I can’t believe this bullshit.
“Where you going?” Tony’s voice grates on my ears.
“Away from macho idiots!” Flipping him off over my shoulder, I exit the laundromat and round the corner.
Once I’m out of their eyeline, I hail a cab. “I need you to follow the red Porsche heading west down Front.” I slide a one-hundred-dollar bill through the opening in the driver’s Plexiglass partition.
He frowns at me, his sunglasses glinting in the winter sun.
I don’t have time for this. “If he goes more than two miles, I’ll double it.”
“You got it, sweetheart.”
Just under a mile away, Nino pulls into a salvage yard, and the cabbie drops me off outside the open gates. “You know, it’s not safe around?—”
I throw another hundred at him, shut the door on his words of caution, and stride through the gates.
Crouching behind the front passenger tire of a beat-up blue Mustang, I watch as Nino meets up with Oleg Belinski in an old shed-like building used as the salvage yard’s office.
I can’t hear them, but Nino hasn’t cooled down one bit, his hands waving and his face puce as he rants. Belinski goads him on, coaxing my brother toward the hub of the Bratva’s intricately woven web.
My brother’s not dense. The old Nino could have led the Riccis into a golden age, if only he’d gotten out of his own way and heeded his own people’s warnings. Where did that man go?
I press my hands to my mouth and chew on my bottom lip. How am I going to?—
“You want one of my guns?” Connor whisper-shouts from the other end of the car. “Because I don’t think praying’s going to do much.”
Chapter 9
Connor
The fury shining in Cat’s eyes almost makes up for the fact that she tried to get me killed.
“What the fuck, Connor?” She crawls to meet me behind the blue Mustang, ruining her coat in the process. “What the actual hell is wrong with you?”
“Wrong with me?” I shift, my palm flat on the car to maintain my balance. “I brought Sal to the exchange as planned, and two of your guys put bullets in him before we even step foot inside.”
“If you don’t want to eat a bullet yourself, you need to get the hell out of here.” Her eyes glitter and flash, reminding me of her name for the first time.
Catlike.
I scoff under my breath. “Like you care about my safety. You set me up.”
“I did not.” When her voice rises, she flinches and ducks down.
Oh, we’re playing this game?“Please.”
“No, I?—”
“Cat, please. I’m the actor. You weren’t built for lies.”
She scowls, those red lips pouting. We’re close enough now that the scent of roses wafts from her collar, enticing my senses and tickling my tongue. I want to taste her again.
Hardly the time, Connor.
Finally, she huffs and glances away. “I didn’t coordinate an attack on you with my family, if that’s what you think.”
That, I believe. They kept her out of all the planning. A fact she’s pissed about. “But you knew what was going to happen before I walked in and didn’t say anything. Don’t lie to me. I can tell when you’re lying, and I hate it.”
