Page 13 of Sin & Secrets

“It would be like having a sleepover every night.”

I smile at the blurry memories from our childhood when we did exactly that. “You wouldn’t be able to handle the trashy rom-coms I’d make you watch.”

“You got me there.” Her lazy, reminiscent smile slowly fades. “But I’m serious. Just say the word, and I will murder that fucker in his sleep.”

She’ll do it, too, without hesitation. I know, because if our situations were reversed, I’d be saying exactly the same thing. The thought of anyone laying a hand on Mia makes my skin crawl.

But it’s easy to think that. It’s so much harder to redirect that kind of thinking to your own situation.

“I love him,” I say with a shrug as if that somehow makes up for everything else.

Mia gives me a long look before holding up her hands so I can help her up. “As soon as that stops being enough, you tell me. Agreed?”

My heart swells for the fiery woman before me and everything she’s grown up to be in those years we spent apart. “Agreed.”

“Good. Now that’s settled, do me a favor and stay the hell away from Rocco Moretti.”

I cross my arms. “You weren’t exactly subtle earlier. Why do you hate him so much?”

“It’s not that I hate him. He’s just…” she trails off, trying to find the word. “Very, very bad for you.”

“How ominously vague of you, Mia.”

I step away, grabbing my sweats and a T-shirt from the pile of discarded clothes in the corner. Mia makes herself comfortable at my vanity as I change behind the folding screen.

She tries again. “He’s dangerous.”

“How dangerous can a club owner really be?”

“I’m serious, Cas. You think I’d ever be able to face your mother again if I let you run off with someone who could get you killed?”

I physically reel at this information. “What are you talking about?”

“This place? TheTiny Ballroom, Electrix, Adelaide Bar,what do they all have in common?”

I rack my memory for any tidbit of information I can recall. “They’re all high-end entertainment establishments?”

“Owned by Rocco Moretti.”

“So he’s into real estate?”

“Cas,” she groans in frustration. “An Italian billionaire with a vested interest in laundering money through clubs in Brooklyn?”

“I feel like you’re encouraging me to stereotype.”

“He’s mafia, Cas.”

“And my rocket ship is waiting outside to take me to the moon.”

I step back into the dressing room just as Mia throws her hands up into the air. “I’m trying to warn you.”

“And I’m telling you I appreciate your concern, but I can handle myself.”

But despite my words, my mind begins to spin, grasping at anything from our conversation today that could prove Mia’s theory to be true.

“I’ve known Rocco a long time. I know he seems approachable, charming even. But there are parts of him that he will never share with you. Parts that are too dark for you to ever dream of fixing.”

“I’m not trying to fix him.”

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