Page 223 of Boyfriend of the Hour

Mike shook his head but stopped quickly, as it seemed to cause him pain. “Not now.”

“What the hell?” I ignored him completely. “You’re wrapped up with the Antonis? Lea already blames all of this on me and is never going speak to me again, so I think I should at least know why.”

“If she does that, then she hasn’t been fuckin’ listening to me for the past two months,” Mike said grimly. “The Antonis were always coming back for me. It was just a matter of time. Every so often, they sniff around, and after meeting you, he decided this was it.”

“Why?” I asked. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Mike, but whyyou?”

He somehow looked even grimmer as his sooty black eyes narrowed at me. “It happened when you were just a kid. When Lea and I first met, and before then. Even before I went away.”

I pressed my mouth together. It wasn’t a secret that Lea had met Mike right after he had gotten out of prison. At the time, he was the charity case our grandfather had taken in as a favor to the local priest.

But beyond my conversation with Lea, I didn’t know anything else about his connection with the Antoni organization. And I still had no idea why someone like him—a mechanic, sometimes driver, reformed bad boy, and home-centered family man—would earn the attention of a boss like Lis Antoni.

“Because I’m loyal. And because I’m smarter than most of the jackasses who work for him,” Mike said. “Before I went to prison, I had a deal with Mancuso, the old head of the organization. Three cars in exchange for them paying my little brother’s hospital bills.”

“You had a brother?” More information I never knew.

Mike nodded. “He died while I was in prison. Cerebral palsy.”

“Jesus.” I reached out to pat his shoulder, the only part of him that didn’t seem in pain. “I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well. They didn’t pay his bills, which is why he died. So, when I got out and one of the lower soldiers tried to call in the rest of my debt, I told him to fuck off. They brought me to another safe house and threatened your family. I was going to get sucked back in before Lea tracked me down. Reckless woman put herself in danger to protect me. Could have gotten herself killed too.”

Mike shook his head like he still couldn’t believe it even though it had happened almost twenty years ago. I couldn’t either.Leahad been involved?

“Lis took a shine to her and to me. Admired her guts, I think. And my integrity. He said a man whose woman would stand up for him that way must be worth having a second shot. It was Ares who did it.”

“Ares?” I wondered.

“His son,” Mike clarified. “But now Lis wants his due. He wants me. And apparently, he wants you too.”

“Me?” I wondered. “What doIhave to do with it? Why would he want me?”

“Because he fuckin’ does, Joni!” Mike burst out, though it looked like it pained him to do so. “Because it sounded like fun. Because he thought you were hot. Because he’s trying to control your ex. The fuck if I know, honestly. Guys like these don’t do things for the regular reasons everyone else uses. They operate on a different kind of logic. You get me?”

I bit my lip, willing tears—big hopeless ones—not to fall. If what he was saying was true, then we were really fucked.

“Or maybe you just gave him the excuse,” Mike said a little more softly now. “But don’t beat yourself up over it. He wouldhave found another reason to track me down anyway. Like I said, it was just a matter of time.”

He looked tired. He looked angry. But he also looked resigned, and that was probably the scariest part of all.

“Do you know where we are?” I wondered, looking around the dingy little room with its bare walls, cement floor, and the odd couch with its faded tartan that was straight out of the seventies.

“No fuckin’ clue. Lis used to have a headquarters in a building in Morrisania. I doubt it’s the same place—organizations like these always move around—but could be somewhere similar. I’m guessing it took them maybe fifteen minutes or so to move me here, so we’re local. Other than that, I don’t know.”

“If Lea knows, will she come here?” I hated the idea of my sister getting involved, but she might know where to send the police.

Mike shook his head. “She took the kids up to Boston to see your brother.”

I processed that for a moment. It meant we were still in New York. Probably still in the Bronx. But in a city of eight million people, that could be anywhere.

More importantly, there was no one left who cared where either of us were.

Again, I felt that odd bobbing sensation. But a building wouldn’t move. Would it?

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“You said it,” Mike agreed. “Bad news, they won’t be back for a week. Good news, once they are, Lea will raise holy hell until she finds us.”