Page 4

“Alright, mate, get a grip,” I told myself, my voice echoing in the darkness around me.
"Hey, Skylar," came a voice from behind me. Darius, one of the men who worked for us–mostly for Hassan, but sometimes for me–had just done a walkabout of the harbor. "Are you seeing anything?”
“Nothing that looks out of the ordinary,” I said.
He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Good. To tell you the truth, I was worried about those De Luca bastards.”
Those De Luca bastards. The mafia family that happened to be after my boss and my girlfriend’s son. The very mention of them sent a shiver down my spine. “Why? What have you heard?”
“Just a couple of people mentioning their name,” Darius replied. “Nothing worth talking about.”
“Yeah, I haven’t heard a thing,” I said. "Just the usual rumors."
But the truth was, the De Lucas had been on my mind a lot recently. Their brutal control and ruthless reputation within the criminal underworld were legendary, and it was only a matter of time before our paths crossed again.
Back in the day, when I was just moving product for Pedro and Jez, I had run into them. I was sure of it. I just couldn’t recall any of the details.
“Keep looking, Darius,” I said. “We won’t be able to leave the harbor until all our shipment arrives.”
Darius nodded. “You got it, boss,” he said, before he turned around and walked away.
"Skylar! Do you copy?” Zane's voice hissed in my ear through the earpiece, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Yeah,” I said. “Everything okay, doc? You sound out of breath. Have you been touching yourself thinking about me?”
“Fuck’s sake, everyone can hear you,” Zane said, though I could hear the smile in his voice.
“That makes it even hotter.”
“Let’s keep your dick out of this," Zane said. “We have trouble.”
"What's going on?" I asked, the urgency in his tone echoing the unease that had settled in my gut.
"I seem to have lost comms with Lee. He was surveying the harbor and...he's gone. Vanished without a trace," Zane explained, his usually calm voice strained with worry.
"Right. The De Lucas may be involved," I whispered into the earpiece, glancing around the dimly lit street for any signs of danger.
“Keep your eyes peeled,” Zane said. “You want me to go down there?”
I shook my head, quite aware he couldn’t see me. “No, don’t worry. I got this.”
I heard footsteps approaching me and wrapped my hand around the handle of my blade. I knew it wasn’t Darius or Lee, they both seemed to have disappeared.
"Skylar?"
Shit…I knew that voice.
Right out of a damn memory of a run-in with a rival gang when I’d been beaten bloody.
Because the voice belonged to Constantine Brusco, smooth as silk and just as suffocating. He was a capo for Vito de Luca. The guy had been on my level at the time, but he’d been just as crazy as I was–which was saying something. He liked hurting people. I liked hurting people. And when our kind of people clash…
…well, shit gets intense.
And it meant the De Luca family was already on our case after all.
He emerged from the shadows with a wicked smile on his face.
“Coco,” I said, my tone guarded. “What a coincidence.”