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  When he puts his hand on the door handle to open the door, I grab his arm, halting his progress. “Shouldn’t we like…wait for him to come to us? It’s dark outside. How can you be sure it’s him? There are probably thousands of cars in Asheville like whatever he drives.” It’s left to me to give safety tips to a mobster? What is the world coming to?

  Actually, more to the point, who the hell am I right now? I never spoke up like this to my father as it wasn’t worth his wrath.

  Yet in many respects, Tony is more a man to be feared than Hunter Wrenn. I went after that bimbo in the nightclub. Previously, I never would have bothered. Cared. I fought to be with Tony now. Why on earth would I willingly go into something that he armed himself for? I’m so confused right now.

  Who am I?

  Despite my valid arguments, he ignores my warning and opens the door. Then he glances at me in amusement. “You’ve heard of a secret handshake, right?” I nod, thinking this is a strange time for something so random. “Well, Nic and I have a way that we confirm identities in a situation such as this. Therefore, I’m certain it’s him.”

  Intrigued at this tidbit of information, I ask, “So what is it?” Granted I haven’t been looking that hard, but I didn’t notice anything unusual about the other vehicle.

  “If I told you, I’d have to kill you. And with an ass like yours, that would be a damn shame.” My mouth drops open in shock. A trail of laughter follows his departing back as he slams the door and goes to meet the other men.

  Despite my arguments to the contrary, I don’t really want to accompany them into the unknown woman’s apartment. If Tony is this uneasy, I certainly have no business being here. But what are my options at this point? Wait with some guy I’ve never met who may or may not be a bad guy? Or go with Tony and trust that he’ll protect me no matter what? There’s no decision to be made. Tony has already put his life on the line for me once, and I have no doubt he’ll do it again. An unexplainable bond links us together. I have no idea what we’re going to walk into, but I do know one thing: Tony Moretti protects what’s his, and for some reason, that appears to include me.

  * * *

  TONY

  Despite the events of the last hour, I’m still grinning when I approach Nic’s Cadillac SUV. The line about the secret identification process was bullshit. But watching Jacey’s eyes widen in curiosity and awe was worth it. Plus, it reassured her. Much more so than saying my gut told me it was Nic. Which, of course, was the truth. Nic steps out onto the sidewalk and grins as he pulls me into a hug. Much like Marco, this man is a brother. The passenger door opens, and Mike soon joins us. Instead of a smile, he wears his usual serious expression. Despite that, he returns my embrace solidly. When the greetings are over, Mike says, “I was supposed to meet Marco for dinner, but got called away by Rutger at the last minute. I didn’t consider it a great loss because you all know how he loves these dive restaurants. And they never agree with my digestion.”

  “He certainly does.” I shake my head thinking of all the hole-in-the-wall places I’ve eaten with him before. “I would have accepted any opportunity to avoid it too, brother. This isn’t on you.”

  Mike clears his throat before saying, “I did a bit more digging around on Nina Gavino on the ride here. For one thing, how haven’t any of us heard of her, considering she’s Franklin’s daughter? And she lives right here in the city. She doesn’t have much to do with her family and has been on her own for about ten years. It looks like she’s fully self-supporting and takes no Gavino money.”

  “Unlike her idiot brother,” Nic mutters under his breath.

  “Exactly,” Mike agrees.

  “You can’t convince me that Marco being found by a Gavino is a coincidence,” Nic states flatly.

  “That would be highly unlikely,” I agree. Before things can progress further, I hear a door slam nearby and see both Nic and Mike go on alert. The quietness of the approaching footsteps tells me who it is before I even turn to confirm it. “I have an addition to our group,” I say wryly. Both Nic and Mike were there that night, and they’re not the type of men to forget a face—ever. Especially one like hers.

  “You brought a Wrenn with you?” Nic asks incredulously.

  I don’t bother to apologize or ask for permission. That’s not who I am—nor do they expect it. But I do offer an explanation of sorts out of courtesy. “She was with me when I received the call from Nina.”

  “Hey there, Killer,” Nic says by way of greeting as she stands at my side.

  Mike nudges him, muttering under his breath, “That’s in bad taste, bro.” Jacey simply shrugs her slim shoulders as if not overly bothered by my cousin’s teasing.

  “Was going to leave Jacey with you, Mike, but we stay together. She stays behind me, and you two cover her back. We good?” I take Jacey’s arm and turn her away for a moment while Nic and Mike double-check their guns. Another standard rule. No matter how many times you’ve checked your weapon, you always do it once more before going into an unknown situation. I did the same before Jacey approached us. “Keep your head down and your mouth shut,” I warn her. I see defiance in the set of her mouth and the narrowing of her eyes, but she nods in agreement without an argument. I’ll pay for that later, no doubt. We walk single file down the walkway. Even though I’m looking straight ahead, I scan the perimeter constantly in my peripheral vision, and I know my cousins are doing the same. It’s an ability I thought I inherited from my father. Yet a junkie gunned him down. How in the fuck did he not see that—not feel that coming? The hairs on the back of his neck should have been standing up. And if not him, how did Victor not sense it? So many questions without answers. I push my obsession with my father’s death aside, knowing distractions can be deadly. Another corridor and we’re in front of 1B.

  “I go in first, Tony. You know that.” Goddamn it to fucking hell. As the son of Draco Moretti, I am always shielded from danger. The men are to be my human shields in situations such as these, and I fucking hate it. These are my cousins and my best friends. How could I live with their death on my conscience? It’s on the tip of my tongue to resist, but that could endanger everyone in our group.

  A hand settles on my shoulder as Mike says quietly, “Fall back, Tony. Miss Jacey will go behind you. You’re both covered.” Without another word, I do what needs to be done. One glance at Jacey’s tense face is all the prompting necessary to let go of my pride. It’s not the situation making her nervous; it’s probably my frustration she can sense. Without thinking, I drop a kiss onto the top of her head by way of reassurance. Nic raises a brow but wisely keeps his mouth shut. When we’re all in position, I incline my head for him to ring the bell.

  The door opens slowly a few seconds later, and a petite woman with her hair pinned to the top of her head in a messy bun blinks at us. Pencils are sticking out of her hair along with a pair of glasses perched halfway down her nose. Yeah, she looks like a fucking killer all right. She glances uncertainly at us before saying, “Can I help you?” I’m impressed she’s giving nothing away. Smart.

  “Ms. Gavino, I presume?” Nic asks as he scans the area behind her.

  “It’s Nina,” she mutters crossly, not appearing to like being called by her surname. “And you are?”

  Are we really having a dick-measuring contest with this waif of a girl? Fuck that. I step forward despite Nic’s glare of disapproval. “You called me about a mutual friend. We’re here to give him a ride.”

  Far from being intimidated, the insolent woman, which I outweigh by at least a hundred pounds, puts her hands on her hips and refuses to budge. “I’m going to need to see some ID. I wasn’t born yesterday. There’s no way I’m letting you in my apartment on your word alone.”

  “And how exactly would you stop us, Ms. Gavino, if that’s what we decide to do?” Nic asks, soundly amused. His smile disappears a moment later when she pulls a gun from her back pocket and aims it at his crotch.

  “There may be four of you, and yes, I’ll likely on
ly get off one shot, but it’ll have you singing soprano forever, asshole. So why don’t you and your friends sign the imaginary petition to save your dick by showing me some identification?”

  “I like her,” Jacey whispers behind me. “She’s got potential as a best friend.”

  Fuck me. I’m almost to the point of lowering myself to provide ID so she’ll get the fucking gun off Nic’s dick when I see a shadow in the hallway behind her. “Nic,” I warn as we all pull our guns as one.

  “For God’s sake, you need glasses,” Jacey huffs out. “That’s Marco. Look at the size of him.” A few seconds later, my cousin comes slowly into view. Even in the dim interior, I can see how pale he is.

  Heedless of the gun still trained on him, Nic pushes past the spitfire who’s been holding us off and rushes toward Marco. Mike and I follow closely. “Dude, you look like shit,” Nic says jokingly, but I hear the note of anger in his voice. He’s furious. Someone deliberately injured one of our own.

  “Smell kind of like shit too,” Mike points out dryly. He’s not wrong.

  “For God’s sake,” Nina snaps as she nudges her way to Marco’s side. Nic stiffens, and his hand twitches. A clear reaction to a threat. I shake my head once. He needs to stand down until we have some answers. On the very slim chance that this is all a coincidence, we can’t attack a Gavino who is simply providing aid. Fucking unlikely. “Can’t you see that he doesn’t need to be on his feet? Get him back to the sofa before he passes out again.”

  “I really like her,” Jacey whispers again.

  “Then form a fan club later,” I grumble as I put one of Marco’s arms around my shoulder while Nic does the same on the other side. Nina takes the lead as we follow her into a living area. Marco grunts when we lower him to the black leather sofa.

  Nina stands almost protectively over him while I take a seat on the coffee table directly in front of him. There’s a trash can a few feet away from where he’s obviously been sick recently. What in the fuck? He stares at me through disoriented, bloodshot eyes. I see his instincts kick in as he scans his surroundings with barely a tilt of his head. He appears perplexed when he glances at Nina but not alarmed. “Where the fuck am I, and why do I feel like roadkill?”

  “Was hoping you could tell us that,” I say as I look for injuries. His clothes are dirty, and as Mike so eloquently pointed out, he stinks. But there’s no sign of blood other than some thin scratches. He looks hungover—which I know isn’t the case.

  Marco’s forehead furrows, and he appears deep in thought. Before he can say anything else, Nina clears her throat. “Since you appear to be who you’re supposed to be, I’ll tell you what I know so you’ll stop badgering him.” Jacey beams her approval at her new hero while Nic clenches his teeth. He’s going to hold a grudge on the whole gun to the dick thing for a while. Mind you, so would I. “I was walking Bixby, my neighbor’s dog, in the wooded area behind the complex. I heard a sound, and Bixby was going crazy. Then I saw this big guy lying on his side.” She wrinkles her nose as she adds, “That area is mostly used by the dog owners here, so there’s a lot of shit around, and I think he fell into some of it.”

  “I knew it.” Mike winces as he looks at Marco in sympathy. We all know how Marco feels about grooming, so this must be rough on him.

  Nina pats Marco on the top of the head as if he’s the dog she’s watching. I bite back a grin, thinking she has no idea who she’s treating like a docile animal. “Anyway, I ran over there to see if he was all right, and he started heaving. From the looks of it, that wasn’t the first time.” She flexes her shoulders and grimaces. “I tried to ask him some questions, but really got nowhere until I mentioned going to get help for him. He went into some kind of bossy he-man mode and tossed me his phone in between barfing. Told me to call Tony and no one else. So that’s what I did. Then he mostly crawled back here. I’ve never been so happy to live on the bottom floor. There’s no way he’d have made it any farther. And I certainly wasn’t much help to him.”

  “What the hell happened to you, man?” I ask him in confusion.

  He puts a hand to his temple and groans. After another minute, he says weakly, “I have no fucking clue. I had dinner, then did some, er…surveillance work on our case. Next thing I know, I’m sick as a goddamn dog. Head spinning, gut burning, body aching. Felt like I was going to die. My car was too far away, so I headed into the woods. Knew I was going to hurl. That’s all I remember until she showed up.”

  Nic frowns at Marco. “So, you’re saying what, that you got a stomach bug or something? You’re not injured? No one else was involved?”

  Mike appears perplexed too. We all know that a simple stomach bug wouldn’t be enough to sideline any of us. We’ve all worked with stuff like that. It might be a nuisance, but it’s not enough to incapacitate any of us. “Something’s not right. You’re too weak for this to be a regular illness. Did you see anything or anyone suspicious before this happened?”

  “Not a damn thing.” Marco groans as he shuts his eyes momentarily. It’s the strangest thing. It’s like I missed a block of time somewhere. I was perfectly fine all day, then I’m on the ground with a dog licking my face and a strange chick hovering over me.” When Nina narrows her eyes at him, he adds quickly, “Sorry, didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

  I shift my attention to Nina again. “How about you? See anyone in the area other than Marco who didn’t belong? Maybe struck you as unusual?”

  Nina purses her lips, then shakes her head. “Nada. But it was dark by that time, and even though there is some lighting, most prefer the sidewalks after dusk. Bixby has a hard time doing his business on cement; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been there either.”

  Nic moves closer to the sofa, then drops onto his haunches next to Marco. “Dude, you realize that you were rescued by a Gavino, right? Apparently little Frankie has a sister.”

  Marco’s eyes fly open as he struggles to sit up. “You’re fucking kidding me,” he hisses as he flails around weakly. “Franklin doesn’t have a daughter.”

  “Actually, he does, Marco,” Mike interjects calmly. “Confirmed it myself.” He glances at Nina apologetically before continuing. “She’s his stepdaughter, and her mother passed away years ago, so no reason it would have come up. Especially with things being rather peaceful right now.”

  Nina claps her hands, and the sound is enough to have all of us tensing. Not very smart in a room full of mobsters. “When you’ve finished talking about me like I’m not here, let me know. Then I’d very much like for you to take your sick friend and get the hell out of my apartment. Whether you want to admit it or not, I did you all a favor tonight. I could have left him there or called the police. Instead, I did as he asked and then dragged him back here. I’ll be lucky if I don’t need a chiropractor after that. And yes, I may not know any of you by name, but I know who the Morettis are and what you’re into. I took a chance helping him, much less giving you my address and basically inviting you to do your worst.” Her chest is heaving, and her tone is more of a shout now. “You don’t know anything about me, because I stay the hell away from people like you and that includes my stepfather. I don’t want any part of all of that. My mother may have signed herself over to it, but I didn’t. Franklin has never been able to buy my loyalty, nor will he. I take care of myself, period. So, if you’re cooking up some convoluted conspiracy theory in your head, let me save you the trouble. I don’t do dirty work for the Gavino family. Franklin is all right for the most part, but I fucking hate Frankie Jr. He’s an evil turd. I make my living as a writer, and it pays the bills quite nicely, thank you.”

  “I don’t think they were trying to insinuate that you had anything to do with this,” Jacey inserts diplomatically. “They’re simply concerned about Marco and maybe not wording it in the best possible way.”

  “Give me a break.” Nina snorts. “They know exactly what they’re saying. I was around that world long enough to know that everyone on the outside is guilty until proven otherwise
. I knew that was a risk when I called Tony.”

  “How did you know he was a Moretti?” Mike asks.

  Nina rolls her eyes, then laughs. “Because the contact said Anthony Moretti.” She raises a brow as she looks at Marco. “If you’re going covert, you should probably consider the possibility that someone could get their hands on your phone. Don’t you people usually have nicknames or something? Hell, I wouldn’t have been surprised to find his social security number under his name.”

  Electricity seems to fill the air as Marco glares at her. Jesus, he better not even consider it. “I didn’t do that. The numbers were programmed in for me by someone at the…office.”

  “That’s comforting,” she mocks. “It’s just disappointing that you would be that careless. After all, most everyone in Asheville has heard of Anthony Moretti. He’s the crown prince, right? Mafia royalty, and all that jazz?” She tilts her head to the side before asking me, “Do they bow to you, or is it different in your world? Do you have an actual crown? You’d certainly look good with one.”

  Jacey stiffens at the other woman’s compliment, and I feel a smile tugging at my lips. Don’t like her as much now, do you, Duchess? “I don’t think who we are and what we do are any of your business, Nina,” I say evenly and pleasantly. To anyone who knows me, it’s not a tone you want to hear, but it’s lost on her. I’m far from finished with Nina Gavino, but now’s not the time to continue. I can find out anything else I need to know without her knowledge or input. Getting Marco out of here and to our doctor is the priority now. So, I get to my feet and motion to Nic and Mike. “You two help him up and to your car. Jacey and I will follow behind you.” Nic wants to argue. He can’t abide the thoughts of my back not being covered when he’s around. Mike hesitates as well. Their loyalty to a man they barely knew is admirable but exhausting. “This isn’t the time,” I warn as I motion for them to do what I’ve asked.