Page 56 of Darkest Kiss

Noemi goes quiet. She turns the mug in her hands, her mouth pulling to the side. "You won't do anything to her, though. Right?"

"No. I told you I wouldn't. She's your family." I hold her eyes. "But I'm not going to save her, either."

She nods slowly. I brace for tears, for the second round of grief she's owed, but it doesn't come. She just looks tired. "Fuck. I should want to save her. But I still feel betrayed."

"Kathleen's a traitor. She'll get what's coming to her sooner than she thinks."

"Maybe." She sets the mug down with a small, final click. "I thought I was the exception. Turns out I was just the one she hadn't turned on yet."

She says it so matter-of-factly that I look at her. Her eyes glitter with something hard and bright. I've been watching this woman for four months. I haven't seen this side of her.

There are so many facets to Noemi Caruso.

I take her hand and kiss it. "Just remember who's got the biggest monster in their corner."

She glances down. "I do."

"That's right."

My phone buzzes. It's Ransom.

Final pieces in motion. Ready in an hour?

I put the phone down. Across the table, Noemi's gone still again, both hands wrapped around the mug, her gaze out the window, headed somewhere I can't follow.

"I have to go soon," I tell her. "Work."

"Work." She doesn't look away from the glass. "The kind where you finish the Vitellis."

"The kind where you never have to think about them again."

She sets the mug down with that small final click again. “I'm coming with you."

I almost laugh, because it's absurd. And then I catch her face. Shit, she means it. "No, pretty girl. No way."

"Rian." Her expression turns cool. “You can’t just tell me no.”

"It's not a discussion. You stay here, behind every lock and every man I've got, where the worst thing that happens to you tonight is you chip a nail."

"And if it goes wrong? What, I sit in this beautiful glass box and wait to find out whether I'm alone again? No. This is my family’s mess."

Is she crazy? "The plan works because you're nowhere near it."

She lifts her chin. "I’m not asking to be where there are guns being fired. I’m saying that you should let me watch on a feed. You might need me. I know the Vitellis better than you.”

I scoff. “You’d have to be somewhere close by to do that. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“So park me in an SUV a block away from the action,” she argues. “Close enough that I could come if you need me, far enough that I won’t get dragged into anything. Call me backup.”

I drag a hand down my face. Every instinct I have is screaming to put her behind a steel door and weld it shut. But she won’t allow that.

If I know her, she’ll sneak out of here and give my guards the slip just to be close when I’m heading into the Vitelli compound. Then she’d just be loose. That’s worse.

"What if I agree to put you in a staging position?” I hate the words as I say them. “Two blocks back. In the vehicle, with a detail. You don’t get out, follow, improvise, or get clever. You stay where Hale can reach you in thirty seconds and I can reach you in two minutes. And if anything I say over that radio sounds wrong, you let my men floor it."

“Really?” She looks surprised and excited. "Okay, deal."

"Swear it." I take her face in both hands. "Swear you’ll stay in the vehicle, Noemi. Say the words. Because if you give me your word, I'll believe it. And then I have to live with bringing you."