Page 17 of Unforgettable Underboss

I furrow my brow, looking at Lorenzo and Marco. They’re the only people who’ve brought women into the compound recently, but I can’t imagine either of them being related to this fucking pig.

Wait.No. It can’t be…

“I can explain,” Valerie says softly. She’s standing right behind me.

I turn to look at her, hardly able to comprehend what’s happening right now. “You’re…” I can’t even finish the sentence without choking on my rage.

I feel like such a fool for trusting her. Why didn’t I question her story more? I didn’t even ask her name until she was already inside my house, behind the locked doors of the compound. Did I endanger the entire Family by letting her in?

“Hand her over, and this will all go away,” the douchebag cop says over the megaphone.

I whip my head in that direction, then peer over at the Boss. His features are hard and unreadable, but I know he’s coming up with a way to eradicate me from the Family even after spending practically our entire lives together. It might pain him to do so, but I fucked up. Majorly. I deserve whatever punishment he has in store.

The tense standoff is focused on me and the woman I thought I knew. I need answers.

“Was this your plan all along?” I grit out. I can’t look at her right now, so I stare at a spot above her left shoulder. “Was any of this real, or was I just a means to an end?”

“No,” she insists, a panicked edge to her voice. “I didn’t think he’d go this far. I didn’t know…”

“But you knew your brother was a dirty cop, right?” I spit out. “You knew his existence threatened my livelihood and the safety of the Family.”

“Yes,” she whispers.

Fuck me. I’m boiling with anger, but her broken voice still lances my heart. I finally look at Valerie, my chest tightening as my brain races and tears itself apart with all the conflicting emotions.

“I also knew you would save me. I knew you were a good man, and I hoped you’d understand when?—”

“When what?” I hiss. “When you brought our goddamn enemies to the front door? No, Valerie, I don’t understand.”

“It’s not like that,” Valerie pleads. “I was scared, and I didn’t tell you the whole truth. I wanted to, so many times. I just… I was selfish. I thought you’d kick me out. The thought of going back home…” She squeezes her eyes shut and wraps her arms around her stomach as if trying to physically hold herself together. “He hurt me,” she whispers. “Almost every week, I had a new bruise, black eye, or fracture. I couldn’t go back.”

Her words from earlier this week replay in my head. She told me about the abuse, but I didn’t ask for specifics.

“Valerie,” I breathe.

Jesus. She came to me with a sore shoulder and a scrape on her cheek, but I had no idea the scale and frequency of violence she experienced. My heart shatters, the anger slowly draining away.

“That day in front of Grimaldi’s, I couldn’t even speak,” she continues softly. “I didn’t expect you to take me in without question. I certainly never expected to fall in love with you, but I did. I’m sorry. I screwed everything up.”

Tears well up in her eyes and fall down her cheeks. She wipes them away with the back of her hand, but it doesn’t help as a seemingly endless well of pain and hopelessness pours out of her. Her motions grow frantic and aggressive as she digs the heels of her hands into her eyes to stem the flow of tears.

I reach out to pull her hands away so she doesn’t hurt herself, just as a bullet whizzes past me. I shove Valerie behind me to block any other bullets aimed at us, then point my gun at the piece of shit who dared to hurt my woman.

“Enough!” Aurelio roars. “Take the girl or leave her. It’s up to you. But the semi you’re looking for isn’t here.”

I growl at the thought of handing Valerie over. Aurelio burns a hole right through me with his glare, instantly silencing me.

“Bullshit,” one of the cops yells.

“Do you see an eighteen-wheeler parked in front of any of these houses?” Aurelio demands. “That’s a pretty big thing to hide. So unless you have another reason for this invasion, I suggest you get the hell off my property. I’m sure you’re all acquainted with the stand-your-ground laws in place in this state.”

“No fuckin’ way,” the first cop says. “You must’ve sent the truck somewhere. Or you have the weapons elsewhere on the property.” His uncertain tone betrays his confident words, however.

“Is this really what you want to do right now?” The Boss is stoic, almost calm as he continues. He knows he has the upper hand, something the cops are about to discover. “As we speak, a copy of your under-the-table accounting practices is being sent to every media outlet in the state and the FBI. It’s not a good look to raid a private property without just cause, especially when the landowner has spilled your dirty little secrets to the world.”

The cop—Valerie’s brother, though the thought makes my stomach turn—looks to his thieving brothers in blue, who stare back at him with the same bewildered expressions.

“How…?

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