Page 33 of Hidden Ties

Sal stopped what he was doing for a moment, clearly taken aback by her bluntness.

Does shewantto die?

Never in all his life had an outsider asked him something like that, let alone just come out and say the wordmafia. He knew she understood how serious it was, considering she had brought a weapon in to meet the head of the family, yet she’d say risky shit like that?

The woman was an anomaly, for sure, and she was damn fucking lucky he was the one who controlled all the cameras and audio in the Casino Hotel. God forbid Lucca heard her talk so freely.

The question was: Did he entertain it in private? Should he just shut her ass down here and now? Or did he just say fuck it, ’cause the woman wasn’t stupid enough to believe anything other than the truth, anyways?

Goddammit … Lucca’s going to kick my fucking as—

“Notexactly.”

“Well, what doesnot exactlymean?” she asked. Sensing Sal’s frustration with the wires, she went to help him hook it up correctly. When she took a look, it was no wonder he was having trouble—he had all the wires messed up.

What a noob.

Flustered from her questioning,Sal gave up and let her do it. He knew exactly how to hook the stupid thing up. He had only done it a million times growing up. He was The Great fucking Salvatore, for fuck’s sake. If she knew he was the notorious hacker, there was no way Valerie would have even stepped in to help in the first place. Knowing her degree and job, he knew without a shadow of a doubt Valerie knewofThe Great Salvatore, but he had yet to tell her, secretly hoping it would never come out. If he thought she talked too much now, he would never get her to shut up if she did know exactly who he was. All the questions she’d ask him about how he did this or that would be endless. This whole time, Valerie was thinking he was hiding only the fact he was a made man, when in actuality, little did she know he was more concerned with hiding his even bigger secret.

“Come on …” Valerie nudged, looking like she was about to resort to begging. “I promise I won’t tell anyone. I haven’t even been able to contact my friend.” You could see something click in her mind, then. “Shit, he’s probably worried sick, actually. I’ll need to find a way to talk to him—”

“Him?” an astonished Sal questioned once he realized her sole friend, whom she had been playing with for years, was a guy. For some reason, albeit sexist, he’d assumed Valerie played online with a girl when she mentioned her friend.

“Yes …” She stared at him strangely and like he’d suddenly grown a third eye. “Justice is a guy. Why would that matter?”

Shit, am Ijealous?

“No reason,” he quickly clarified, but his words were unable to convince even himself. The stinge of jealousy was unprecedented for him and simply couldn’t go unnoticed.

Sighing, he took a seat on the edge of his bed in defeat from needing his thoughts and this conversation to move on to adifferent subject. So much so, he was even willing to risk his own life to do so—

“Lately,it’s been complicated.BeforeLucca took over the family, no woman had ever been anywhere near the business. But recently, the first one in Caruso history took a position.”

“Ooo… that’s so cool.” Proud the family had stepped into the twenty-first century, she was slightly envious, but way more intrigued of the mystery lady. “I need to meet her.”

“Oh no, you don’t.” He nipped that right in the bud. “I will be doing everything in my power to make sure you don’t meet Maria.”

Valerie pouted. “You’re no fun.”

“I will, however, be letting you meet my sister, Katarina. While she’s not as heavily into the family business as Maria is, she is married to a made man and has taken on an accounting role. I think she might have a job for you at the Casino Hotel.”

“Don’t get me wrong or anything—I’m excited to meet your sister—but I’m not that good with numbers. I’d rather vomit every day for the rest of my life than do anything with accounting.”

“I’m confident, between my sister and I, we will find something for you here.”

For some reason, Valerie really didn’t like the sound of that. But she’d worry about that at a later time. Right now, as she got the old gaming system finally up and running, it was time to whoop Sal’s ass in Mario Kart.

“You sure you want to hook it up in your bedroom?” she asked a bit nervously when it was time to sit down beside him on the bed, since there was no chair. The way he looked in his tight,sleeveless shirt as it showed off his lean muscles was simply criminal.

“The TV downstairs doesn’t have the right hookup. It’s too new.”

Lies.

Liar.

Big fucking liar.

The system could so hook up to the TV downstairs, but he didn’t have any other perfectly good reason to get her in his bed. Other than being honest with the fact he wanted to fuck her … andthathe didn’t even want to admit to himself, as she had been his sworn enemy for the past six months.