Page 88 of Sin & Secrets

“Because the Cartel is giving you such a headache? The Tunnel Snakes are acting up again, aren’t they?” I cross my arms. “Honestly, I’d prefer to take my chances with Amos Rubio than hide away here.”

He raises an eyebrow at me, and I shrug. “You’re not as discreet as you think you are.”

“You mean you’ve been snooping in my office.”

“Because there is nothing else for me to do here!” I try again. “Please, Rocco. I came to Brooklyn to sing. I haven’t been on a stage in almost two months.”

“Cas,if anyone with fucking eyes sees us both at theCandelabra,they’re going to know we’re together.”

I scoff. “Is that really so awful?”

“I’m trying to keep you alive, Cas.” Rocco’s hands squeeze my thighs. “If anyone realizes how much you mean to me, you’ll have a target on your back for the rest of your life.”

I swallow my disappointment. “So that’s it? We can be together, but only if you keep me as your dirty little secret.”

He growls beneath me. “That is not what I want.”

“Then how the hell isthissupposed to work?”

The question hangs between us like a knife, the edge of which we’ve both been dancing along for weeks, begging for either one of us to acknowledge it.

“Cas…” But Rocco fails to come up with an answer.

Can I blame him? When every night, I fall asleep wondering the same thing and come up completely empty.

After a moment, I brave another question. “How does this usually work?”

“Dating?”

“In the Mafia,” I clarify. “Surely someone else has been through this before.”

Rocco scratches the back of his neck. “My parents had an arranged marriage. My mother was from another prominentfamily. She had her own bodyguards that ensured her protection, though I don’t think she needed it.”

I tilt my head slightly. This is the first time I’ve heard Rocco talk about his mother.

“She was mafioso in her own right,” he continues, the ghost of a smile on his lips. “And only put up with my father’s bullshit long enough to have me.”

“She left him?” I ask before I can stop myself.

Rocco’s eyes darken. “No one leaves the Guild.”

The threat of his words sits uncomfortably in my stomach.

In the past weeks, I couldn’t bring myself to take any of Mia's or my mother’s calls. The depths of their potential deceit could be world-shattering, and if I’m being honest with myself, I’m too scared to face them.

But if my theory is true, that my parents were somehow involved in the Mafia too, then how the hell had my mother been allowed to leave?

I shake off that particular rabbit hole. “But you’re the don, aren’t you?”

“I am now,” he corrects. “But the oath we take when we join is an old one. Even if I pardoned someone, it could set an uneasy precedent for those who’ve spent a lifetime in reluctant servitude.”

“But surely it’s better to let them go? If they don’t want to be there, they can’t be of much use to you.”

Rocco shrugs. “Even if they did leave, my father would call a hit somehow. He's a miserable bastard like that.”

So casually he talks about his father’s destruction. Would he really kill someone for breaking their oath? It’s not something I’d ever want to find out.

“Remind me never to sign anything when your father’s around.”

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