Page 14 of Hacker Unknown

“What the fuck are you doing here, Lance?” I demanded.

He took a drag of his cigarette, tossed it on the ground, and crushed it underfoot. “Is that any way to greet your brother?”

“You are not my brother. We weren’t even friends in the mafia.”

Lance was a nephew of Vincenzo Russo and thought he was untouchable. When I had my meeting with Vincenzo about leaving the family it was Lance who threw the biggest fit demanding a piece of my flesh. Seemed now he was running errands for Russo.

“The Don requested your presence for dinner.”

“Then why didn’t he call? The hell if I am going to New York.”

Lance smirked. “He’s actually in Fort Lauderdale for a couple of days. He wants you to meet him for dinner tonight. Says there are things you need to discuss.”

Before I could reply, a soft hand slipped around my arm. “Honey, we had plans tonight,” Sonali said.

Lance lifted a brow. “She’s not your usual type.” He said it just to provoke me. I never brought the women I slept with around the family. He had no clue what my type was. “Anyway, the Don would love to see your new side piece, so bring her. Oh, and apparently, he has info about that woman you’re looking for—the one who can ‘cure anyone.’”

I felt Sonali’s nails dig into my arm. “Why would the Russo help us with anything?” I asked.

Lance shrugged. “Guess you’ll have to come to dinner and find out.” He headed for a matte-black G-Wagon. “Meet at Enzo’s.”

Enzo’s was a family-owned Italian restaurant near A1A in Fort Lauderdale. I’d been there plenty of times with the mafia. Also, with Antonio. It was the Ross family’s favorite place to eat and had a back room they used for business. With that, Lance climbed into the G-Wagon and drove off.

Sonali tried to pull her arm out from mine, but I grabbed her wrist keeping her in place. Her skin pebbled under my touch. “What part of ‘go back upstairs’ did you not understand?”

“I didn’t like that you were about to confront someone alone.”

I swore under my breath. “If you weren’t a client, I’d throw you over my knee and spank your ass until it turns bright red.”

Her pupils dilated. “I don’t think your girlfriend would like that very much.”

I opened my mouth to tell her I didn’t have a girlfriend, but I was cut off when the elevator doors opened again. Antonio stepped out with his gun raised and Kat right behind him.

“CJ’s program alerted we have company in the garage,” Antonio said.

My guess, Lance covered his face when he came into the building and waited. Not removing the covering until he approached me.

“He’s gone. But this one just invited herself along to dinner with Vincenzo tonight,” I sighed. “He wants me at Enzo’s for dinner. He has information on the person who can ‘cure anyone.’”

“Fuck,” Antonio groaned.

Kat grinned. “Oh, this is so exciting. Can I come?”

Only Kat would find a dinner meeting with the head of the mafia fun. Vincenzo was a man who tended to be ten steps ahead of his enemy and what worried me was he might already know what Sonali looked like.

Chapter 5

Sonali

I tugged the black lace of my dress down. It was much shorter than anything I would normally have worn, but Kat had promised it was exactly what I needed for this meeting. Still, I wasn’t sure why I had decided to insert myself into the situation—the glint of the man’s gun in the shadow had me worried about Paolo meeting him alone. I barely knew Paolo. In fact, the only thing I knew was that his girlfriend was going to miss him while he was gone. Hell, I couldn’t even remember her name—something like Nina or Nancy, started with an N. She was stunning—tall, lanky, with ample curves. And yet I was, sitting next to Paolo in the SUV outside Enzo’s—the Italian restaurant—about to meet a real-life mob boss. I had always thought mafias were a thing of the past.

I knew they had mentioned that the mafia was after me, but I hadn’t connected the dots. This was an actual mafia family, with the main Don leading the meeting. There was a very heated conversation between Kat, Antonio, and Paolo about if I should go. Kat and I were the only ones who thought I should.

Paolo was insistent that I not go to the meeting, because he worried I would be discovered. Kat huffed, “It’s not like we can’t whip up a completely fake ID in ten minutes,” she reminded him.

I thought that would be impossible and yet, by the time the meeting ended, CJ walked in with a Florida driver’s license that featured my picture—one I wasn’t even sure how he had gotten, since I had never posed for anyone to take a picture of me. The address they used was Paolo’s. They had even created a Facebook profile and a high school record for me. What I couldn’t figure out was how they back dated so much and even threw pictures of me and Paolo up on the internet. CJ also handed me a ten-page document outlining my entire life under the new identity.

Paolo shifted in his seat. “We can turn around. You don’t need to go through with this,” he said.

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