Page 28 of Little Bird (Advantage Play 3)

“Thanks.”

“What do you know about me?” he asks, jumping right into the interrogation. I shouldn’t be surprised. He needs answers from me, and he’s a master at getting them by any means necessary. Too bad for him, I won’t be needing any persuasion today.

“Enough,” I respond blandly.

“Enough to know that I’m pretty fucking good at being able to tell if someone is telling the truth or not?”

I hold his stare. “Yeah. I may have heard that.”

“Then let’s cut the shit, shall we? Did you fuck my sister?”

With a slight flinch at his derogatory term, I answer, “Yes.”

He doesn’t move a muscle, but I can tell I’ve surprised him with my honesty.

“Do you care about her the same way she cares about you?” he asks.

I could kick myself for not having read Regina’s letter, but I assume she revealed her feelings for me. If anything, they’re tame compared to what I feel for her.

“Yes,” I answer.

“Am I walking into a trap?”

This is Regina’s brother, and it kills me that I have to tell him that if Burlone gets his way, his blood will be on my hands. “Yes.”

A stone-cold Kingston rests his elbows on the table as he continues studying me. “Are you willing to betray the Allegretti family by giving us confidential information that, if linked back to you, will guarantee the skin being flayed from your body by Burlone? And that if we find out the information you give us is faulty, then we’ll do it ourselves?”

Damn, Regina. Your brother has balls, I think to myself. The fact that he just laid out my likely future without batting an eye proves to me that he deserves all the respect his name demands.

Without hesitation, I answer, “Yes.”

“And what do you want in return?”

An image of Regina flashes through my mind. Her hair is still a tangled mess, and the remnants of makeup cling beneath her eyes. But she’s smiling. At me. There’s so much potential there. All that we could be. All that we could’ve been. If I weren’t a filthy Allegretti and she weren’t the princess of one of the most powerful mafia families in the states. I shake my head to disburse all the potential ways Regina and I could’ve lived our lives if we weren’t stuck with the shit hand we’d both been dealt.

Instead, I simply reply, “I want your sister to be safe.”

His gaze narrows in suspicion, reading me like a book. “Tell me the whole truth, Dex. I told you to cut the shit, remember?”

Bristling, I drop my head back in defeat and stare up at the ceiling. “You want the whole truth, Kingston? Fine. I want her to be safe. But I also want to keep her for myself because she already owns me. I didn’t ask for it because I’m not stupid enough to think it’s a possibility. I’m a fucking Allegretti who’ll be dead by the end of the week as soon as my men find out that I’m the traitor who screwed up Burlone’s plans by squealing to the enemy.” Dragging my hands from the top of my head and down my face, I bring my gaze back to his. “So, yeah. If I can ask for one thing, then I want her safe. That’s it.”

“And you’re not going to ask for your own protection?” he pushes.

“I’m not naïve enough to think I’d get it, Kingston. I’ve been in the game long enough to know you never really trust someone who’s always been your enemy even when they show up at your front door to help you.”

“No. You’re showing up at my front door to help my sister. You don’t give a shit about me because of what your dad did to you as a kid. Or didn’t do, in his case. However, you haven’t always been an enemy to the Romano family. You’re a victim of an old man’s wrong decision, and I think we can both come to an agreement—if you’re willing to prove your loyalty.”

It takes me a second to register his words. My lungs stop expanding, and I hold my breath as I replay his statement in my head. You haven’t always been an enemy. We can both come to an agreement…if I prove my loyalty.

That’s the real question, isn’t it? Kingston wants to know if he can trust me. What he doesn’t understand is that I’m not doing this for him. I’m doing it for her.

Or maybe he does understand, and he’s still willing to play along because, despite how badly he doesn’t want to admit it, if he wants to get out of this alive, then he needs me. And I need him if I want to keep her safe.

“And how do I prove my loyalty?”

Scratching the five o’clock shadow on his jaw, he tells me, “We’ll be in touch.”

Chapter Twenty

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