Page 4 of Sin & Secrets

“You are going to do great things, Rocco.”

I cautiously reach out a hand toward him. “Give me the gun, Bellini.”

But a cool calm comes over him. His resolve suddenly seems as natural as the waves below us, sweeping up against the shore.

“There is no other rat. It has always been me. You just never wanted to believe an accountant could slip through your defenses.”

“Rocco!” Teo cries. But this time, his warning came too late.

Bellini ate the barrel of his gun and pulled the trigger.

2

CASSANDRA

“Bellini, you little bitch!”

I wince as Danny’s voice shrieks in my ear. The blonde bombshell in a sparkly bodysuit snatches a chunk of my hair before I can respond, dragging me from my seat at the vanity.

“I knew I should have never let you open for me!”

I gasp as her grip tightens. My scalp burns with pain. “Let go!”

“Why? So you can steal my tips again? You nasty little thief!”

Despite her words, she throws me to the ground. But by the time I recover, it’s already too late. Danny snatches up my tip jar from the vanity and rifles through my generous savings.

“Those are mine!” I protest, internally cringing at how juvenile I sound. The tears prickling the corners of my eyes add insult to injury.

Danny merely laughs as she leafs through the bills. “Give me a break. This is twice I’d make in a month.” She pauses to shout over her shoulder. “Teresa! I found where our money wandered off to!”

My heart sinks as Teresa appears at the door a moment later. The singer only sneers at me as she waltzes over to Danny.

“Here I was thinking the new girl wouldn’t be stupid enough to pull anything in her first week,” Teresa says as she takes her half of my money from Danny’s outstretched hand. She secures it in her midnight blue bra strap, flicking her jet-black hair over her shoulder.

The two of them together look like night and day—fitting for theCandelabra’s two most popular performers. But their charm hadn’t lasted long for me. Sharing a dressing room tends to reveal the worst in people quickly.

“I didn’t touch your money.” I rise, drawing energy from that small kernel of fire inside of me that urged me to defend myself in the first place. “Those are all my tips. You can ask Claudio. There was a stag on table twelve, and they…”

“Here’s my problem,” Danny cuts me off. “About a week ago, things started to disappear around here. Has that ever happened before, Teresa?”

“You know, I don’t think it has, Danny.”

“A ring here, a necklace there. I figured I’d let it slide. Let the demure little girl from the sticks borrow a few things. God knows she needs to add a bit of sparkle to her performances.”

Teresa giggles at this, and I ignore her.

“I don’t need any of your tacky jewelry.”

Danny’s eyes flash dangerously. “But what I can’t turn a blind eye to, is the fact you stole twelve thousand dollars from us. Did you think you could just sleep with the manager and not get caught?”

My gut hollows out at the mention of Claudio. That tiny flame of defiance splutters out into nothingness. He’s already warned me about getting along with the other performers. If he finds out about this…

“Danny, please, it wasn’t me.” I glance at the door nervously. “But if you need the money, take what you need. I just need a few dollars to get a cab home.”

But Danny merely scoffs at me. “You should have thought of that before you tried to cross me.”

“You don’t understand,” I try again. “I have nothing else.”

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