Page 79 of Sinful Secrets

Joey doesn’t show any emotion. “Oh well. Everyone knows about the mafia, but they don’t do anything about it. We haveour asses covered. I’m honestly surprised it took him this long to figure it out.”

“Well, several years ago, when we had the welcome party for you. We all talked about your family and the articles that were written about the mafia, but none of us thought your family was still involved with it.”

“What? How did I not know this?” Joeys asks as he pulls into his garage and parks his car.

I shrug. “No one ever spoke of it again. Besides, the gossip quickly turned to Francesca and Rhett and your hatred for him.”

“I didn’t hate him.” Joeys starts to say before chuckling. “Well, that’s my sister, and he wasn’t good enough. Still isn’t, but they love each other, so I’ll let it slide.”

I glance down at Gage’s messages. Not wanting to reply to him, I check the messages from Lorenzo and read them out loud to Joey.

We have a situation that needs to be checked ASAP.

Call me.

Why isn’t anyone answering their phones? For fuck’s sake, call me!

If I don’t get a call back in five minutes, I’m sending out a search party and reporting your ass as missing.

What the fuck is going on?

Quickly call Lorenzo. “What’s going on?”

“Where is everyone, and why wasn’t anyone answering their phones?”

“I can’t answer for anyone else, but I turned my phone off before the meeting.” I turn to look at Joey. “Did you turn your phone off?”

“No, why?”

“Lorenzo has been calling and texting us for a while now.”

“What for?”

I put the call on speakerphone. “Hey, Lorenzo, you’re on speaker.”

Joey asks, “What’s going on? I just got back to the house.”

“We have intel that the Emerald City Reapers have been in and around The King’s Empire. No one was able to stop them from leaving, but he left a message for Arturo.”

“What was the message?”

“They didn’t say. For all I know, it could be a handwritten note or they could be bullshitting.”

Joey sighs. “We need to send someone out to check on things.”

“I’ll do it.” I volunteer.

He narrows his eyes at me. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, Rhett needs to be with Francesca, and you probably need to have a talk with your dad. Besides, I don’t want to deal with my problems right now.”

My problems, meaning Savannah and Gage. I’ll talk to them later.

Lorenzo says, “Alright, keep me updated.”

I click the button to end the call and get out of Joey’s car. Arturo, Rhett, and Francesca pull into the other side of the garage.

Before leaving the garage, I turn around and say, “Don’t let them start the game without me.”

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