Page 20

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

I’d never so fully understood what that meant before. Could Don DiNardo really be an improvement over Don Bianco?

Could I trust Tomas?

He was honest, when he could have chosen the reassuring lie.

Not that I had much of a choice in where I was going. He didn’t fully untie me when he got me out of the car, he just lifted me up in his arms to carry me rather than letting me walk. I thought about protesting, but the truth was I figured that appearing as little of a threat as I could would only help me. Besides, I still didn’t have shoes.

The house was huge. The kind of house Don Bianco lived in. Except this one was on a city street rather than being further out in the countryside. The DiNardos must want to be closer to the action. They felt safe here.

Don Bianco had felt safe in his home too.

There was always that option. I found myself strangely reluctant to think about poisoning Tomas right now. Or, perhaps not so strange. Just as I was working on making myself more familiar to him, so I would be harder to kill, it made sense that the reverse might hold true.

The door opened as Tomas carried me up the stairs, and I was startled to see two young women, about my age, standing in the doorway gaping at us. They were both beautiful, fashionably dressed, with perfectly styled hair. Seeing them made my own chopped locks feel even more dismal.

One had dark-auburn hair with a subtle wave through it, pulled back from her face and tucked behind one ear, where I could see a diamond earring sparkling. She was wearing a dark-green dress that showed off a slim figure. The other was shorter, plumper, and with platinum blonde curls that framed her round face. Her red dress clung to her curves, showing them off as much as current fashions permitted.

“Tomas, what is this?” the redhead asked, staring at me.

“Who is she? Where are her shoes?” asked the blonde.

They both stepped back to allow Tomas to walk through the door, which is when he finally let my feet drop down. The foyer of the house had beautiful marble floors, white and sparkling, veined with black tendrils that spread through the squares like reaching vines. Both of the women were looking at me like they were trying to figure out where I’d come from, and I ducked my head, because I wasn’t sure what to think.

There hadn’t been any women in Don Bianco’s home other than me and the housekeeper, Mrs. Andrews. An icy-cold older woman, she was probably the only reason I was still alive, as she’d been the one to make sure I occasionally ate real food now and then. There had certainly been no other young women in the house. I knew that some of the men had wives, but they never brought them around.

The last thing I had expected to face upon entry to the DiNardo house was two women who were my age.

“An innocent. Ivy. She doesn’t have any.” Tomas’ gruff, short words made no sense, until I realized that he was answering the women’s questions.

“An innocent?” the redhead asked, looking at me curiously.

I twisted my neck to look back at Tomas, unsure of what to say. Was I supposed to say something? He’d had his dick in me. He knew I wasn’t a virgin.

The big man heaved a hefty sigh, as if finding more words was painful for him. He looked back at the redhead.

“You said not to kill any innocents.” He gestured at me and I frowned at him, still confused. “Don Bianco had her in a cage.”

“In a cage?” The redhead was clearly horrified, her hand going to her mouth as tears filled her eyes. The display of emotion was acutely uncomfortable, especially when I realized the woman was looking at me with something like guilt and remorse.

“Tomas? Hailey? What’s going on?” Two men came striding down the hall. They were leaner, shorter than Tomas, but the way they moved made me think that anyone who underestimated them did so at their own peril. Dark-haired, dark-eyed, in perfectly tailored suits, I had a feeling I was looking at two men who were very high in the DiNardo hierarchy.

“Jack.” The redhead turned and practically ran to the one who was walking slightly in the lead. He held his arms out for her, his face like a thundercloud at the sight of her upset. “Tomas rescued her. Grandfather kept her in a cage.”

Her voice choked on the words and I almost gasped aloud as I realized what that meant. This was Don Bianco’s granddaughter? And she was married to a DiNardo. And a DiNardo hitman had been sent to kill her grandfather.

No innocents.

Did that mean that Tomas would have killed me if she hadn’t given that order?

“I take it your name is Ivy?” the blonde said, holding out her hand for me to shake. The other man prowled silently up behind her, studying me through slightly narrowed eyes. Tomas might have declared me an innocent, but this man wasn’t going to trust me immediately. “I’m Clara.”

“Ivy,” I confirmed, reaching out tentatively to shake her hand. The petite blonde’s grip was surprisingly strong.

When I dropped her hand, I couldn’t help but sidle close to Tomas. He was the only known quantity in this situation, even though I didn’t know him very well.

The tall dark-haired man with the redheaded lady who must be Jack—and I assumed the redhead was Hailey—was watching me. I peeked at him from beneath my lashes, trying to make it look as though I was staring at the floor. Cowed. Innocent, as Tomas had called me.