Page 21 of Consumed By the Mafia

Abby hesitated, studying at the doorway ahead before turning enough to look up at him. “Thank you,” she said softly. He didn’t know why the fuck she said that when they both knew what was coming. She slipped off her purse, let it hang from his hand, and proceeded down the hall.

seven

Laid Bare

“So,” Cris began afterthe two of them had retreated to the small interior sitting room, “what the hell happened?”

Ryoma closed his eyes for a long moment. He wouldn’t deny his friend—he owed the man too damn much—but that didn’t mean he wanted to have this conversation.Stalling’s not gonna make it easier.He stepped up to Cris and placed the purse into the other man’s hands, just in case she hadn’t reset the safety back on her gun. Then he swiveled on his feet and walked up to the nearest wall, letting himself slide down it until his ass was on the floor and his knees were bent highenough that he could lean forward if he wanted. Except instead he dropped his head back against the wall and waited.

Cris moved to one of the two recliners and unzipped the purse. “I’m assuming you aren’t going to get pissy if I dig through this,” he said, already sticking his hand inside. Of course, he found the gun first.

Ryoma looked away, not even wanting to watch. “Dig away,” he grumbled.

A momentary silence followed before Cris growled the words that assured he’d found the problem. “What the goddamn fuck? What the hell is this?”

“It’s worse than it looks is what it is,” Ryoma said. There wasn’t an ounce of inflection in his voice.

“It should be you on this floor!”

Maybe his father had been right. Maybe it was always only a matter of time before he hurt the people he least wanted to.

“Your girlfriend is fucking FBI? Ryoma. I need you to start fucking explaining this to me,” Cris said sharply. “Tellme you didn’t know. Make it make sense.”

Ryoma’s hands curled into fists but he held back the spark of anger. He had no business having hurt feelings in this situation. Instead he forced himself to straighten, shifting to sit on his knees out of reflex. “Of course I didn’t fucking know,” he said. “I gave you the name I saw on her license, which is also the name she told me. She only came clean about this after I called you today.” He dragged in a rough breath. “The feds are tryin’ to sniff us out, but they don’t seem to have much—no, I don’t know what that really means—so her job was to get thatinformation. She claims she’s been here since shortly after the mess with those fucking deputies last year.”

He watched Cris’s eyes narrow with understanding. It made sense the law would take the disappearance of its own a little more seriously. That was the same reason they’d made sure to make the bodies goall the wayaway. Once the boss had finished playing with them, at least.

Cris closed his fist around the government ID. “You’re saying she was trying to use you to get to us, and for some reason today’s events compelled her to bare her soul?”

Again, the image of her tearful eyes rose from his memory. Ryoma ground his teeth. “Seems that way. She didn’t expect me to drag her with me after that, thought I’d toss her to Silva’s dogs supposedly. But that wouldn’t have solved a fuckin’ thing.”

Cris grunted. “Killing a fed doesn’t solve too much, either.” He sank back into his chair. “Fuck.”

Ryoma closed his eyes, pushing all images of the woman he’d thought to let in out of his conscious mind, and bent forward in a bow. He kept his forehead on the floor when he spoke. “I’m sorry. I fucked up.”

“Get your ass off the fucking floor,” Cris said sharply. “I can see you’re beating yourself up, but I don’t get off on watching my best friend prostrate himself to me.”

Ryoma obligingly pushed to his feet. “Tell me how I can make this right.” He was almost certain he knew the answer, and in truth he hated it, but this was a time to show loyalty. Not indecision.

He nearly didn’t hear the footfalls entering the room behind him before the boss spoke. “If you can convince me you didn’t know until today, then you’ve already started.”

Cris set the purse and its contents on the table beside the chair and pushed to his feet, stepping out of the way. “Cousin, should you be out right now?”

Ryoma pivoted only enough to get eyes on the other man, but held his tongue for the time being. He hadn’t expected the boss to show up at the house—he wouldn’t have under ordinary circumstances, and it was more surprising given the vulnerability of his family at home.But these aren’t ordinary circumstances, either.

Dante De Salvo strode forward with barely a nod to Cristiano and lowered himself into the vacated chair. “Someone dragged the motherfuckingFBIinto our circle,” he said roughly. “That’s not something I can delegate.” He reached over and lifted the identification, glancing it over almost casually.

Dread swirled in Ryoma’s stomach. He knew perfectly well what his boss was capable of. He thought he’d known what he was resigning Abby to, and possibly himself, but he hadn’t considered that the Dragon would step from his lair to handle this situation personally.Mikey must have run a background search off the bookstore footage.The false name didn’t change her face, or the real records still stored under digital lock-and-key.

“Ryoma,” Dante said, dropping the ID back to the table and lifting narrowed, ice blue eyes up to him. “Convince me.”

Ryoma swallowed a useless twist of anxiety and said, “She told me after I got off the phone with Cris, after we were ambushed in the car. I don’t know what exactly made her tell me.” He wasn’t even sure he remembered the entire conversation in the alley, despite that it hadn’t been more than an hour prior. If that. The moment he’d laid eyes on her ID, his brain had screeched to a halt. It had felt like he’d ceased to breathe.

The accident had hurt less.

The beatings he used to take when he disappointed his father had hurt less.

That was a confounding realization. One he couldn’t afford to acknowledge, let alone understand.

---