaking quietly. “You’ve practically moved in anyway.”
I half smiled as we walked down the short hallway into the living room. “Why are you up so late?”
“Binge-watching trashy TV.” She headed to the couch, where she picked up an empty mug, stained with remnants of hot chocolate, and switched off the TV. “Why are you back so late?”
“Meetin’ with the boss.”
“Right. Yes. Seb mentioned you had one…”
We were now standing at opposite ends of the living room — me slowly drifting toward Lily’s bedroom door and Kira at hers, hesitating as if she had something to ask.
“Seb is fine,” I said.
“Oh, really? Good. That’s good… Well. Goodnight.” She smiled quickly and then stepped into her bedroom.
Just friends, Seb had told me when I asked him about what was going on between him and Kira.
I half smiled and entered Lily’s room.
The lamp was on, and the bed was made, and Lily was fast asleep on the covers with a book closed over her thumb. As she said on the phone earlier tonight, she was in sweats, along with one of my hoodies.
I moved quietly to the left side of the bed, unbuttoning and removing my shirt. Once it was tossed into the wash basket in the corner of the room, I began removing my jeans. They got halfway down my thighs before I remembered what was in them.
“Shit,” I hissed, pulling out the thin wire and mic I had haphazardly tucked into my pants at the club. I was meant to return the wire before I got home.
“Why do you have a wire in your pants?” Lily’s sleepy voice pulled my attention to her as she propped herself up on her elbow. She yawned and rubbed her eye with the heel of her palm, smiling despite sleep threatening to pull her back under.
“I—Uh…” I glanced down again.
I knew I wanted to tell her, but not like this.
In nothing but my briefs and socks. Pants around my ankles.
My hesitation prompted Lily to sit up, her smile quickly fading into a frown.
She asked again, but slower, “Why are you wearing a wire?”
I stepped out of my pants, tossed the device on the bed, and placed my hands on my hips. “You’re gonna hate what I say, but fuck it.”
Lily simply listened as I went over everything, starting with the day her dad picked me up from work and brought me in for questioning.
The mention of her father deepened her frown.
I was working undercover for her dad, fighting for Antonio again just so Roxy could play boss and get close to Gabriele to figure out what the triplets' plans were, and I was facing prison time. That’s if I wasn’t caught by the triplets or Antonio before then.
“Everything has gone to shit,” I said, trying for sarcasm as I pulled on a pair of gray sweatpants.
Lily was quiet for a moment, processing it all before she spoke again. “But, either way, you’ll be going to prison after all of it…”
Suddenly, she looked too lonely on that bed. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth and shook her head in disbelief.
Her voice was quiet. Soft. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“For your safety…”
“My dad told you not to say anything, didn’t he?” Her sleepiness was long gone as hints of anger flitted across her expression.
“Yes.”
“And you went along with it? Just like that?” She saw right through my casualness of following a detective’s orders with ease. She knew there had to be a catch. Something that would force my hand.
“He blackmailed me.”
Her eyes sharpened. “What?”
“He threatened to go to immigration about my mother’s lack of citizenship if I don’t work with him. Turns out my dead-beat father failed to hand in her application all those years ago… So long as I do whatever your dad asks, immigration won’t find out about Mom’s situation— Where are you going?”
She got off the bed, grabbed her phone from the nightstand, and marched to her bag on the dresser opposite the bottom of the bed. A look of determination was on her face as she shoved the phone into her bag and stuffed her feet into a pair of boots.
“I’m going to speak with my dad. He can’t get away with this.” She grew frustrated when her left boot refused to slide on over her thick bed socks.
“Yeah, he can.” I met her in front of the dresser, gently taking her arms so she had no choice but to abandon her plight with the boot.
Her eyes quickly shifted from frustration to sadness as they searched my face. And then she shook her head, coming to terms with it all. “Does your mother know?”
“I haven’t told her… I know I should, but I don’t think I can.”
Lily raised her eyebrows slightly, but she didn’t push to ask why.
I think because she understood why. Instead, she nodded as she stared at my chest, again processing and coming to a conclusion.
“Okay… Okay, well, we’ll just deal with this one day at a time, but she needs to know…
” Her determination to make sense of it all waned again as she looked up.
“Do you know how long it’ll be before you are… sent away?”
My heart squeezed.
I shook my head, smoothing my hands down her arms until they interlocked with hers. “Not for a while.”
She nodded and removed her hands from mine, only to wrap her arms around my middle. Her head came to rest on my chest while I hugged her back, inhaling her fresh linen and jasmine scent.
“I’ll take care of her when the time comes. And we can always visit you.”
“Let’s not think about it tonight.” I pulled away enough to see her face.
With watery eyes, she nodded again.
“Wanna talk about your first day back at work?” This earned me a weak smile and a tired blink.
“I’m mentally exhausted after one day.” She wiped her eyes. “I have no idea how I did it daily before. On top of working night shifts at The Den.”
I brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and then pressed my lips to her forehead, smiling gently against her skin. “Bed. Now.”
Lily smiled a fraction wider, but out of defeat, and pulled off the one boot she had managed to slip on before she shuffled back to the bed.