Page 66 of Tasting Sin

“I’m sure our paths will be crossing again soon.” Mickey rolled up his other sleeve. For a moment, we didn’t move. We stood there, glaring at each other while the tension in the room grew thicker. When someone at one of the surrounding tables cleared his throat, we broke our stare.

“Unfortunately so.” Giaco turned around and headed for the door. I followed him, and the quiet stares behind us felt louder. We all knew this was only the beginning. There was always conflict between our families, and it was only going to get worse.

“Oh, and Moretti,” Mickey added, stopping us. We half-turned, looking back over our shoulders. “If one of my men ever goes missing again, you’ll pay for it. And I won’t send a drug dealer to handle my business for me. Understood?”

I didn’t respond, turning back toward the door and punching the egress bar to open it. The light flooded the entry of the restaurant, and I blinked until my eyes could adjust. “I don’t believe for a second that they had nothing to do with it,” I said when the door closed behind Giaco. “They were too amused.”

“They didn’t do it,” he countered bluntly. “Mickey was right. They wouldn’t have sent Nikki to handle it for them, and they wouldn’t have messed up.” My stomach sank at the thought of what that meant, and I felt the instant urge to go to Nellie.

“You don’t think they did any of it.” I didn’t question him. I thought about the car fire and the way Nikki had been concerned if anyone had been hurt. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, but I hadn’t told her about the fire. I didn’t tell her about the brick or the vandalism at the bakery either, but she had known about those too. I gritted my teeth and bared them. “She did it all.”

Giaco nodded. “I think so too.” He rolled his hands into fists so tightly, his knuckles turned white and the veins in his forearm started to show. He didn’t have to tell me for me to know we would be handling the problem. “And she’s already got Detective Stanton and his fucking cronies in her back pocket.”

“That’s probably how he knew exactly when to show up,” I said. “She tipped him off.”

“I’m calling Enzo. We’re going to have to make a little visit.” Giaco got in and slammed the driver’s side door behind him. “She knows too much.”

I cracked my knuckles, sliding into my seat and buckling the belt. “We know more.”

“What are you doing here?” Nikki asked when we walked into the bar. She wiped the old counter down casually, eyeing the three of us without looking up, as if she didn’t have my girl taped up in her back room less than a week ago. Judging by the way she gulped, she was more nervous than she wanted to let on. She should be.

“You know exactly why we’re here.” Giaco stepped up to the bar, nodding with his head toward the small hallway that housed the office and storage. Enzo ducked in that direction. I heard him kick down the door to the office, knowing full well he’d have been able to open it with the handle. She wouldn’t have had it locked.

Nikki’s head whipped around, and she gasped. She ran from behind the counter, her heels clicking loudly on her way to the office. When we got into the small room, she released a sound that had to be described as a half-scream, half-grumble.

“What the fuck are you doing?” she yelled when Enzo grabbed a box of wine bottles and turned it over. Bottles crashed against the floor, shattering and creating a pool of semi-sweet-smelling alcohol. Then, he dropped the newly empty box on the surface of the desk.

“You’re leaving Boston,” I said. Enzo grabbed a pencil cup and a frame from the desk and chucked them into the box.

She laughed, still looking concerned while she straightened her back and pushed out her chest. She was pretending to be brave. “I most certainly am not.”

“You are. You’ll either leave willingly, knowing you’re never welcome back, or you’ll go to jail.” Giaco didn’t break his towering posture, his lips a straight line carved across his face. There was no amusement.

Enzo opened the drawer, ripping it from the wooden desk and tipping it over into the box. The clattering drew another brief worried look from Nikki before she regained her composure. Her laugh was forced—nervous. “You don’t scare me,” she said, lifting her head higher and taking a step towards him, wincing when the next frame Enzo threw in the box shattered. “I have friends, very connected friends who people like you couldn’t possibly touch. Friends who know more about you and your family than you realize.”

I knew it. “You can call your friends over at the FBI if you’d like. Tell them you’re moving. I hear Tucson is nice.” I met Nikki face-to-face, lifting my hands to frame hers. “I don’t care what you tell them, but I’m only giving you two options: leave Boston, or I’ll kill you and everyone you love and let you all burn with your fucking club here.”

Nikki gaped at me, her mouth still open when I let go of her face and stepped back. Then, she glared and tightly pursed her lips when Enzo tossed a plant into the box, picking the whole thing up and handing it to her. She opened her mouth to protest, but Giaco put his hand up, silencing her.

We turned around to leave Nikki standing with her things, a mixed look of shock, anger, and fear on her face. When she spoke, her voice was strained, almost desperate. “Be careful who you threaten. You think you’re safe, but not everyone in your family is as trustworthy as you think.”

Giaco glared over his shoulder, disregarding her warning. “You have until tomorrow.”

Chapter 45

Nellie

“Are you sure you’re ready to be back?” Ava asked, hovering behind me like she was my shadow—or like she was worried I was going to drop the tray of cupcakes I was holding. Carlo looked up from his now-regular seat in the corner, watching the interaction.

“I’m ready to not be sitting at home anymore.” I sat the cupcakes on the prep counter before plugging the mixer in. Ava scowled at me, like she was torn between scolding me for rushing back and coddling me for having been hurt at all.

“I know,” she sighed. “But shouldn’t you be resting?”

When I bent down to grab shortening from the shelf to make the frosting, I winced at the tenderness in my side, and Ava rushed to take it from my hands. I grabbed it back from her more forcefully than necessary and had to hide the jolt of pain that traveled my body. “The doctor said I was fine. I’m fine. Now, will everyone please stop babying me?”

“But—” I was relieved when the bell over the door interrupted Ava’s argument, but when her eyes widened, my stomach sank and the hairs on my neck stood up.

I turned around slowly, seeing Detective Stanton and his partner standing in the doorway. Carlo sat in a ready-to-fight-the-second-anything-goes-wrong position. “What are you doing here?” My voice shook when I spoke, and I swallowed.

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