Vinnie nodded. “She wanted me to have someone. I thought I might have had someone once, but he wanted more than I could give him at the time.” Vinnie’s shoulders slumped as if the weight of the world sat on them. “It didn’t end well.”
“He wanted you to come out of the closet?”
Vinnie nodded. “You know as well as I do that I couldn’t do that while living this life.”
I did know that. I just wasn’t sure how feasible it was for Vinnie to go legit. As far as I knew, once in the life, you stayed in the life.
Now was not the time to point that out.
“I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
Vinnie chuckled ruefully. “Know of any cute young gay men looking for a sugar daddy?”
As much as I wanted to say no, one face popped into my mind. “Maybe.”
Vinnie’s eyebrows rose swiftly. “Seriously?”
Vinnie sounded just as surprised as I felt. This had bad idea written all over it, and yet, something in my gut said it might actually work. Weirder things had happened once or twice.
Maybe.
I winced as I considered all the things that could go wrong. “He’s pretty high maintenance.”
Like, seriously high maintenance. He drove me insane after only ten minutes spent in his company. We didn’t spend a lot of time together.
“He’s very…intense.”
That was one word for it.
“Is he single?”
I nodded. “As far as I know.”
“And he’s gay?”
“Yep.”
Vinnie frowned. “Is he breathing?”
I barely contained my chuckle. “Last time I checked.”
Vinnie glanced down at Isabella’s prone body and then to the man standing guard at the door before looking back to me. “Can I get his number?”
“Can you get out of this life?”
There was no way in hell I was introducing my cousin Gino to the man unless Vinnie stopped breaking the law. Gino might drive me insane, but he was still my cousin.
Vinnie breathed deeply before sighing it out. “I’m working on it.”
“Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll arrange a meeting.”
“You’d do that?” Vinnie asked. “Even knowing who I am, you’d still do that?”
Vinnie seemed skeptical, and I could understand that. We were definitely on opposite sides of the law. Vinnie’s family business went against everything I believed in. But I didn’t think Vinnie was a bad guy.
I should have, and considering I was standing next to a dead body in a room that had just been ripped apart by gunfire, I had to be insane not to.
I just didn’t.
