Page 43 of Princess's Revenge

He pulls away—Damn, I shouldn’t have added that last part.“Andrea I’m the one who let you out and gave you the gun. Idroveyou there! This is allmy fault.”

“Can you just relax, Franky?” I move toward him but he backs up. “I spoke to the guy, he wasn’t a nice man. What are you getting so worked up about? No one saw us. No one ever has to know this happened.” I put my arms around his waist and kiss him again.

He kisses me back for just a moment, then pushes me away. “We should tell them, Andrea. If we don’t tell my brothers and my father, we’re leaving them vulnerable.”

“No, Francis! They’re just going to start complaining and then you’ll be in even more trouble than I am.Do not tell anyone!”

“You’re drunk. You’re not thinking straight. I don’t even really know if you want me or you just want sex.”

Sigh.What the hell is wrong with this guy?“Okay, we don’t have to have sex. Can we at least cuddle? I don’t want to be alone.”

The long pause makes me think he doesn’t want to, but he nods and sheepishly says, “Okay.”

We curl up together with my head on his chest and I close my eyes, listening to his heartbeat.

This is the first time I’ve ever offered a guy sex and gotten turned down.It’s kind of hot!

CHAPTER 13

Francis is waiting on the porch of my bungalow when I get home this morning. I’d been pulling a safecracking job with my crew in the pre-dawn hours.

We made out like bandits! A little over four-hundred-grand in cash, gold and jewels. What makes it even better is that we didn’t steal it from a citizen.

The guy was an Armenian gangster and started bringing his action to our side of town. We had to teach him a lesson and show him whose turf he’d been operating on.

There’s more than one way to send a message. Things don’t always have to end in violence.

The message we sent was—We own this town. If you want to operate, you’ve got to kick up twenty-percent just like everybody else.

I was riding high from the victory and thinking that I’d buy something pretty for Andrea to celebrate…maybe even take her out to a dinner that Carlo hadn’t made…

…and then I find Franky who quickly spills his guts and tells me what he and Andrea did yesterday.

The first thing I do is shit all over him. The second thing I do is impress upon him the importance of keeping his mouth shut and not tell our father.

The third thing I do is make an important phone call, to see what the fallout was.

Now, you can’t exactly call up a guy you haven’t seen in a month and say, “Hey, did one of your guys get clipped last night? Do you know who did it?”

I mean, if you’ve got the news before they do—You’re obviously the one who did it.

I have to play things extra smooth. It would have been better to wait till later in the day, but I don’t want to talk to Andrea without knowing the full extent of the damage she and Franky may or may not have caused.

Luckily, we do share some projects with the Cassaduchi family. We have a man in the mayor’s office who helpslubricatecertain construction projects for us—Thomas Wheeler.

A few years ago, the Cassaduchis reached out to us for a favor. They wanted to dip in to construction on a housing project and they needed Wheeler to do it.

We now take ten percent of everything Wheeler helps them out with. It’s a finder’s fee in perpetuity.

At the moment, there happens to a big project on the esplanade. That’s been my excuse to call a capo on their side—Leo Abruzzi.He’s the one running point.

The problem is thatanyphone call after someone gets clipped, when it’s not public knowledge yet, is basically an admission of guilt.

I have to pretend to be about calling about one thing, when I’m really calling about something else, and both of those things will have to be lies that he’ll believe…andnot believe at the same time.

After pacing from my living room to my kitchen about twenty times with Francis nervously watching me, I make the call.

Leo answers on the eighth ring, “Yeah?

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