Page 59 of Twilight Mask

“Two grand? For fucking coffee?” He makes a face then shrugs. “Good though.”

“Skip to the part where you tell me why you’re here.”

He walks off into my living room. It annoys the hell out of me, and I drift after him. Nerves jangle in my guts. I’m worried he knows about Laura somehow, but that’s impossible. If anything, he’d know that a Bianco daughter was spotted with some weirdo in a fetish mask and hate them even more than he did before.

“Adam’s been on my ass the last few days,” he says at last, looking out my window. It’s a good view: the lake stretches out into the distance, sunlight glittering off it like the diamonds in Laura’s collar. He’s only a few feet away from her sculpture.

“Yeah? What’s his deal?”

“He’s ready, Marco. No more bullshit. He wants in.”

That gets my attention. I figured Adam would only agree to play along after I got Julien fully on board, but this is massive. If Adam’s in, then Julien will definitely be in, and that’ll be enough to convince Dusan that this is a good idea.

But I’m wary. Good news like this doesn’t just happen. “What changed?” I ask.

“The guy that died in that shooting? Apparently, his cousin’s daughter was in love with him, and now the girl’s all heartbroken and inconsolable. Adam’s nothing if not a family man.” Ronan rolls his eyes and takes another sip. “Shit, this is really fantastic. I need to come over more often.”

“No, you really don’t.” I pace across the living room. “Is he serious about this?”

“Said so himself to me just last night.”

“Why hasn’t he gotten in touch yet then?”

“Fuck if I know.” Ronan gives me a look. “You seem squirrelly. Maybe that’s why.”

I stop pacing. God damn it, he’s right. I’ve been dumping all my free time into my relationship with Laura, and I’ve been neglecting my duties. Valentina says she’s been trying to keep everyone in the loop, but that’ll only go so far.

“I’ll talk to him then and work it out.”

“Nah, brother, we’ve got to have a big old meeting again. Get all the lads together and have them hash it out, yeah? Once Adam’s on board, you know the others will be too, they just need a little convincing.”

I grind my jaw. This is moving fast and I don’t feel like I’m in control of the situation. My relationship with Laura is new, and if this alliance comes together and we start an actual war, I might fuck everything up with her.

Besides, it’s too fast. We need to be slow and methodical about this. At least, that’s how I’m justifying it to myself.

“Not yet,” I say, and I can tell Ronan doesn’t like it. “Give me some time to lay the groundwork with Julien. I want to make sure this comes together.”

“Bro, listen to me. All this talk? All this fucking around? It’ll only piss everyone off. You know how these lads are. They want action, not chatter.”

“Give me a few days, that’s all I’m asking. I’ll talk to Adam and get shit settled. This is happening, Ronan. It’s a good thing.”

He cocks his head to the side and doesn’t seem convinced, but he finishes his coffee and lets me corral him back to the front door. As he’s leaving, we run straight into Valentina, because of course we do, everyone loves appearing at my place these days whenever they damn well please.

“Lovely seeing you, darling,” Ronan says to her.

“I know,” Valentina replies, which Ronan seems to love. He walks off, before Valentina turns her attention to me. “What was that about?” she asks, eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ronan at your place before.”

I fill her in over another coffee. She doesn’t compliment my brewing skills like Ronan did, which makes me think she’s gotten too used to the good stuff. I’ll have to make her a couple shitty cups, just to remind her of my superior brewing talents.

“You’re going to fuck this up,” she announces when I’m through.

My first reaction is defensive and angry. I want to tell her to fuck off. Instead, I let that pass, because my initial reaction isn’t always the best, and I force myself to sip my drink instead.

“Okay,” I say once I’m calm. “Tell me why.”

“It’s obvious. Ronan doesn’t know about Laura Bianco, so he’s got no clue why you’re not chomping at the bit to get this whole fight started. But your secret’s no secret around me, Marco, my friend.”

“And isn’t that just wonderful.” I give her a hard look. “What am I supposed to do here, Val?”

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