Page 48 of Shadow Of Sin

Her mouth snaps closed. I watch her eyes zip around the space. My face to the table to the wall and finally to the door.

She’s mapping exits. Not because she’s leaving. Because that’s what she does when the ground shifts under her feet and threatens to pull her under.

“The data I’ve been pulling,” she says. “Colonna. The consulting firm. Meridian.”

“They’re all connected to my family. Or to the DiMichelis, who are allied with us through marriage.”

“And Renaldi?”

“He works for my sister-in-law, Adriana.”

She presses a hand to her forehead. “Shit,” she mutters.

Every piece clicks into a puzzle she doesn’t want to see.

“So I’ve been working next to you every night. Sitting at your kitchen table. Letting you meet my brother. And the whole time you’ve been...” She trails off, shaking her head. “Fuck.”

“I was trying to protect you.”

“From your own family.”

“From a situation that could get you killed.”

“By your family.”

I don’t have a response for that one. She’s not wrong.

I know my brother Ronan.

“You sat on my stoop.” Her voice drops so low, I can barely hear it. “You moved into my neighborhood. You ate at Sal’s bar. You paid off his debt.” She pauses. “And you couldn’t tell me your goddamn last name.”

“If I told you that first night, you would have run.”

“You’re goddamn right I would have!”

“And Dmitri would still have Sal by the balls. And you, as well, indirectly, of course.”

Her jaw clenches. “Don’t use my brother to justify lying to me.”

“I’m not justifying it. I’m telling you why I did it.”

“Same thing.”

“It’s not. One means I think I was right. The other means I know it was wrong and I did it anyway because the alternative was worse.”

She stares at me. Her walls build up right in front of my eyes. Brick by brick, so fast, it makes my head spin.

She’s shutting me out and I can’t stop it.

“My brothers want to meet you,” I say. “Tomorrow at ten o’clock.”

“Your brothers.”

“My oldest brother Ronan knows about you. Not everything, but enough. He runs the show and wants to see you himself. If I don’t bring you in, he’ll send people to find you. That won’t go well.”

“So I go voluntarily or I get dragged in,” she snaps. “Great fucking options.”

“I’m telling you now so you have a choice.”