Chapter 2
TWO
MATEO
Holy shit. No way. No fucking way.
We all heard rumors that Antonio had a secret girlfriend after his wife died. Maybe even had a kid. But no one ever believed them. He never confirmed anything himself, and the moment whispers reached him, he shut them down hard. He didn’t even tell his own son, so why would anyone else believe it?
After his first wife died, he disappeared for three years. When he finally resurfaced, he sent his best friend out west to “take care of something,” and that man hasn’t been seen in over twenty years.
After that, Antonio went on a rampage. For two decades, he went after anyone who even breathed wrong around him.
Until two years ago, when the Russians shot him dead.
Gabe pulls me out of my thoughts as we drive away from the hospital.
“Dude, you saw her, right?” he asks.
“Yeah, I did,” I say.
“Do we tell Gino?”
“I think we have to, but we need to look into it a bit more first. We can’t just go to him and say, ‘Hey, man, we think you might have a sister or something.’ He’d kill us both if we were wrong.”
“I know, man. You thought she was hot, huh?” Gabe smirks.
“Excuse me?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“I saw the way you looked at her. Honestly, I’m not really into redheads. So you can have her,” he says with a knowing smile.
“Shut up, asshole,” I mutter, lightly punching him in the arm. Even so, he’s not wrong. She’s beautiful.
“I won’t say anything to Gino, I promise. You guys have been friends way longer. It should be you who tells him.”
“Gee, thanks,” I say sarcastically.
I drop Gabe off at his place, then drive home, my mind already spinning. If Gino really is related to this Vanessa girl, I need to figure out how the hell I’m supposed to bring that up.
I unlock the door to my apartment and step inside. The moment I do, my phone starts ringing. It’s Gino.
I answer. “Hey, man.”
“Hey, you alright? I heard there was a pretty bad shootout and that Alonso got hit,” Gino says, concern in his voice.
“Yeah, he’s at Summerstone General right now.” I run my hand through my hair. “I didn’t sign up for this. I’m the lawyer of this whole operation, not your personal shooter.”
“I know, man. I’m sorry. I just don’t have a lot of people I trust right now. Come by the house in a few hours. I’ve got another job I need you to look into.”
“You got it. I’ll be there at eight.”
“Please do, and take a shower. I don’t want you stinking up my house,” he snorts.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
“See you in a bit.”
“See ya.” I hang up the phone.
Gino and I have been friends since we were in diapers. He’s two years older than me, but my father was one of his father’s top lieutenants, so our friendship was inevitable. We were always meant to end up at each other’s sides.
Gino is a hard-ass like his dad, but he’s not much of a killer. For the past two years, he’s been working relentlessly to negotiate peace with other Mafia families.
So far, that hasn’t been going well.
After his mother was killed when he was four, outside a restaurant at the hands of the another Italian Mafia family, my parents became second parents to Gino while his father was away. When Antonio finally returned, he was worse than before. Angrier. More volatile.
Antonio died two years ago, and everyone expected Gino to go to all-out war in retaliation. To everyone’s surprise except mine and the rest of our friends, he didn’t.
I head for the shower, scrubbing the blood from the shootout off my skin. Once I’m clean, I start digging into Vanessa Esposito.
Now that I’m alone, my thoughts drift back to her. The way she looked in pink scrubs. No makeup. She’s effortlessly beautiful.
Her green eyes stand out against her light skin, freckles dusting her face and giving her a natural glow that’s impossible to ignore. Her hair was pulled in a bun on the top of her head. There was a confidence about her that made her even more attractive.
After getting out of the shower, I head over to my laptop and start looking her up. She has both Instagram and Facebook profiles. Her Facebook profile picture is a graduation photo of her, Kevin, and I’m guessing his wife, Lucy. Her Facebook is mostly private, so I switch over to Instagram instead.
Jackpot.
There aren’t any photos of her with Antonio, but there are plenty of pictures of her doing things she clearly loves.
The beach. Running. She ran cross-country in high school.
She graduated from Carter State with a nursing degree and now works at Summerstone General Hospital.
According to her profile, she’s been there for the last two years.
She’s smiling in most of the photos, but it never quite reaches her eyes. Especially in the ones where her father should have been there. Her graduation photos, taken just two days after Antonio was killed. The medal pictures from her cross-country days.
The smiles are there.
He isn’t.
Still, I don’t have much to go on. Just her last name and a college graduation post that reads, “NYC, here I come.” Not exactly helpful.
I keep digging, running her name through Google, but nothing truly useful turns up. What I do find is this. Damn, she was a star in high school. Academics. Athletics. The kind of girl everyone remembers.
I figure out she turned twenty-four a few weeks ago. The timeline fits. It lines up with the three years Antonio disappeared, especially when I notice she posts every year about her mother on the anniversary of her death.
I know it’s not a coincidence. Her mother died about two weeks before Antonio came back after those three years away, right before he goes on his infamous rampage.
He left to escape the grief of losing his wife, Cara, only to then lose another woman. Damn. That’s some shit luck.
The more I dig, the more I want to know her. Not just the version of her that exists online, but the real one. The woman behind the profiles.
She’s interested in things that I never thought I’d care about.
Her personality feels open and inviting, at least outside of moments when mafia men are yelling at her in a trauma bay. She cares about things most people overlook, like runners’ and hikers’ safety.
There’s an entire section of her profile dedicated to staying safe while running or hiking.
It’s nearly seven in the morning now. I need to be at Gino’s by eight.
He lives just outside the city, in a house his family has owned for decades.
The place is a massive mansion his father built when his parents got married.
A large, two-story mid-century modern home, because Cara didn’t want a classic Victorian like so many of the others out here.
The exterior is white, trimmed with dark accents that make the whole place feel sharp and imposing.
I get dressed in the classic three-piece suit that comes with this job, then grab my laptop, phone, wallet, and keys before heading out the door. I jump in my SUV and drive to Gino’s, my mind drifting back to a beautiful redhead and the growing possibility of her being completely off-limits.
I pull into the driveway at 7:50, right on time. The moment I step inside, the smell of breakfast hits me. Juliet is already cooking. She’s the spitfire housekeeper we’ve been friends with since college and runs the place like it’s hers.
“Hey, Juliet, has Gino come down yet?” I ask as I walk into the kitchen.
“No, he hasn’t. I’m about to take his breakfast up to his office. You can grab yourself a plate if you want to follow me up there,” she says, a smile across her face.
“Sure.”
I load up a plate with bacon, eggs, potatoes, and toast, then follow her up the stairs to the second floor and Gino’s office.
“Hi, Mr. Esposito,” Juliet says.
I roll my eyes. Gino is definitely about to tell her not to call him that.
“Juliet, I told you not to call me that. Mr. Esposito was my father.” He looks up from his desk.
“Sorry, Gino,” she replies shyly.
I snort quietly as she sets a plate down on his desk. He smiles up at her, and she slips out of the office.
“Are you going to just stand there all day, or are you going to sit down?” he asks, eyes back on the paperwork in front of him. “Well, duh. But I was enjoying watching you two fall in love.” I grin at him.
“Jesus Christ, will you ever let that go?” he groans, rolling his eyes. “Never. Not until you ask her out on a date.” I grin wider.
“You know she’ll say no. She hates me.”
“Bullshit. She likes you.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“Okay, you keep telling yourself that.”
I sit down across from him, and we both dig into our food. We eat quietly until I finally decide to break it.
“So, what’s this job you wanted me to look at?” I ask after we’ve eaten most of our food.
“It’s nothing crazy, but we’ll need to plan a little before you do it.”
“Alright. What is it?”
“Kevin came by yesterday. After all these years, he still didn’t know what had happened to my father.”
He pauses, and all I can think is, oh shit. He’s about to say something I might already know.
“He came here looking to talk to my dad, and I had to tell him he died two years ago. Kevin looked completely blindsided. We talked for hours. I asked why he hadn’t been around for over two decades, and he said my father had him on a long job.”
He scoffs. “What the hell does that even mean, right?”
“So, I think we need to figure out what that job was. And what he’s hiding. Because he’s clearly hiding something.”
I can see the pain on his face, like he knows, or at least suspects, far more than he’s saying.
He continues, “Do you remember when we were kids, and my dad disappeared for three years after my mom died?”
I nod.
“I think something happened during that time. For those three years, he acted like I didn’t exist. Like no one existed, really, since my grandfather was still alive and running everything. Then one day, he shows back up, even more cutthroat and pissed than he was after my mom died.”
I shift in my seat, letting him continue.
“Kevin said he isn’t allowed to tell me what happened. My father made him promise not to. But my dad is dead, so what the fuck happened during those three years that no one knows, or is willing to talk about?”
I can see the hurt in his eyes, from all the secrets.
“Kevin then tells me he needs to speak to someone before he can say anything else. Who does he need to talk to? That’s what we need to figure out.
I can’t break his trust, as frustrating as it is.
So, we need to do some research before we barge in and demand answers.
I don’t want to lose out on a possible strong relationship. ”
If he doesn’t want to break Kevin’s trust, do I bring up the nurse I met last night?
“It’s odd that it took him two years to come by, right?” I ask.
“I know, I asked him that. He said my father told him two years ago to move to New York and that he’d contact him when he was ready to see him. But after no response for two years, Kevin got antsy. I think he felt exiled. So he finally came here.”
We spend the next few hours combing through everything we can find. There’s really nothing to go on except Antonio’s will and some large payments to Kevin. None of them link to anything suspicious, though. It all looks like money meant to cover bills and living expenses.
We decide to take a break and head downstairs.
Juliet is in the kitchen making sandwiches for us.
She plates them and sets them down before moving back to cleaning.
We eat mostly in silence. I watch as Juliet and Gino steal glances at each other from across the room while she wipes down the counters, neither of them quite as subtle as they think they are.
Gino mentions to Juliet that the Clippers are in town this weekend and suggests she go see the game. She’s from Los Angeles and has been a die-hard LA sports fan since she was a kid. I try to give him a look that says you should take her, but he doesn’t glance my way. He’s too busy watching her.
Then the doorbell rings, surprising all of us.
That never happens. The door is usually unlocked during the day so people can come and go freely. Which means whoever’s at the door doesn’t know Gino well enough to walk right in.
Juliet stands up, but Gino looks at her sharply.
“Juliet, wait.”
“What?” she asks, turning back toward us.
“We don’t know who that is,” Gino says. “Most of the guys are out training or on runs. Let us handle it.”
She huffs, throwing her arms up. “Why are you two so dramatic?”
“Juliet, not now,” Gino says through gritted teeth.
Gino and I draw our guns and move toward the door. Whoever’s on the other side is clearly anxious. The doorbell rings again. Then again. A fist pounds against the door, relentless.
We advance with our weapons raised, Juliet trailing behind us despite Gino’s warning look. He glances at me and gives a small shake of his head as he reaches for the handle.
He opens the door, and there she is. The redhead I have been thinking about all night.
She’s wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. Her hair is pulled into a messy bun on top of her head. She freezes when she sees us, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights. Gino and I lower our guns in unison. She has clearly been crying and looks winded.
“Uh… can I help you?” Gino asks.
“Hi,” she says, her voice shaky but steady enough. “My name is Vanessa Esposito, and I think I’m your sister.”