Unease took root, spreading like ice through my veins. All of the sudden, it felt like I was missing something. Something important.
“All right,” the man said, turning back.
She faced me again and pressed her index finger to her lips, signaling for me to stay quiet until the security guard left.
My pulse pounded against the side of my neck. “Fabi, what’s going on?”
“You’re not supposed to be here. How did you get this address?”
“I saw the text you sent.”
She shut her eyes, looking pained. “Shit. I hoped you wouldn’t.”
The weird thing was that she didn’t sound angry.
She sounded…kinda scared.
Alarm bells rang inside my head. “Why did that man call you by the wrong name?”
Her throat bobbed, but her eyes stayed closed. “He didn’t. My last name isn’t Castellano. It’s Messero.”
I frowned.Wait, but that’s?—
“My brother is Rafaele Messero,” she said, her voice breaking as she finally looked at me, “and my fiancé is Cosimo Ferraro.”
My heart dropped all the way to my toes.
“Messero and Ferraro,” I echoed as my brain scrambled to make sense of what she was saying.
Fabi nodded.
I swallowed. Hard. “Your family is involved with the mob.”
“No, Mia. My familyisthe mob.”
CHAPTER2
MIA
This had to be a prank.
Highly upsetting. Terribly unfunny. If I had to guess—Zo’s idea. She never meant badly, but sometimes she took things too far.
The alternative was almost impossible for me to comprehend: Fabi lying to me for over a decade about her name.
Her identity.
Herfiancé’sidentity.
She wasnotgetting married to Cosimo Ferraro. No way. That man was the heir to the Ferraro family empire. The family who were responsible for my uncle’s death. The family who were at the top of my father’s tough-on-crime crusade.
It was too crazy. “This is a joke, right?” I scanned her face, looking for a tell.
“I wish.”
The light crack in her voice. The shiny, green eyes. The way she gnawed on her bottom lip.
Shit.She wasn’tthatgood at pretending.
