Page 63 of Sins and Secrets

I shrug. “I may allow him to live, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not watching his every move and attacking where I can. I’ve been working on cutting off his drug supply, but I can’t track down his latest supplier.”

“I have a lead on that,” Jovan says, pulling out his phone and opening up a message. “One of my informants saw Paolo in Miami last week. We think that he is trying to create a deal with one of my suppliers.”

“That’s three states that he is now trying to take control of. If we don’t work together, he is going to start turning us against each other. Paolo has been in the mafia since he was born. He knows how to play the game and he’s determined.” I eat one of the tacos and glance over at Billie. “He is going to destroy the people you care about the most before moving on to everything else.”

Hadley catches me looking at Billie and raises an eyebrow. I focus my attention on Jovan, pretending that I didn’t see the look she gave me. Billie laughs at something Hadley says to her. Both of them get up and head outside onto the deck.

I watch as Billie sits in one of the lounge chairs and tilts her face to the sky.

“Great.” Christian sighs and shakes his head. “I have a security detail on my baby sister already, but I suspect Paolo is trying to get to her. She’s my heir. If anything happens to her, my people may turn against me. My sister is beloved among our people.”

“It sounds like we all have a reason to work together,” I say as I look at the other two men. “Paolo is ruthless. My father raised him like a son and taught him everything he knows. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants.”

“Well, we will have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“So, it’s agreed, then,” Jovan says, his voice solemn. “We will work together to take down Paolo Marino.”

Christian nods. “We will work together. We first need to pool the information we have on him. Alessio, as you are the one who knows him the best, you should take point.”

I finish my tacos and put my plate on the table. “This is true. I don’t know him well anymore, it would seem. There was a time when he was due to be my new consigliere when Arturo was ready to step down. He had begun training about a year before this mess started.”

“What prompted this, then?” Christian looked out the window at Billie. “Does it have anything to do with her? You watch her like she is important to you.”

“Arturo is my closest friend. I’ve known Billie since she was born. I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to her.” I try to subtly swallow the lump in my throat, not wanting to dive into the relationship I have with Billie. Christian will read more into it than there is.

He nods while Jovan smirks and shakes his head. “So, she is nothing more to you than that.”

“Correct.” I cross my arms and glance over at Jovan. He drops the smirk and takes a big bite of his last taco. “Now, Paolo is going to be looking for more low-level people to join him. I’ve been burning his hideouts in Georgia as I find them, but I can’t do much about the ones in Florida or Tennessee.”

“I’ve been taking care of what I can find, but he is building more support. There are people who aren’t happy with me, and I have a suspicion that the FBI are starting to sniff around my operation.” Christian crosses his arms. “We need to deal with this quickly and quietly.”

“We need to gather more information about Paolo’s operation first. We have to figure out what is going on and how to prevent his next moves. If we launch an attack too soon after meeting, he is going to see it coming.” I get up to grab a beer from the fridge. “We have to be smart about this. We’re only going to get one chance to take him down.”

Jovan nods. “We have to keep attacking him on our individual fronts. We keep in communication, but we do what we can on our own to take him down.”

“When the opportunity presents itself, we take him down together,” Christian says. “If this turns into a war, we’re going to have to be prepared to die.”

“He will escalate it to a war if he gets the chance.” I pop the top off the beer and take a sip. “I’ll do what I can to find out how big his organization really is. Most of his people are in Georgia, from my limited understanding. I’ll have my men look into it further.”

“With that settled,” Jovan says, getting up and grabbing a beer of his own. “Why don’t I run to the store for dinner ingredients, and we can all celebrate here. There is a storm coming in, but there is nothing quite like watching the waves crash against the dock.”

“Let’s do it,” I say, glancing out the window at Billie. It will do her good to spend some time with Hadley. To see how women in other cartels and mafias are treated.

Or it might only make her hate me for the way things work back home.

21

BILLIE

The sun is climbing above the horizon as the waves crash against the shore. Bright oranges and pinks streak across the sky as I walk along the cold sand. I pull my hair back from my face in a messy bun and glance over my shoulder at the men trailing behind me.

It’s been a good week, though I’ve spent the last two days trapped alone at the rental house while Alessio goes about his business. Hadley has been too busy to come over, and exploring Miami with a couple meatheads following me around isn’t my idea of fun.

This morning, I just need a walk. I need some time on my own to wrap my head around everything happening.

Alessio is a different man away from the mafia. He is more relaxed and enjoying himself. He smiles more and jokes around with me in the morning. At night, he sits down to whatever meal the private chef has made and talks about his day. He avoids anything that has to do with Paolo, but he makes an effort to seem like a normal person.

It’s at odds with the Alessio I’ve always known. The cold man is fading away and he’s transforming into someone different.

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