Page 24 of Mafia Heir's Alpha
I gasped with pain shooting through my body. Did he want to kill me himself? I supposed I deserved that.
Cord rolled his eyes and sighed. “I never said I killed him. You misinterpreted my words.”
“Cord!” Avery’s disinterested mask was gone, and in its place was a fiery anger. “We talked about this. I thought you were gonna just talk to Rosco. You didn’t hurt him, did you?”
I looked Rosco over, and besides being naked and covered in some bruises from being hit in the dining room, he looked untouched.
“I did just talk.” Cord held up his hands in surrender, looking more like a contrite mate than the in-charge mob boss he was. Then he immediately turned his attention to me. “How did you get into my network? You didn't have access to anything. You were in a locked room with no visitors. How did you do it?”
“I'm resourceful.” I swallowed hard and tried to portray more confidence than I felt. “I could hack your network with a smartwatch if I needed to.”
He quirked a brow. “Is that so?” He went around his desk and sat down. Meanwhile, my eyes didn’t leave Rosco. He hadn’t said a lot, and he wouldn’t look at me. He remained on the floor as if waiting for permission to get up.
I had to make this right. As right as I could. “It's true that I seduced Rosco to get close to you. Well, you and Andro. I was dumb. I thought I could avenge my father and take the two of you out by myself. I'm not gonna argue that it wasn’t a stupid idea. No one ever told me what kind of man my father was. He didn't treat me that way, and I never saw any indication of it. It wasn't until I met Rowan that I started putting the pieces together.”
Rosco shifted his weight so he was in a tighter ball, maybe poised to get on his feet if he needed to.
“I had long since given up my mission before coming here today, but I knew I had to come clean. I didn't mean for it to go so badly?—”
“You didn't think we would interrogate you afterfinding out who you are?” Cord asked with a raised brow.
I bit my lip and shrugged. When he put it that way, it really sounded dumb as hell. “I thought I’d get a chance to explain before everything went to shit. Which is what I’m trying to do now. I'll tell you whatever you need to know. Give you access to whatever you want. Just please, let Rosco go.”
“Your uncle holds no power. Information on him will do me no good. How did you get information on the crimes your father committed? Your uncle obviously didn’t tell you, and Rowan said you two didn’t talk that much about what happened to him.”
It was the moment of truth. The full truth. “The FBI.”
Every muscle in the room seemed to tighten up. “You have a contact there?”
I shook my head and looked him in the eye. “I can hack into anything. It’s not even difficult.” My shoulders slumped as the adrenaline I’d been running on started to wane. “There has to be something I can do to negotiate for Rosco’s life.”
“Oh, you have something I need.” Cord’s eyesnarrowed on me. “You just told me about them. Your skills. I need a hacker.”
My jaw dropped, and a sliver of hope filled my chest. “You want me to work for you?”
Cord pulled Avery into his lap, and they both seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “For fuck’s sake, Rosco. Get off the floor and sit in a fucking chair. You’ve tortured yourself more thoroughly than I ever could.”
Slowly, Rosco did as he asked, still not looking at me.
Finally, I sat down in the chair next to him. “If I work for you, I want a guarantee that Rosco will be safe.”
“Rosco’s life was never in danger.” Cord scrubbed a hand down his face and blew out a long breath. “Fuck, I better not regret revealing this, or I really will fucking kill both of you.”
“You’re allowed to have feelings, Cord. It’s perfectly okay.” Avery leaned up and kissed his cheek.
“I am beyond pissed off about this situation. A threat was brought into my home, and we can’t minimize that. And if you had tried to harm me or my family for real, I would have you executed, Ori. No offense, but I just don’t know you. But I know Rosco. He’s like abrother to me. A big annoying brother who’s never made a single mistake before now.”
“It was inexcusable, Cord.” Rosco’s voice was so quiet I didn’t even recognize it.
I reached my hand out and grabbed his. Part of me expected him to pull away, but he didn’t.
Cord dismissed his concern with a wave of his hand. “I’m sure you have thoughts on what I should do in this situation.”
“If I remain alive, you’ll lose respect for me. Never trust me again...”
“No one here has lost trust in you, Rosco. The only people who know anything about this situation are family. And I know a really great hacker who can remove any and all video evidence that this whole thing happened.”
I perked up at that. “I can totally do that. I already have access to the system. I can remove the last twelve hours. Easy.”
