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I don't expect my new consigliere to have much to say on this matter. A few days ago, he thought I was going to end his life, not offer him a job. But if this is going to work, I need him to be honest with me at all times.

I nod. "You can say it."

Adrian sucks in a long breath, as if preparing himself to say something I won't like. "She's a distraction."

I huff. Rising from my seat, I head to the bar cart. "When did you two become friends who agree on shit?" I grumble as I pour two fingers of amber liquid. Since John kidnapped the lawyer and had him beaten up, Adrian's watched John with a wary gaze. And even though I initiated Adrian after Lana and Naz's wedding, John still doesn't fully trust the man. But apparently, when it comes to Olivia, the two are on the same team.

"Since when do you care about some old man with dementia?" John bites back as he drops into the other leather chair next to Adrian. I sigh as I retake my seat behind the desk.

"Since his granddaughter witnessed me killing my uncle." The words taste bitter. "And since she's living under my roof now."

John's gaze flicks back to Adrian. "And what do you think aboutthat?"

Bitterness burns under my skin as my cousin uses our new consigliere to tell me what a bad idea this is.As if I don't already know.

Adrian rubs a hand over his jaw. "She's a liability, Sam. She witnessed you take out Damien. She could run to the police at any moment and?—"

"She's not going to run to the police," I interrupt.

"How do you know that?" John snaps.

I trust herisn't the answer they're looking for. And truthfully, I have no reason to trust her.

"I have men watching her. I installed a surveillance app on her phone." I sigh, pulling her phone from my top drawer and waving it for effect. My men took it when they picked her up. "If she tries to do anything stupid, like call the cops, I'll be alerted. And, as part of that list," I pause to gesture to the yellow paper John's still holding, "you're going to install cameras in the bar, discretely."

John runs a hand through his dark hair, pulling at the roots. "What if you’re too late? Or what if you miss her calling someone from another phone? You're not thinking clearly, Sam. Is this girl worth risking everything?"

Yes.

I don't know why I think that. Clearly, the answer is no. But I can't seem to let her go.

"What, you'd have me kill her?"

"It'd be easier. And more efficient," John says, making Adrian wince.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves—" My new consigliere tries to rein us back in.

"But those are the options, aren't they?" I drum my fingers against the wood of my desk, annoyance simmering beneath my skin. Is that what they would have me do? Kill the girl? I can't do that, and not just because Iwanther for some unknown reason. But also because my father would roll over in his grave if he knew I was killing women.

I scrub a hand over my face. My little witness is making me crazy.

"We're not asking you to kill her," Adrian says. John lets out a huff like he disagrees, but he doesn't say anything. "You sure keeping her close is the best play here? She's a liability. She's holding the key that could send you back to prison. "

The man isn't wrong.

"She won't." I bring my glass to my lips, savoring the smoky liquid.

"What if she talks?" Adrian asks, an eyebrow lifting with the question.

"She's not going to."

"You don't know that." It's John who cuts in this time, the two of them playing a delicate dance of trying to persuade me that keeping Olivia is trouble.

And they're right. All the logic in me knows that keeping a witness alive is a bad idea.

But I can't kill her.

Won'tkill her.