Page 61 of Orion Ruined

I press my lips to hers and she responds. We kiss softly, but she ends it all too soon, and rests her head on my chest again.

“It’s okay. You’re in shock, that’s all.”

“I’m not.”

“I’m a real doctor here, did you know that?”

She nods. “You guys keep forgetting. I have a photographic memory.”

“We don’t forget, we just don’t put that much importance on it. You’re so much more than your genius mind.”

She flashes her teeth at me in a grin. I get the impression no one’s ever said that to her. “Well, I’ve seen your medical record from during your residency,” she says.

“Where?”

“Jerry’s place. He was the sort of record-keeper for Milan.”

“Sneaky fucker. Why would he have that? What use is it to him?”

She shrugs. “There were many documents with your name in there. One was from a DNA facility.”

I sit up. This is getting serious. My DNA?

“It said ‘positive match.’ And it had your name on it, Logan Vitali. That’s all.”

“Maisy, why didn’t you mention this sooner?”

She looks apologetic. “You didn’t ask me.”

“Anything else?”

“Lorenzo Vitali–was he your father?”

“Yes.”

“And he’s in the adult industry?”

“Yes, why?”

“Because I read someone cut off his… you know what. It’s how he died. Bled out.”

I raise an eyebrow. “In Milan’s files?”

“Yes. Who took over from him?”

“My cousins,” I lie. I can’t tell Maisy the whole truth, it would kill her. My cousins run the adult industry operations, but they report to me. No matter how much I hate that side of the business, none of the fuckers would let it go.

“So they could have my video?”

I see now. Clever girl. “I assure you, sweetheart, Milan’s our sworn enemy. There’s not a chance in this world that we’d have a video of you. Or that he’d give it to us.”

“Sure. Does the name Bobby Saunders mean anything to you?”

“Yes, it does.”

“It was in the same pile where your father’s name kept appearing. Bobby Saunders and Maurice Het.”

We cut Maurice’s balls off for being a snitch. And then, of course, we fed them to his dogs. His trusted pit bull terriers tore him apart. It’s what we do to snitches.

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