“Nice,” she said with a smile.
We made our way back out of the house where I slipped the security on watch at the time a couple thousand bucks not to say anything about our being there to Merrick, then we got back into the car to head home. Avion started up the car, but then turned and looked at me. There was a nervous frown on her face, but she took a deep breath and started talking anyway.
“After talking with my brothers and my father, I… I think that you may have a traitor nearby,” she said.
I nodded. “Yeah. I was already considering that. I’m not sure who it would be though.”
“I do,” she said. “It’s Milli.”
51
AVION
My heart was pounding so hard I thought it was going to make me sick. I sat watching Gio’s face for a reaction to what I’d just said, but he’d frozen entirely and was just staring off into space. Every few seconds he would blink and I thought he was going to come back to the present, but he didn’t, just continued to sit there silently.
“Gio, please say something,” I said. “I know that must sound insane to hear, but I promise I didn’t come to that conclusion based on noth--”
“It’s not Milli,” he said finally. “Milli is the most loyal person in my ranks and one of my closest confidants. I know that this Curtis mixup is a little weird, but I’m sure he’ll be just as shocked to learn he’s actually alive.”
“Are you going to tell him?” I asked.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Gio replied. “I tell Milli everything. He helps me handle my business. He’s my right-hand man.”
Even though Gio and I had gotten to a really good place, I could see there was pain behind his eyes as he processed my accusation. Though I had reasons to think what I thought, I probably wasn’t in the best position to try and convince him. There might be someone else who was a little bit easier of a sell back at the house that could help me, but until I had some assistance, it was probably safer to drop the subject for the time being.
However, I still needed one thing. “Do you think we can not tell anyone for the time being?” I said. “About my dad. Maybe it’s justmyparanoia, but until we have everything well sorted out, I’d prefer for us two to be the only ones who know where he is. I know that you told Tamryn we had to take care of something and she might ask, but--”
“She won’t,” Gio cut in and said. “She doesn’t ask about business. If someone doesn’t volunteer information, she keeps her nose out of it for the most part.” He looked at me and studied my face for a few minutes and then gave a tight nod. “I won’t say anything to my dad or Milli for now. It stays between us until I feel like I need to bring them into the loop.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I know he’s been pretty awful to me, but there was at least some semblance of a conscience in there. Knowing how horrific my brothers are… it makes me want to help him, you know? Make some effort, if even a small one, to hang on to the only family I have left.”
“I get it.” He reached across and set a hand on my face, calming my developing fear that my accusation against Milli was going to change things between us. “It’s okay. He’s still an investment of mine anyway. I’ll figure out some way to get the rest of his debt out of him.”
“I’ve got a couple of things in mind, but I’ll wait on that until all of this craziness with my brothers has calmed down.” I gave him one last smile before turning to finally put on my seatbelt and start up the car. “Okay. Let’s go home.”
The entire way home, I was a little on edge, because the more I thought about who could help me sort out my beliefs about Milli and bring that information to Gio in a way he would believe, the more I realized there was really only one option.
I’d gotten pretty close with Tamryn over the course of the last few weeks. She’d been diligent in training me, and she was empowering, both of the woman I already was, and the woman I wanted to be. After so many years without a mom, having her by my side made me feel like I had one again. She was encouraging, but didn’t take it so easy on me that I wasn’t actually learning. She always kept me well aware of the reality of our situation and how she wasn’t training me to make me feel better, she was training me to make sure I could actually defend myself or others in a pinch. Gio trusted her, not just as his mom, but as someone who’d been in this life for most of her life.
But she wasn’t the right one to help me.
It was just as Gio had said, Tamryn had pretty much stopped actually involving herself in the family business. She let Merrick take care of things on his end, and didn’t poke her nose into Gio’s business unless he specifically asked for her help. On top of that, Tamryn didn’t like Milli, that was a fact she’d never tried to hide. I had very real reasons for thinking Milli might be the traitor, but Tamryn might be a little too eager to jump on board based purely on the fact that she’d love for him to be jettisonedoutof the lives of the Raines family.
I’d only just met Punk and Kelly, and even though it seemed Gio took their opinions very seriously, it also seemed like their influence over him resided mostly within the confines of the architecture company and the illicit dealings that happened under that umbrella. From what I could gather, Milli was higher on Gio’s totem pole than either of them, which meant there was a very real risk that he wouldn’t take the accusations any more seriously coming from them than he did of them coming from me.
Which really only left one, terrifying option.
Once we were back home and out of the car, Gio took my hand and refused to let go of it until we were standing in front of his office. He opened the door and led us both in, then stopped and turned around to face me. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead just kissed me, wrapping me up and holding me tightly against him as he did.
“What was that for?” I said.
“I do trust you,” he said, “but I don’t think I’ve ever been so terrified in my life when I realized you weren’t here.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Next time, I swear I’ll keep you in the loop. I just… I had to be sure.”
“I should have said this to you so long ago,” he said. “You’re not a prisoner here. You haven’t been for a long time. And I don’t just mean in the way that I don’t lock you in a room anymore, I mean like you’re free to come and go as you please. Even…” He hesitated for a second and took a deep breath then continued. “Even if that meant you wanted to leave. I don’t want that, but you don’t have to stay here. If you want to go back to your apartment or somewhere else, I wouldn’t blame you.”
“I don’t wanna go anywhere else, Giovanni,” I said. “This is our home, right?”
