“Your precaution on her behalf is admirable and your defense won’t be forgotten,” Luc answered before I could growl at our unfriendly neighborhood assassin, “but my brother’s intentions are honorable.”
Stiffly, I dipped my chin when she studied me, scanning me with the precision of a laser.
“Star will know about this soon enough,” the assassin warned.
“Then I’m sure her brothers will too. You can give them our home address.”
“No!” Kitty stiffened again. “I don’t want them to see me like this.”
Dead To Me poked the air with her knife. “Lemme get this straight. You’re taking her back to the place she was kidnapped from?!”
“No, to our family home in Brooklyn.”
Her brows lifted. “That’s where your mom lives.”
Annoyed that she knew that, I hissed, “Luc told you my intentions were honorable.”
“Fucking mobsters. Only you freaks marry someone within days of knowing each other.” She rolled her eyes but peeped into the room we’d left. “You did this?”
“No. Kitty did.”
She snorted. “‘Course she did. Honestly, you can take the girl out of the Irish Mob, but you can’t take the Irish Mob out of the girl.”
“Damn straight.”
She bumped her knuckles to Kitty’s with a tenderness I didn’t think her capable of. “Nice work, bish.”
“Right,” I acknowledged when Kitty looked at the other woman like she’d grown antlers. “Luc, I’ll see you later. Dead T?—”
“The name’s not Dead To Me anymore.”
My patience levels waning, I groused, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“It’s Taube.”
“Taube?” I repeated.
She stared at her nails, the tips encrusted with blood. “You gave me the idea for it, actually.”
“Idid?”
“Sole, Luna e Talia?*.” Her smirk made a polar night seem sunny. “I didn’t forget.”
My nostrils flared at the taunt. She was referring to a conversation my brother was in the dark about. A mission I’d paid her to undertake that nobody but she and I knew of.
“Apparently not.”
“What does Taube mean? Is that German?”
Dammit. I literally saw the moment when she recognized that Luc had no idea about my request.
“It means dove.”
“You’re using the international emblem for peace as an alias?” I sputtered.
“In the original version ofCinderella—” Kitty yawned. “—doves pecked out the stepsisters’ eyes.”
Dead To Me, fuck,Taube, beamed. “Anyone who knows that is under my protection, Custanzu.
