The door cracked open, and Nina stepped in.
The hurt surged forward, flooding my entire body. Nina knew, and she didn’t say a word.
Nina’s gaze connected with mine. She was wearing the red off-the-shoulder dress I picked out for her weeks ago. She'd said she needed it for a charity gala she was attending this month.
“You lied to me,” I accused, looking between her and Fabi. “Both of you.”
Fabi’s lips wobbled. “I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to go on for so long."
“I know you’re pissed,” Nina said, raising her palms. “But we can’t do this here. We need to get you out.”
My chest tightened with indignation. “I spent the last hour since I received that text freaking out. Imagine finding out your friend’s having an engagement party when you didn’t even know she was engaged. I thought I did something to upset Fabi!”
“Oh, Mia,” Fabi sobbed. “It’s not you. It’s me. I’ve made a horrible mistake.”
Nina sighed, grabbed a box of tissues from the nightstand, and shoved it into Fabi’s hands. “Don’t cry. You’ll ruin your makeup.” Then she turned to me. “We owe you an explanation—I’m not saying we don’t. But you know who’s out there, right?” She pointed at the window. “Someone’s going to start wondering where the bride-to-be has gone off to, and they won’t wait long before coming to find her.”
God.If they found her, they’d find me. I was easily recognizable thanks to the news coverage of the campaign.
Cold fear wrapped around me. The few safety trainings I’d received from my dad’s security team definitely hadn’t covered what to do if you accidentally crashed a mob party.
I was out of my depth.
And even though I didn’t like what Nina was saying, I couldn’t argue with her logic.
“Fine,” I said. “We’ll talk later.”
“Go, Fabi,” Nina commanded. “I’ll handle this.”
Fabi grabbed her things off the bed, gave me a final, anguished look, and slipped out of the room.
Nina’s expression was grim. “I’m calling you a cab.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed. “An Uber might be faster.”
“We don’t need a digital record of you being here,” she countered, already dialing.
She had a point. I gnawed on a fingernail as she spoke to the dispatcher. Questions clawed at me, and I was so desperate for answers, but I wasn’t going to get any right now.
Nina hung up. “Fifteen minutes.” She moved to the door. “Once the cab arrives, I’ll come and grab you.”
“Where are you going?” I asked, alarmed.
“I’m going to scope things out. Make sure the path is clear and that no one’s hanging around the entrance.”
I didn’t like this—not one bit—but I nodded anyway. What other choice did I have?
“Just stay put until I get back,” Nina said before slipping out.
Nerves prickled beneath my skin as I moved around the room, familiarizing myself with my surroundings. I peeled back the curtain just enough to get a glimpse of the party outside. The backyard was packed with men in crisp suits and women in glittering cocktail dresses, their laughter and conversation drifting through the night air.
From here, they looked so…ordinary.
But it was a facade, at least according to my dad. The mob families had tried for years to clean up their reputation, and they’d succeeded to some degree. Many of them owned legitimate businesses, some of which even traded on the stock exchange. But my dad said that beneath that polished veneer, they were still ruthless. Still dangerous. The same people flooding the streets with drugs and orchestrating crimes that made them far richer than any legal business ever could.
I swallowed and let the curtain fall back into place.
While I waited for Nina, I slipped into the en suite to use the bathroom. At the sink, I washed my hands and dried them on a towel monogrammed with the letterM. That must have?—
