Page 5 of Lie to Me

I watch as her expression changes from worry, to confusion, to shock, until it finally settles on smug satisfaction. Izzy’s basically known from the moment we met that I was hiding shit from the family, and that it was a woman, but I’ve never offered up any more than that. Until now. She shifts her laptop to the side so she can see me more clearly and settles back in her chair.

“Of course, what can I help you with?” she asks gleefully. I’m in half a mind to just get up and walk out, but I can’t. Izzy is wellaware of how much I hate this, but she knows I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t my last option. And it’s not like I could have gone to Alec—Luca’s best friend, Izzy’s colleague, and billionaire tech novice—since he’d be fucking insufferable.

“A… friend of mine recently moved back to the city. I need you to find out what you can about where she’s been, what her life is like now that she’s back, where she lives, what she does in her free time, and if she’s… seeing someone.” The last words are spat from my mouth as bile crawls up my throat to the thought of Sloane with another man. “But don’t look into everything she got up to while she was away, I only want to know where she was,” I add, knowing that if I find out about any other men she’s been with, I’ll end up going on a murderous rampage.

“Easy. So, what’s your girl’s name?”

I take a deep breath. I’ve spent years keeping this secret, only for me to give it up now.

“Her name is Sloane,” I mumble.

“Yeah, gonna need a last name, too. I could work with only her first name, but it’ll take me a while. You do know her last name, don’t you?” she asks as she starts clicking away at her laptop.

“Fuck’s sake, Izzy, her name is Sloane O’Brien,” I bark, and her fingers pause above the keys.

“I’m sorry. Sloane O’Brien, as in Finn O’Brien’s sister, as in the sister to the head of the Mob?”

I sigh in resignation before nodding my head.

“Jesus, no wonder you kept this shit a secret. You realize this could very well start a war? I mean, probably not so much these days… but when you were younger, it definitely would have.”

“No shit. Why do you think I haven’t breathed a word about her for the last ten years? Can you help me or not?”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Of course I can.”

“And no telling Luca,” I add.

“You want me to lie to my husband?” she asks with a quirked brow.

“He can’t know about this. Not yet at least. I knew she was coming back to the city, but I was kinda just living in denial until she walked into Robyn’s hospital room, clipboard in hand, ready to fucking examine her. And now that I’ve seen her, I can’t let it go. I need to know.”

“Fine. But Luca just texted to say he’ll be home soon, so unless you’re ready for his probing questions, you might wanna get the hell out of here. I’ll text you with everything I find.”

“Thank you,” I say as I stand and head towards the door, ignoring Izzy as she mumbles, “These goddamn Romano boys using me to stalk women.”

Chapter Three

Marco

Past - February 2014

Istare at my cell as it rests on the counter, just like I’ve done every day for the last week.

Sloane O’Brien will be the death of me—and I mean that in the figurativeandthe literal sense.

I can’t get the girl out of my head. Five minutes with her and she somehow managed to flip everything upside down. She’s pure temptation, bottled up into a sexy as fuck package that should be labeled as poison.

I know I shouldn’t do it. I know I should stay far away from the Irish princess. I should keep my distance. I shouldn’t initiate conversation. I shouldn’t seek her out. I can’t talk to her again. And I abso-fucking-lutely should not text her.

I sigh and grab my phone from the counter, hovering over her name in my contacts. I should delete her number and move on from this weird feeling that tells me this is so much more than a random five-minute conversation with a random girl. Except when my finger hovers over the delete button, I just can’t bring myself to do it.

Ah fuck it.

Tell me a lie.

Fuck. I definitely shouldn’t have done that.

I’m basically asking for an all-out war between two of the most powerful organizations in the city. I set down the phone and look over the coursework in front of me. Getting a business degree whilst also working for the familyis fucking tiring, but this is the world I was born into. I’m the second born son of the most powerful man in the city.

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