Chapter 4
FOUR
MATEO
After the firefight ends, we all just stare at each other, trying to process what the hell just happened. I glance at Drew, then Gino. They both look physically okay.
But Gino’s face tells a different story.
He’s out for blood.
“How the fuck did they get here?” Gino demands.
“This isn’t Fort Knox,” I say.
“I know, but the rule is no one comes to each other’s houses.”
“What about the redhead?” Drew asks.
Before I can stop anything, Gino is already running downstairs. We’re right on his tail. He flings open the safe room door and rounds on Vanessa.
“Did you tell anyone where you were going today?” he yells.
“No,” Vanessa responds.
“Come on.” He pulls her up, gripping her arm as he drags her out of the safe room. Behind us, Drew slams the door shut. I can faintly hear Juliet pounding on it, trying to get it open.
Gino drags Vanessa up to his office. Drew forces her into a chair and zip-ties her wrists and legs without hesitation.
Then we walk out.
Downstairs, Gino heads straight for the bar and pours bourbon into four glasses, his hands steady even though everything else feels like it’s spiraling out of control.
“How long are you going to keep her up there? Or Juliet in the safe room?” I ask.
“Not long,” he says with a sigh. “I don’t think Vanessa had anything to do with this, but I need to be sure. As for Juliet, I just need her to stay there. Safe.”
“Yeah. Keep lying to yourself that you don’t like Juliet.” I roll my eyes at him.
“Asshole,” he mumbles. “Of course I like her. We’ve been friends for a decade.”
“Uh huh. So, are you doing this to teach Vanessa a lesson or something?”
“Oh, this is going to be good,” Drew mutters.
“Obviously. If she’s legit, she wouldn’t know the rule about showing up at someone’s house uninvited.” Gino replies.
“Kevin literally did that yesterday,” I point out.
Gino grabs his cell phone and dials. “Kevin. I need you to tell me who Vanessa Esposito is—and don’t spare any details.”
The call drags on for nearly ten minutes, voices rising and falling as Gino paces. Finally, he ends it.
“Thanks, Kevin. You and Lucy should come by tonight for dinner.”
Gino turns to us. “Vanessa wasn’t lying. But I still want to ask her a few questions. First, to make sure she really is who she says she is. Second, to confirm she didn’t tell anyone she was coming. Kevin was surprised she even got here as fast as she did.”
Drew and I both nod, then follow Gino up the stairs to his office.
Before we enter, he turns. “Drew, stay behind her. Mateo, you stand next to me. She recognizes you. She trusts you even if it’s just a little.”
“Do you really think she could pull a long con?” I ask. “She’s worked at that hospital for two years. Someone would’ve noticed if a different person was pretending to be her.”
“I doubt it. But the timing is really weird. That’s all I’m saying.”
Drew hangs back near the door while Gino and I step forward. Vanessa’s eyes lock on us, sharp and unyielding. She looks like she’ll fight if she has to.
Gino breaks the intense feeling in the room. “Vanessa, do you understand why I think you might have something to do with this?”
She nods. “Yes.”
“I’m going to ask you a few questions,” he says evenly. “You answer them. If your answers check out, we untie you. If they don’t…” He lets the thought hang. “Well, let’s not let it get that far.”
She nods.
“So,” Gino says, tilting his head slightly, “sis—when’s your birthday?”
“January seventeenth.”
“Correct.” I look over at him. I know what he’s doing. He’s starting easy, then digging deeper with each question.
“What are your parents’ names?”
“Antonio Esposito and Alicia Andrews.”
“Correct again. So was your mom a stripper or something?”
Vanessa meets his stare, anger and frustration flashing in her eyes. “No. She was a teacher.”
“Right again. How many state championships did you win in cross-country?”
“Three.”
“Good. Why didn’t you join the cross-country team in college?”
“I did,” she says. “I got hurt my freshman year and was never fast enough to compete again.”
“Correct again. Who was your senior prom date?”
He’s reaching for the sinker now, and for some reason, an unexpected twist of jealousy hits me right in the gut.
“Luke Makowski.”
“Very good.”
She looks up at him. “Clearly you spoke to Uncle Kevin. He still hates Luke.”
“Why?” I ask, surprising myself.
Both Gino and Drew turn to stare at me like I’ve grown a second head.
“Because he was an ass. I only said yes because I needed a date.”
Gino exhales. “Okay. Last question. What was your eighth-grade science fair project?”
She blinks. “Um… really?”
“Yes, really. Answer the question.”
“I engineered a roller coaster loop.”
Gino studies her for a beat, then nods. “Alright. I believe you.”
He turns to Drew. “Cut the ties.”
Drew steps forward, pulls out a pocketknife, and cuts the ties. All three of us tense, half-expecting her to bolt, but she doesn’t. She just sits there, watching us.
Gino takes a deep breath before saying, “Go get Juliet. She’s probably losing her mind down there.”
Drew just stands there, hesitating.
“Drew, go get her. She’s never going to let us hear the end of it if we don’t bring her up.”
Drew finally nods and leaves the room.
Vanessa looks between us, then smirks. “You two are clearly in love.”
I snicker, knowing exactly who she’s talking about.
“Um—we’re not together,” Gino says, pointing between the two of us.
“Bro,” I say, shaking my head, “she’s not talking about us.”
Vanessa snickers.
“What? Me and Juliet? Yeah, no. We’re not together.”
“I didn’t say that,” Vanessa replies. “I said you two were in love.”
“I told you to ask her out already,” I add.
By this point, Vanessa and I are both smirking at each other. I probably hold her gaze for a second too long.
“Cool. So, my best friend and my sister are already ganging up on me.”
“That’s usually how it works,” Vanessa says lightly. “Have you ever read a romance novel?”
Gino and I both look at her.
“What does that even mean?” Gino asks.
“You know. A girl meets a guy, they start dating, and then it turns out he’s her brother’s best friend,” she replies.
“I really hope you two don’t date,” Gino mutters.
She ignores him. “So… do I work for you now? Dad always wanted me to work for him.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know what he was thinking when it comes to you.”
“Do I get to keep my job?”
“For now, yes. But if someone comes after you, I can’t protect you at work.”
“Alright, what the hell, Gino!” Juliet yells as she storms into the office, Drew right on her heels. The look on his face tells me he’s been listening to her tear into him the entire way up.
“Sorry,” Gino says. “I needed to ask her a few questions, and I didn’t want you moving around the house while we made sure no one was lurking outside.”
“A half hour?” Juliet snaps. “You waited a half hour to come get me?” She turns to Vanessa. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Vanessa says.
Juliet studies her more closely. “You look flushed. And your wrists are red.” Her gaze snaps to us. “Gino. Mateo. What did you do?”
“Technically, Drew did it,” I say.
“I already slapped him, so I guess that leaves you.”
She steps over and smacks my arm, not hard, but I still play it up.
“Jesus, woman. Why’d you have to hit me?”
She crosses her arms. “Let me think. You tied her up after she patched up Ryan.” Then she adds, pointedly, “By the way, he’s awake. And he’s fine.”
“That’s good, at least,” Gino says. “And we didn’t do anything to her. We just asked her a few questions.”
Juliet studies him. “I’m assuming you were satisfied by her answers.”
“Yeah. Drew, see if you can bring Ryan up. Also call Gabe, Jake, and Marco.”
“You got it,” Drew says before heading out.
Gino turns back to us. “Juliet, can you help Vanessa get changed? Kevin and Lucy are coming over for dinner. Mateo and I will start cleaning up.”
“Okay,” Juliet says, already moving. She looks at Vanessa and gestures toward the door. “Come on, let’s head to my room.”
Juliet and Vanessa leave the office together, and the tension in the room finally begins to ease.
Gino closes his office door, then turns to face me. “I’m going to need you to stay with Vanessa after dinner tonight. Keep an eye on her. Those guys who showed up here clearly followed someone, and who knows how long they were out there listening.”
“You got it. Do you really think someone would go after her this fast?”
“We both know the rumors about my dad. We don’t know who else knew about Vanessa besides him, Kevin, and Lucy.”
“How much do you think she knows about your family?” I ask. “About the businesses?”
“She knows a little bit, but not much. Based on what was in that Manila envelope, and what Kevin told me, she knew Dad was in the Mafia, but not how high up he actually was. He did that on purpose.”
“To protect her,” I finish for him.
“Do you know why he did that, though?” I ask. “Why he didn’t bring her to New York when he came back after those few years?”
“I asked Kevin the same thing. He said when Mom died, it broke him. Then he met Alicia—and when she died, it destroyed him.”
“How did she die?”
“Kidney failure,” he says quietly. “She didn’t get a transplant in time.” He exhales. “At least it wasn’t a bullet like my mom. But watching someone fade over months instead of losing them in hours… that might be worse.”
“Yeah. I bet.”
I don’t really remember Aunt Cara; neither does Gino. He only knows her from pictures or stories.
I glance at him. “You know,” I add, “you’re surprisingly good at this.”
“I had a feeling,” he says. “He left for three years, not even a year after Mom died. Something was keeping him away. I was too young back then to even try to figure out what it was.”
He exhales slowly. “Before he died, we talked about a trip he had planned out west. He told me I should go with him—said it would be good for us. A father-son bonding trip. Seems silly now. Clearly, he was trying to plant a seed.”
He continues. “But obviously I didn’t go. I didn’t even think about it again after that night. I wouldn’t be surprised if the trip was really for Vanessa’s graduation. She finished school less than a week after he died.”
He shakes his head. “After he died, I found a letter tucked in with the will. Real cryptic. He wrote that one day I’d understand why he was gone for those three years—and that the beautiful auburn sun would come home.”
He snorts. “Pretty sure he was referring to Vanessa on that one.”
I nod slowly. “That makes a lot of sense.”
Then I look at him. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
“I was pissed for years. How was I supposed to know it was something I’d need to remember?”
We leave the office and head downstairs to clean up. Drew is already in the entryway, clearing shattered glass and wiping away blood.
A black SUV pulls into the driveway. Gabe, Jake, and Marco step out, all of them built similarly—deep hazel eyes, light brown hair, the kind of resemblance that comes from shared history rather than blood.
Jake takes one look around and lets out a low whistle. “Damn, man. What the fuck happened?”
“Some assholes decided to not follow the rules. I’m guessing they were Irish?” Gino says, looking at Drew. Drew nods to confirm it.
I head straight for Gabe and murmur, “Don’t act too surprised when you see someone you recognize.”
His eyebrows lift in question, just as Juliet and Vanessa come down the stairs.
Vanessa’s changed into a green sundress that shows off her beautiful curves and makes her green eyes pop. Every head in the room turns.
“Oh, shit,” Gabe says, grinning. “You brought that nurse here? Damn, dude. Dragging her into this already—you must really like her.”
Then he points at Vanessa and says, “He must like you.”
“Dude, that’s my sister,” Gino yells at him.
The room goes dead silent.
“What?” Gabe, Jake, and Marco respond in unison.
I roll my eyes.
“Hi,” Vanessa says, lifting a hand in a small wave. “Hey—you’re the other guy from the hospital. Umm… Gage? No—Gabe, right?”
“Uh, yeah. These are my brothers, Jake and Marco.”
They both wave, clearly still processing who she is.
Gino clears his throat. “Alright. Back to work, you three.” Then he looks at Juliet. “Lucy and Kevin will be here at seven. Is that enough time to get dinner ready?”
Juliet arches a brow. “Plenty.”
Juliet heads toward the kitchen, Vanessa trailing just behind her. I watch them go, my attention caught on Vanessa’s red hair as it cascades down her back.
We get back to work. Eventually, all the glass is swept up and the blood scrubbed away.
Jake and Marco take care of the bodies, burying them far enough out that no one would—or should—ever suspect they died here.
We board up the shattered windows with plywood, doing what we can to make the house look whole again.
By the time we finish cleaning and patching everything up, a sedan pulls into the driveway. Kevin and Lucy step out.