Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
But the door opens before I find him.
“Marco? I thought I heard you—” A woman’s voice. I look over and jerk back away from him, startled to find an attractive girl standing in his doorway. Her hair’s disheveled as if she had been sleeping on it, and she’s wearing a pair of black tights and a slouchy tank top. She’s got dark hair and tan skin with a round face and big lips. Frankly, she’s gorgeous, and I recognize her immediately.
Everyone in my family knows who Valentina Santoro is.
The daughter of our mortal enemy.
Luciano’s own flesh and blood.
And there she is, standing in Marco’s doorway, looking like she slept over.
“Val, this isn’t a good time,” Marco says, sounding pained. “Listen, Laura, this is—”
“I know who she is.” I step away from them, my heart racing so much I think I might fall over. “I shouldn’t have come here. This was a bad idea.”
“Is that Laura Bianco?” The woman sounds completely shocked, probably as surprised as I am. “Marco, what the hell?”
“I’ll explain later,” he says sharply. “Just go back inside. Please, Val, give me a second.”
“You’re seeing a Bianco?” She laughs sharply. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Valentina—”
“Yeah, I heard you. Go ahead and finish up your little scene or whatever. We’ll talk.” She turns around and disappears into the apartment, slamming the door behind her.
Marco looks like he’s in pain as he turns to me. “Hold on a second.”
“You’re with Valentina Santoro.” The words come out like vomit. My throat feels like it’s closing.
“No, we’re not together. We’re just friends.”
“Just friends? She’s in your apartment and it’s early in the morning. She slept over last night. And she’s freaking Valentina Santoro. I can’t, I don’t—” I back away from him, shaking my head.
“Laura, please, just stay and talk. Come inside and we’ll discuss this. Valentina’s a good friend, but she’s only a friend. I trust her.”
“You trust her.” I let out a frazzled laugh. I’m not sure what I can believe anymore. Jackal is a Santoro Capo, he’s Marco Vitale, he’s a liar and a fake, he’s a stranger in a mask. He’s got the daughter of my family’s mortal enemy in his place sleeping in his bed. A sick, ugly jealousy rushes through me. “I have to go.”
“Laura—”
I turn and walk away. He calls after me but I block him out. Jackal is a liar; Jackal is a stranger. I don’t even know that man back there, except I do know him, I know him better than I’ve known anyone in a very long time and he knows me too. I let him into my life, let him into my world, let him become a part of me, and now I realize how big of a mistake I made, as I rush down the stairs and hurry to my car, not sure why everything’s so blurry until I wipe the tears away with my sleeve.
Chapter 23
Marco
My office feels stifling, but I can’t peel myself from my monitors. I have a job—just a simple hack-and-blackmail gig from one of the big motorcycle gangs in the area—except I can’t concentrate on it.
All I do anymore is refresh Laura’s camera feeds.
But nothing ever comes up.
She unplugged them. They’re simply not connected to the network anymore. And the only reason I know is that I still have my backdoor into her system.
That keeps giving me a steady dose of hope. Every morning since she came to my condo, I wake up and check that connection, and every morning I find it’s still active.
Like the thinnest tether keeping me connected to her.
That was five days ago. I’ve sent her several messages since then trying to get her to talk to me, but she never replies. It’s all dark from her end, except for the connection, and I’m afraid one day she’ll decide to tell the Bianco IT people about it, and then I’ll be ejected from their system for good.
There’s a knock at my door and Valentina sticks her head inside. She makes a face and pinches her nose. “Smells like sweaty man balls in here.”
“Are there non-man balls?”
“Don’t be fresh with me.” She leans against the doorframe but doesn’t come in. Her arms cross over her chest, but at least she’s smiling. “You take care of that thing for Gregory yet?”
I shake my head. “Working on it.”
“He keeps bothering me, and you know how I feel about Gregory.” Valentina’s expression darkens. “He’s a creep of galactic scale.”
She’s got a good point. Gregory’s the leader of the Faithful Servants MC, and he’s got serious murder-suicide vibes. “Tell him to talk to me.”
“He likes me and you know he won’t listen. So just do the job and get it over with.” She shivers and rubs her shoulders. “He said he likes when we work together because I have nice hair. He says I have nice hair, Marco. Next step is he’s going to break into my place and shave my head to make a weird little sex doll.”