“Shit,” I mutter. “I’m sorry, Patty. This is all happening because of me. Savio has me backed into a corner right now and I feel like any way I run, he’s gonna charge my cock with a machete.”
“That’s pretty graphic,” Patty muses. “And I don’t want you to lose your cock.”
“Thanks. I’m pretty attached to it.” I pace the length of the room, raking a hand through my hair.
“We’re watching him, just to make sure he doesn’t get too close to Joey or his family.” Patty sighs, collapsing into a chair. “I’d like to just kill Lugo and be done with it, but the backlash will destroy us. Lugo’s crew will retaliate, and with Savio in the mix pulling the strings, it’s just too dangerous. I’ve got a wife and kid to think about.”
“I’d never ask you to go head to head with him.” I rub the back of my neck. “But I might be close to something. Savio wants me to babysit Anton Ivankov’s girls, for some reason. I think Anton was hiding something from him. Savio keeps talking about a threat to the Leota Commission, that Anton was doing something behind his back. Maybe he thinks there could be evidence of something Anton was working on, something that could tear Savio down. If I had to guess, he’s gonna use me to get it for him and use Joey to keep me on task. But if I find something damaging, I can bury him and then Lugo loses his biggest protector. Joey will be the last thing Savio is worrying about if he’s at risk for losing his empire.”
“Those are some bold goals, Massimo.” Patty steeples his fingers, staring up at me with one eyebrow quirked. “You don’t even know what you’re looking for.”
“Knowing Savio, it’s something that can crush him. He’d never stick his neck out like this unless he was about to lose big. He doesn’t give a damn about the Ivankov girls and he’s using me to get in close. He wants me to cozy up to the oldest one for some reason but he won’t say why.” I rub the back of my neck, massaging the stress knot at the base of my skull. “Turning the tables on him is the only way I win, Patty. The only way Joey survives. And the only fucking way I put the nightmare behind me for good.” My lips stretch into a tight line. “I have no choice. He dragged me into this. Now I’m gonna make him pay for all of it.”
“Just be careful. I know you’re holding on to a whole lot of anger, Mas. And even though he deserves to have it unleashed on him like a fucking hive full of killer bees, I don’t want to see you suffer the consequences. We’ll be ready to make our move whenever you need us. In the meantime, don’t get caught in his crosshairs. He’s got a lot of enemies out there and I don’t want you to be targeted as the prodigal son.”
“Nobody even knows who I really am. He’s passing me off as a bodyguard. I’ve been gone for so long, people probably thought I left the state with my mother or wound up dead at some point. They don’t suspect anything.”
“Yet.” Patty’s expression is grave. “People have ways of figuring things out. They pay a lot for information. And if you’re real identity is exposed, it opens us up to a whole lot of problems. Big ones. Deadly ones.”
I peer out the window at the group of middle school-aged boys running into the gym. I may not have a wife or a kid but these guys…Patty, Quinn, and the boys who make up our community outreach program, Sportsocity…they’re my family now. I can’t let anything happen to them.
I’ve already lost so damn much.
I can’t risk any more devastation.
But until I have whatever it is that Savio wants, he’s the one in control.
So I have to fucking bend over and take it.
We leave the office a few minutes later, the strain of my life under siege choking me slowly and agonizingly. The kids are passing a basketball between them, running in circles and goofing around just like you’d expect a bunch of raucous twelve-year-old guys to do when they finally feel like they can let go of all the shit weighing them down at home and at school.
Sportsocity is all about that release.
I could use some of it myself.
I grab a ball and start organizing the guys into lines for our first drill when the door to the gym slams open. The metal door crashes against the sheetrock with a loud bang and I jerk my head around, my eyes widening.
Holy fuck.
They found me.
Chapter Thirteen
KRISTINA
“I need to talk to you now. Alone.”
I stormed onto the basketball court at the YMCA in midtown Manhattan without paying a bit of attention to my surroundings, and now that I’m standing in front of Massimo, I take a glance around at the gaggle of boys who’ve stopped dead in their tracks to watch.
“How’d you know I was here?” he asks, his eyes narrowing.
“I called Savio. He told me where you’d be.”
A flicker of something that looks suspiciously like annoyance shadows his face and I clench my fists. “Is that a problem?”
“Not one that’s yours to solve,” he says. “Wanna tell me why you are so desperate to get to me?”
“I will once we’re alone.” I throw a pointed glance over her shoulder at my uncle and sisters who are cowering by the door.
He stares at me for a long second and then turns to the tall guy behind him. “I’m gonna take a quick break. Start without me.”
The tall guy, who is so insanely hot that I’d have to be dead not to notice him, flashes a knowing smirk and he jogs toward the group of boys, gathering them together with a blow of his whistle.
Massimo nods toward a makeshift office off the gym floor and I walk stiffly toward it, trying to keep my focus on the issue at hand, my family’s safety.
But I can’t lie and say that Massimo’s cologne doesn’t swirl around my head, making me dizzy with lust.
I can’t ignore the spark of electricity that sizzles my insides when his eyes meet mine.
And I definitely can’t deny the way my knees wobble and my stomach flutters when I’m in his airspace.
But I shove all of that useless crap to the back of my mind because right now, I need his help.
And I’ll pay whatever he wants to protect us from this Aziz Shishani guy even though I can’t tell him who he’s protecting us from.
Once the door is closed behind us, I let out a shuddering breath. Ever since we left Long Island to come into the city, I’ve been swallowing down the angst and fear bubbling deep in my chest like hot, all-consuming lava that will torch everything in its path if I let it erupt.
That would be a fucking mess of epic proportions and I held it all back for the entire trip, instead letting it ravage my insides.
But now that I’m here, it’s dangerously close to the surface, percolating wildly just beneath my prickled flesh.
“I need to hire you,” I blurt out. “I’ll pay whatever you want, but you have to start immediately.”
His brows furrow. “I figured you decided to take a gamble and stick with your uncle back there when I didn’t hear from you after the funeral.”
I toss a glance over my shoulder at Uncle Frank’s fiery expression, remembering the toxic exchange I’d had with him about the terms of the will. I didn’t tell him anything other than the fact that the full estate was put into my name, but it was enough to throw him into a fit of rage. “Yeah, well, let’s just say that I got some news today that made me realize security isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s an absolutely-fucking-necessary type of thing.”