Cillian grabbed Fallon’s wrist and hauled him back to his seat. I couldn’t see his expression, but I imagined he was glaring. He whispered something low to Fallon.
“Legend, stop this.” Finn crossed his arms and his mouth got poutier. He’d put on some gloss this morning, so his lips were shiny and so tempting to kiss. “This is my job. You know that.”
I sighed. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it, Lolly.”
“No, but you will deal.” Finn’s prim words left no room for argument, and I laughed.
“Darl, have I mentioned how much I like you?” Mum winked. She slid her reading glasses down her nose to give me a fake glare.
Finn grinned at her. They were in cahoots with each other, I was sure of it.
“Did you tell him what Mr. Killough said?” Fallon asked, and that gained my attention. “You did talk to him last night.” The way Fallon leaned forward, I thought maybe there was more than a bit of love of gossiping in him, and that was probably part of why he got along so well with Mum.
Finn didn’t have time to explain, though. The thump of footsteps made me straighten as one of my men who guarded the house appeared with Padulano Jr. behind him. Mercy and I had gone to visit him last night, but he hadn’t been home, and we couldn’t find him. As far as we knew, he wasn’t at the meetup of Italians, either. Dressed in an all-black suit, he looked like hell warmed over, with dark purple bags under his eyes and a thin mouth.
I would have to be blind not to see the way Hero perked up at the sight of him, and I held in a snort.Down, boy. You can’t fuck an Italian, especially not a Padulano.
“Where were you last night?” I drawled. “We had an agreement that we were going to get rid of your father so we can make peace.”
Padulano—Ario—blinked too many times at me, wincing. “Well, you got what you want. He’s dead. Poison.” By his tone, he hadn’t done it, and I hadn’t, either, so that left us with a new mystery player on our hands.
I tensed. Ario didn’t sound as happy with the news as I would’ve expected.
He exhaled, running a hand through his dark brown hair. Staring at the floor, he looked ready to collapse from exhaustion. “But now we got a new problem. The leader of one of the other families wants retribution, and he’s deemed that I’m not fit to run my father’s mob. The men who were at that meeting you busted up held a vote. I’m out, and they’ve got a price on my head because theyknowI’m a traitor.” He swallowed and directed his sad gaze at me. “They’re gonna kill me, probably my first cousins, too, and they’re coming for you as well.” He glanced around the table. “They’re coming for all of you, and they don’t care if they have to burn this city to the ground to get their revenge.”
16
FINN
The funny thingI learned while working for a mob is that there is a lot of hurry up and wait involved. Sure, you get word that someone wants revenge or someone wants to blow up a building or steal some shit, but then you’ve got to sit around and wonder when the sky will fall while they get their shit together and do it.
It’sboring.
Sometimes things happen faster, but usually by the time the other side gets around to doing something drastic, ours has plotted and planned like we’re playing four-dimensional chess and basically blocked the move. A lot of my job in Miami was to watch out for people doing shady shit and tell Jamie Shannon, who would report anything he thought was newsworthy to Mr. Killough.
Meanwhile, when something bad was gearing up to happen, everyone was always on edge.
That awful crawling sensation that accompanied knowing something terrible could explode at any moment scrabbled around in my stomach during the two weeks following Ario Padulano getting kicked out of his own mob—which still boggled my mind. How he got away from his own family members without having his heart ripped out, beating in someone’s palm like that crazy scene fromIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I had no idea. I’d heard that the Italians were every bit as vindictive as we were when it came to people betraying them.
There was no punishment too gory—if the person you were killing was a rat.
But so far, Legend would just glare at Ario Padulano from his spot across the table while we had meals together because he was letting Ario hide out in his house. Ario spent nearly every waking moment talking to Legend, Mercy, or Danger about anything that he could remember from his operations. Legend was actually happy to have the info about the Italian businesses dumped in his lap, but again, we were all nervous.
Shit could hit the fan at any second.
Even Diedre was cranky, and she seemed to enjoy staring at Fallon Maher, so I would’ve thought she would be in a better mood.
And of course, the problem with the Italians wasn’t the only thing happening in the world, either. The increased police presence in Townsville had caused headaches for Legend. One of his enemies also did something shitty in Thailand and stalled out a drug smuggling operation there, so he had to take a flight out and wouldn’t let me go with him, which had left me hanging around his beautiful house—bored out of my mind.
There were only so many times I could repaint my nails and try on different dresses, but today I’d found the perfect pretty pink combo. My dress clung to my chest and flared at my waist, the light fabric stopping above my knees. I had my makeup done to perfection and I’d found a gorgeous metal headband with enamel pink tropical flowers along the top. Diedre and I had gone to get my ears pierced yesterday, and I was trying to get the best light to show off the silver hoops. A diamond ball held the metal together. I had no idea why I’d been so scared, but before now I hadn’t worked up the courage to go.
Everything just seemed possible here in Australia.
The fear that I would run into someone I knew and they would judge me had melted away.
I could be whoever I wanted to be.
Pouting at my phone camera, I got the perfect picture, and with a zip of delight I sent it off to Legend. My stomach warmed when the phone immediately began to ring. Happily, I answered.
