Page 16 of Twisted Trust (Mafia Lords of Sin #10)

MAEVE

“ I ’m telling you it’s not here.” Chip pulls the car up to the sidewalk and parks outside my apartment. “We cleared everything out.”

“No, you cleared out everything you thought I would need because none of you have ever raised a child before.”

“You don’t know that,” Chip challenges until he meets my accusatory gaze and groans softly. “Okay, fine. I knew I should have told the movers just to bring everything.”

Climbing out of the car, I gaze up at my apartment building and Cameron immediately enters my thoughts. “When Levi said his men were bringing things from my apartment, I thought he meant everything, but I guess someone decided they knew better.”

“Like you said,” Chip grumbles as he appears next to me. “None of us have raised kids before.”

“Well if you ever get around to it, know that there’s nothing more powerful than a four-year-old’s bond to the most unusual things like the towel you guys left behind or the blue plastic chair he insists on sitting on after every shower.”

“Isn’t that the sort of stuff you try to wean kids off of?” Chip asks as he follows me up the metal stairs to my door.

“Do you want to deny my kid the only things that soothe him after everything he’s been through?

” The look I give Chip could wither roses.

“He’s a baby who has been ripped out of his routine, sleeping in a strange bed, surrounded by too much excitement.

I need to give him stability and security until things calm down. ”

“Alright.” Chip raises both hands in surrender when we reach the landing, then he moves past me to unlock the door.

Across the landing, Cameron’s door is firmly closed with some loose mail sitting on the doormat.

It must all be junk. Anything worthwhile would be stolen already.

It’s strange that I haven’t heard from him.

I’ve called as often as I dare over the past few days hoping he’ll somehow pick up and tell me he’s okay, but the longer the silence drags on, the more I fear the worst. If he’s dead and it’s somehow my fault, I’ll never forgive myself.

“Besides, Levi didn’t think of everything, did he?” While Chip unlocks the door, I rummage through my mailbox until I find the letter from the bank with my new card. Waving it in the air, I smirk as Chip grumbles something under his breath and waves me across the threshold.

Inside my apartment, the stink of rotting food hangs in the air like a silent threat so I quickly clear out the fridge of everything left behind. As I clean, Chip wanders from room to room and only allows me to leave the kitchen once he’s certain the apartment is secure.

“Do you really think someone is hiding in my wardrobe on the off chance I came back here?” I say as I start gathering up all the important toys to Scott that were missed by Levi’s clean-up crew.

“You’d be surprised how desperate people can get,” Chip replies, hovering in the doorway.

“Desperate like Levi desperate for an heir and locks me into an engagement where I’m suddenly expected to churn out a baby?”

“Maybe,” Chip murmurs. “Levi is in a tough situation.”

“My heart bleeds.”

“You know, did it ever occur to you that you might have hurt him just as badly as you feel you were hurt?” The accusation in Chip’s tone sends a chill down my spine and I straighten up immediately, glaring at him.

“No, it didn’t occur to me because one, I thought he was dead so I fucking grieved him and two, when I was told he was alive, the reunion I dreamed of turned into a nightmare because he wanted to kill my baby and make me watch, then kill me because he was so angry with me. So no, I didn’t consider his feelings.”

A strange look passes over Chip’s face, like a cross between alarm and confusion and his lips part, but he just as quickly changes his mind and shakes his head. “You should talk to him.”

“Oh, sure,” I mutter, grabbing a few of Scott’s old coloring books and adding them to the bag. “Because talking always works so damn well.”

“Well at least he didn’t put you off men for good with someone like Cameron around.”

I shoot him another withering glare. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“How am I being ridiculous? From what I’ve heard, Cameron sounds like a decent guy, so what’s not to like?”

“He was my friend, not my lover. Just what exactly do you think of me?”

Chip steadily meets my gaze. “Currently, nothing I can say out loud.”

“Do you hate me as much as Levi does?”

Chip’s gaze falls down to the bag clutched in my hand. “I have Levi’s back. Nothing else matters.”

“How independent of you,” I mutter as I walk up to him. “Excuse me, I need to get to the bathroom.”

He sidesteps me and follows like a shadow. “But you must have been close with Cameron to trust him with your kid.”

“Yeah. He cooked me food, brought in my mail. He was really good with Scott. He was just a regular guy, and you know what? That was amazing after Levi. Cameron was like the earth if Levi was like fire.”

“And Cameron’s friends, the people he hung around with. Were they as nice as him?”

I pause folding up Scott’s favorite towel and slowly turn to face Chip. “What’s with the interrogation?”

He shrugs one shoulder. “Just asking.”

“No, I know you. You never just ask . You’re like Levi, the two of you are never casual discussers. What’s going on?”

Chip leans his shoulder against the doorframe and crosses his arms. “You’re not gonna like it.”

“Try me.”

“Well, your Mr. Down to Earth neighbor isn’t as squeaky clean as you might think.

Everything about his disappearance points to his being involved with something shady.

Now mostly, we don’t give a shit what it is, but we do care if there’s a chance it will leak into our own business deals.

And given how highly you think of him and he of you, there’s a chance. ”

“Cameron wasn’t a criminal,” I snap as my stomach starts to somersault within itself and I twist the towel in my hands. “He was a good guy.”

“Sure,” Chip replies with an obvious note of disbelief in his voice.

“He was!”

“Sure,” Chip replies again.

Frustration builds like overwhelming heat inside me until it boils over and I throw the towel in Chip’s face.

“He was! He was my friend, okay? You don’t get to stand there and judge him when you and Levi destroyed my life, okay?

You don’t get to do that. He’s a boring, normal guy and I’m worried about him!

Honestly, why don’t you look closer to home because I bet Levi is the one behind all of this! ”

Chip drags the towel down from where it caught on his shoulder and quietly folds it up. “Levi would never do anything to risk Scott. We don’t harm kids. I thought we made that clear.”

“Bullshit.”

“Don’t you think if we did, Levi would have taken care of both of you in the hospital?”

“I ran away,” I snap heatedly. “He didn’t have the chance.”

“He had Scott in his arms on the drive over. You were unconscious for two hours. He had plenty of chances but he didn’t. You can think what you want but the truth remains that we did not touch Cameron. Someone else did, or it was made to look like someone else did, but it wasn’t us.”

Chip’s words haunt me all the way through the drive back to the penthouse with Scott’s most favored items clutched in my lap.

I had been clinging to the idea that Levi was somehow behind Cameron’s disappearance because Levi as the villain is comforting.

He’s a bad guy I know and one I mostly know how to deal with.

But if it really wasn’t him, then what was Cameron wrapped up in? And how do Scott and I factor into it? Was Scott truly just an accidental gain and whoever has Cameron just released him onto the Strip for the fun of it? Or was that Cameron’s doing as a last-chance good deed?

I need answers. I need to know what happened to my friend.

Thoughts of Cameron continue to swirl around my chest like fog on the elevator up to the penthouse, but my puzzle solving is derailed the moment the doors open and I’m met with several armed guards.

One takes all the items out of my arms and before I can protest, I’m swept through to the lounge where Levi stands near the balcony and an elderly woman sits perched on the very edge of the couch.

Her grey curls are tightly pinned around her head with silver glittering clips.

Her red dress hugs a shapely figure even for her visible age, and the wrinkles around her red painted lips deepen when she sees me.

Even from here, the powder on her cheeks is visible under this light, but there’s an elegance about her that reminds me of the old shows where all the women wore pearls and waved sailors off to sea.

“Ma.” Levi flashes me a quick smile as he walks closer to me. “This is Maeve. Maeve, this is my mother, Marcella.”

I’ll kill Levi later for allowing me to be surprised like this. Quickly smoothing my shirt and tucking my hair behind my ear, I smile politely and hold out my hand. “It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs. Gallo.”

“How old are you?” she asks abruptly, not even looking up at me as she smooths out the gloves resting in her lap.

“Uhm—” I glance at Levi who looks almost as alarmed as I feel. “I’m twenty-seven.”

“And you already have a child?” She sniffs suddenly and then looks at me, and I get the horrible feeling that she regards me as a bad smell.

“Yes. My son, Scott. He’s four.”

Her grey eyes flit up and down me. “Where is his father?”

My heart begins to race and I swallow hard around a sudden lump in my throat. Sweat warms my back and prickles my hairline at the back of my neck. “Dead.”

“How?”

“Car accident.”

“When?”

“Before Scott was born.” I can feel Levi’s gaze boring into me with the heat of the sun, but I can’t look at him.

As much as I’m fighting to keep my cool, the last thing I need is for some detail to slip and alert Levi to Scott’s true parentage.

That’s a battle I won’t win. Me versus a family with more money and power than I can dream of?

Scott would be taken from me in an instant.

“I understand you’re homeless and jobless,” Marcella continues.

“Mom,” Levi warns suddenly. “This isn’t an interrogation.”

“I deserve to know everything about the stranger entering this family,” Marcella replies sharply. “Now be quiet.” Her cold gaze locks with mine. “Well?”

“I have an apartment,” I reply quickly, clutching my trembling hands together at my waist. Why is she so scary? It’s like dealing with all my old clients wrapped up into one.

“That you’ve missed three rent payments on?”

Shame grows in my chest and my cheeks flush. “Well, yes, but my previous employer decided I was no longer a good fit for their events?—”

“Events?” Marcella is like a light switch. Suddenly, she’s looking me right in the eye and her brows are raised.

“Yes. I was an event coordinator for a hotel down on the?—”

“Oh, well, isn’t that just excellent!” Marcella stands suddenly and a lukewarm smile creeps across her face. “I look forward to seeing what you plan for your engagement party.”

Her smile feels like a threat and I’m certain her challenge is a test. I have nothing to offer a woman like this, but I do know my craft. If she wants to base my worth on how well I can plan an event, then I’ll plan one so great I’ll knock off every single pearl around her throat.

“It would be a pleasure ,” I reply, smiling widely.

Levi clears his throat suddenly. “Maeve, you don’t have to?—”

“Hush.” I cut him off quickly and glance at him. “I’m happy to.”

Whatever else he plans to say dies as Elio suddenly hurries into the room. “Marcie, honey, I must leave. Levi, we have a dinner with Antony.”

Antony . The mention of his name turns Levi’s face to thunder and his jaw tenses so suddenly that the muscle up on his cheek jumps like it’s trying to escape.

“Why?” he asks with such restrained anger that the air between us suddenly feels charged.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this before and an urge rises to reach out and touch him.

As I do, he quickly moves into my space.

“I’ll explain on the way,” Elio says and he flashes me a brief smile. “Nice to see you, Maeve.”

“You too.”

“Make yourself at home,” Levi says as he brushes a chaste kiss to my cheek. “I’ll be back later.”