Page 12 of Silent Night Sins
“Tino, it hurts,” Nicky whispered, reaching for her head.
I shot a death-filled glare at Rake. He’d put ice in the snowball. I knew it. I’d seen it. And now the scrawny fucker was going to know exactly what it felt like to mess with something that was mine.
“What, need a girl to protect you?” he taunted.
“She’s hurt, you ass wipe!” Amanda shouted, scrambling over the fort. “Dad! Daddy!”
“Oh shit,” one of Rake’s posse shouted. As one, the group turned and fled.
I’m coming for you,I promised the punk.
Bending over, I tugged off my glove with my teeth and then took off Nicky’s mitten. “I’m here. I’ve got you, pretty girl.”
Nicky nodded, not even teasing me about the cheesy nickname that didn’t feel wrong.
I’d stayed with her as long as I could. When she was sitting at the kitchen table, face pale and vomiting in the trash bin as her dad prepared to take her to the ER, I held her hand while the adults ran around shouting.
That was the last time I saw Nicole and Amanda up close. Mr. Loring didn’t allow them to visit, saying the neighborhood was too rough for them. By the time the snow melted, Loring took a job at a fancy firm and cut ties with the underworld. He might have turned legit, but I never forgot his daughter—my girl.
There hadn’t been a way to reach her. She went to a classy prep school, transferring out of the public system. I caught glimpses of her at a few football games, but with the change in her dad’s position, I wasn’t supposed to approach them. If it was just a money thing, I would have. But the orders came directly from Don Morelli. We didn’t interact with our old lawyer, and he didn’t turn us over to the law. Fair and square. It would have been nice if that was the way things ended, but right after graduation, Vincenzo was nabbed. Loring’s firm prosecuted the situation, and while we couldn’t confirm it, we felt the betrayal as personal when my brother was sentenced to eight years upstate at the maximum-security penitentiary.
“We need the UTTER-Bax Corp to back off,” Don Morelli growled.
His capos nodded in agreement.
“Unfortunately, their corporate stooge wasn’t home when I made a house call,” I drawled. “Are we sure Archy is our way in?”
Don Morelli fisted his diet soda. “He’ll do it for old time’s sake. Put some pressure where it hurts.”
The risk of exposure was great. Loring hadn’t hurt us in the years past, but any new action was a dangerous balancing act on the knife’s edge.
“Consider it done,” I said simply. Anything for a reason to watch the house—to be nearher.
Chapter 5 – Nicole
Best Sista Eva:Promise you don’t hate me?
I sighed. My fingers tapped on the digital letters.
Me:I could never hate you.
Me:But I expect a very, VERY large present under the tree come xmas morning.
Her response bubbled in a moment later.
Best Sista Eva:Done & done!
I clicked my screen off and slapped my phone face down on the island. The Tex-Mex feast was spread over the counter, ready to be finished when she walked through the door. There was no point indulging in the queso and tequila now. Maybe later I would feel like it, but this was our thing.
“I don’t hate you,” I promised.
But the ache in my chest wouldn’t go away as I packed up the dinner and put it in the fridge. Amanda was just like Dad, married to her job. She was going places. The law firm would be crazy not to offer her a permanent position after the stint she was pulling as a junior associate. She was working late tonight to finish the briefs, then getting up early to go work all day tomorrow and Sunday to make sure the case laws were in order for Monday’s meeting.
“No, thank you,” I muttered.
I wasn’t above pulling long hours, but no job was worth my life.
Looking around the empty kitchen, I debated what to do with the rest of my Friday night. If she was in my same shoes, my bubbly, outgoing sisterwould grab a group of friends and hit the clubs. I didn’t tolerate fake girlfriends well enough to drink and dance with them. The few close friendships I nurtured were all an ocean away. We bonded over things like books and movies.
