Page 31 of Sin & Secrets

Heavy tears fall freely down my face as the exhaustion sets in.

“What would happen, do you think? If you broke up with him?”

I didn’t think it would feel like this. Like someone had been excavating a hole in my chest, only to remove the debris in one brutal blow. I feel lighter, but I also feel like I’ve lost something vitally important.

“I have some things to attend to.” Rocco falls into the chair in front of me, looking about as tired as I feel. “Teo will take you to the safe house. I trust him like a brother. No harm will come to you.”

“Fine.” I stare down at my lap, and something pale catches my eye.

“I also feel like I should apologize in advance for this.”

“For what?”

The last thing I see before the blindfold covers my eyes, is the two halves of a snapped, opal fountain pen lying at the bottom of the trash can.

I wakeup somewhere entirely unfamiliar.

Vaguely, I remember how I got here. I remember how Teo had to all but carry me down to the back exit of theCandelabra,how I sat silently blindfolded in the back of a car before promptly falling asleep.

Someone must have roused me when we arrived, but they didn’t remove the blindfold until I entered this room. The last thing I remember was the welcome sight of a mattress with an actual bed frame before I collapsed.

Slowly, I rouse myself and wince at the headache that’s beginning to form behind my eyes. I almost cry at the sight of a glass of water on the bedside table.

I finish the entire thing before I remember that I’m in a mafia safehouse and that drugging the water would be a very mafia-like thing for someone to do.

I’ll have to be more vigilant from now on.

I turn on the bedside light and look around for a clock. When I come up empty, I slowly get to my feet to approach the window, which is hidden by a set of drawn curtains.

The material is thick and heavy in my hands as I pull the layers apart, capable of shielding away the brightest summer’s day.

But it’s dark when I look outside at the residential street of brownstone homes. I must still be in New York at the very least, but beyond that, I have no idea where I am.

I climb onto the deep windowsill to peer down below. There’s pavement a few floors below, but no one seems to move beneath the streetlights.

It must be late then, which makes sense, since my internal body clock has more or less adjusted to theCandelabra’snocturnal shift patterns.

Not that it matters anymore.

Knock, knock, knock.

He doesn’t wait for me to respond before opening the door.

But Rocco doesn’t enter. He simply leans against the doorframe, letting the moonlight wash over his tired features as he watches me cautiously.

Even now, with his suit jacket discarded and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, he looks unfairly beautiful. The tattoos that climb up his arms tell a hundred stories that I will likely never learn, and his thick hair falls dangerously across his eyes.

“I saw your light was on.”

Was he just waiting up for me? Or does he have one of his goons stationed outside my door?

I instinctively go to bury my hands in my jacket, before it registers that I’m now wearing a set of cotton pajamas. I flush at the thought of Rocco undressing me.

As if reading my mind, he says, “My housekeeper, Donatella, thought you might be more comfortable in those. You’ll meet her tomorrow.”

“Okay.” I don’t move from my perch as I stare at him expectantly.

He clears his throat. “If you need anything while you’re here, she will be able to sort it out.”

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