Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
“Where’s my brother?” I called out as I rushed through the front door.
“In his office,” Carmen, his housekeeper, answered from the kitchen.
I dashed down the hallway and flung open the office door without knocking, something I had never done before. Rafa’s head jerked up from the stack of papers in front of him. My chest heaved as I stood in the doorway, trying to catch my breath.
“What’s wrong?” Rafa stood, his dark eyes shadowed with concern.
“It’s Opal,” I gasped. “We have to help her. She needs to disappear, ora.”
He frowned and motioned me in. Shutting the door behind me, I collapsed into one of the chairs in front of his Peruvian walnut desk. “Explain.”
“She’s in trouble. Oswald promised her to some evil guy named Douglas who has a reputation for being abusive. Will you help her? Please?” I begged, the words tumbling out faster than I could stop them.
“Figlio di puttana!”
My brother rarely swore in front of us girls, so his reaction didn’t bode well for me. “Please, Rafa. I’d never forgive myself if that creep got his hands on her.”
“Neither would I, sorellina.” He sat down again and leaned his forearms against the edge of his desk. “If Oswald is trying to marry her off to Douglas Snyder, she’s right to be concerned.”
“More like scared out of her mind,” I muttered. “She didn’t even think it was safe for me to call or text about this, so she’s waiting at the diner for me to return.”
He leaned back in his chair. “How much time do we have?”
Relieved, I sighed. “She’s ready to leave as soon as I call. The sooner you get her out of here, the better.”
Rafa ran a hand through his thick hair, his mind already working. “This isn’t going to be easy. I’m sure Oswald is keeping a close eye on his sister if he has a deal riding on her cooperation.”
“But you can do it, right?” I pressed, gripping the arms of my chair.
“It’ll take some maneuvering to make sure our hands are clean in order to avoid a war with Oswald. Luckily, this is what Matteo’s MC specializes in. I’ll reach out to King.”
Our cousin had never been interested in joining The Family, and his mamma would’ve been heartbroken if he had. Aunt Emilia had lost her first husband to the Mafia, and she didn’t want to lose her son, too. But Matteo had grown up as a part of a fiercely loyal, close-knit family, and being a loner was not in his DNA. He’d found his own kind of brotherhood in the Hounds of Hellfire MC. When he patched, it had formed an alliance with them, and I knew Rafa had a strong relationship with their president, King.
I felt a little better knowing we had such a strong connection to the people who would help my friend. “What can I do? I want to help.”
Rafa’s expression was all business as he looked at me over steepled fingers and warned, “In order for Oswald to buy that she’s really gone, we’ll need to take it a step further than just wiping away her trail. We’ll have to make it convincing, Gabbi.”
I nodded, my breath caught in my chest. “You mean she has to die.”
He nodded, but by his stoic expression, I knew there was more to it.
They would probably make it look like Opal had been brutally murdered. “And it will be messy.”
He didn’t acknowledge what I said, which was answer enough. Instead, he opened a drawer and pulled out a cell phone. Handing it to me, he ordered, “This is a clean burner. The Hounds will use this to communicate the plan to Opal. Give it to her, then get your ass back here. I don’t want Oswald to have any reason to think you were involved. And I don’t want you around if things go sideways.”
1
DOMENICO
18 months later
Family dinners were part of the fabric of life when you were Italian. Especially when you belonged to a family as big as mine. But when you tossed in the members of The Family—bound by oath, not blood—it was hard to get a word in edgewise. Not that I had much interest in talking. I’d never been the chatty sort, more of an observer, which was one trait that made me an excellent bodyguard.
I wasn’t exactly a loner, though the group of people I preferred to be around was small. And even though I was used to these loud and crazy get-togethers, there were times when I needed to step away and take a deep breath.
Of course, that was largely due to the smell of honeysuckle and jasmine that filled my lungs every time I inhaled. The scent had haunted me for years, and when it attempted to permeate the tiny cracks around my walled-off heart, the only solution was to run like a fucking coward and find some fresh air.