Page 4 of Sinful Attraction

Dad doesn’t look like the patriarch of a mob family. He’s the shortest guy in the family, he’s bald on top, and he looks a little like Santa Claus’s younger brother. Some folks make jokes about my real dad being the mailman when they see it together, but no; I just take after Mom’s brothers.

The thing is, when he speaks, people listen. He has this way of speaking with quiet authority, never raising his voice except when he’s really pissed off, never making threats, never barking orders. No matter the lack of volume, he gets people to listen. And he gets people to worry about what will happen if they don’t.

“What have you got for me, Mike?” he asks, his dark eyes searching my face. He frowns a little at something he sees there, and I quickly distract him by handing over the printout.

His eyes flick over it. “That Castellucci girl again. What the hell is she up to now?”

“Hijacking an overseas bank transfer and siphoning away a few million, nothing too exciting.” I choose my words very carefully.

“Nonsense. If it wasn’t a real innovation, you wouldn’t be talking it down like that.” He knows me way too well. He goes back over the printout. “It’s too damn bad we can’t just recruit her. So, when is this going down?”

I give him the scheduled date and time of the transfer: two days from now at 3 a.m.

He considers. Then, he sits back in his chair and tells me the last thing that I want to hear.

“All right, Michael. I need you to sabotage this heist.”

I stare at him in shock. “Wait... what?”

“What’s unclear?” He shifts in his chair and peers at me over his gold-rimmed glasses.

“You want me to sabotage the transaction so she can’t pull the cash?” I hope to hell he doesn’t mean get her caught. I won’t do that. I hate having to deal with refusing my dad anything related to business, but that’s a bridge too goddamn far.

“I’m not saying don’t let her take the money. I’m saying don’t let her keep it.”

I let out all my air. “Steal from her? From the Castellucci family accounts?”

“If she can somehow interrupt an international wire transfer and divert those funds, then you can figure out how to interrupt the transfer to her family accounts and get us that money instead.”

I think about it. It’s a tall order, but I can handle it. I really don’t want to, because it’s her, and any test of my skill against hers, I want it to be... friendly competition. Not doing something that’s going to leave her empty-handed in front of her family.

“Michael?”

“I’m thinking. Hang on a second, please.”

“Michael, let me make myself clear.” He takes a sip from his vodka and cranberry juice and looks at me pointedly. “I know you have some interest in this woman, but right now, her loyalty to her family makes her a liability to us. We can’t afford to let her keep using this technique to line their pockets.”

“We could just use the same technique,” I start to suggest, but he waves a hand dismissively.

“Not good enough. I fully intend to have you reverse engineer what she’s done and take advantage of it, but we don’t want the Castelluccis to be doing the same.

“The Castelluccis are very backward. From what we’ve learned so far, it looks like they’ve been trying to discourage Arya from working as their computer expert at all. If she fails to follow through on any promises to them, she and her technique will lose any remaining credibility with them.

“So... steal the five million, steal her technique, and undermine her family’s confidence to ruin her career and make them reject that same technique?”

Shit. Shit. Shit. I do not want to do this.

“Is there any reason why you can’t make this happen?”

I open my mouth to make an excuse—any excuse. Anything I can do to stop this from going forward while still appeasing my dad. But there is nothing.

He stares at me expectantly.

“No,” I say finally, caving in and hating myself for it. “I’ll get it done.”

Chapter 3

Arya

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