Page 27

Arosso

Call it guilt because of my bombastic younger cousin, but I helped repair the set of Chilling Desires alongside the crew.

Yeah, everything will be reimbursed and paid for, but nothing really makes up for lost time, so I threw the director a bone and waited late into the night until shooting wrapped up.

Bonus points that Quinn loved every second of it.

She felt part of her favorite stupid show.

Guess that counts for something. And best of all…

I said something I don’t regret. Been fighting the thoughts and suppressing them as infatuation or lust or whatever .

But it’s not just those things. I care deeply for her.

I do actually love her.

It’s only been a handful of months since I met her, but what’s right is right. I’m old enough to fucking know.

Now we’re in the car pulling up to our safe house, and I know there’s a world of trouble inside. Her father is going to be livid.

“Let me handle him.” Quinn puts her arm over mine before I exit the car.

“This is my responsibility.” I eye her with no room for question. “I’ll deal with it.”

“Hey.” Her hand slips down to clasp into mine. “Today was amazing. And I loved every part of it.” She leans over and touches the stich over my eyebrow.

“Even the fighting?” I ask.

She raises her eyebrows. “You championed for me. Felt like Game of Thrones .”

I scoff. “Idiot.”

“Says the guy with dried blood and bruises,” she scowls right back.

“You have a few of your own.”

We both smile into a kiss.

“I earned those, though.” She sticks her tongue to the top of her lip like the naughty woman she is.

I’m not going to lie… I thought our chemistry would fizzle after sex. Thing is… I enjoy her. The way she gets giddy over stupid shit. I don’t know… guess it’s contagious or something.

You know what? It’s more than that… she’s easy to talk to, and she’s hardened enough not to fold into a little clam when shit gets rough. I can appreciate that.

We exit and go into the house. I can feel the tension as I walk toward the locked cellar door. There’s a chance he’s waiting at the top to tackle me, but that would be a dumb move that could result with both of us tumbling down the basement steps.

Krchk.

I open the door to silence. Even more eerie.

Pointing sternly for Quinn to head upstairs, I make my descent.

“Patrick,” I call. “Want to apologize for the unexpected turns today. Your daughter is safe… we just had an issue on set—”

A hand grabs for my collar, but I dash back, push his arm all the way across his chest to disable him, and grab his collar so I’m the one in control. He could use his weight to body me, but my muscle would overpower.

“ Hey! ” I yell. “I already apologized.”

He grunts and backs away, fixing his oversized wrinkled shirt.

“You’re all beaten up. I thought you were out of the game, Arosso.

” His teeth grind, and he continues to shove me, getting out his anger.

“Are you a swindler like everyone else in that crime family of yours? I swear if you put my daughter in harm’s way—”

“I didn’t. Now back up so we can talk.”

He grunts and runs a hand through his hair. “Don’t know how much more I can take of this.”

“Of what?”

“You goddamn kidding me? Four walls! Locked in a basement while my blue brother scours the state to find me, while a mobster runs around doing pick-ups with my daughter—”

“Remember why you’re still breathing, Captain. Remember why she still breathes. You think it’s happenstance?”

“Mph,” he grunts with his back to me. “You better have a good explanation for today. If my daughter was in any sort of crossfire danger—”

“She wasn’t.”

“Then what the hell were you two doing?” He eyes me angrily.

“I took her to my job at one of the stage houses. She likes the show that’s filming there. My cousin got wind of me bringing an outsider on set… and figured out who it was.”

“Your cousin…? One of the Valentinos?”

“Donny.” Being honest is the best way forward here.

He winces. “ Donny , the kingpin, has eyes on my daughter?”

“On the contrary. He wants nothing to do you with you two. That’s why he was angry. But we settled it, man-to-man.”

“Man-to-man? You’re an old bastard like me… and you’re getting into fist fights? What the hell’s the matter with you?” I can feel the tone lightening now that he knows it wasn’t a rival mafia scuffle, or anything to do with the bratva.

“Says the guy who just tried to assault me.” I smirk.

“Oh, if I tried, you would know,” he challenges. “Look at me and look at you. Even when you keep me starved down here, I still have thirty pounds on you.”

“It’s called a diet. I’m saving your life again.”

We both cackle.

“You want a beer?” I ask him.

He shrugs. “Nothing better to do down here.”

I head up the stairs two at a time, noticing the door slightly cracked open, and when I get there, Quinn is lingering by the kitchen island with a red face and a big smile.

“Whatcha doing?” She smiles at me, being a bitch.

“Shut it.”

“You two are getting along, aren’t you?”

I stuff my head into the fridge and grab two light beers.

She snorts when I don’t respond. “I knew you guys would hit it off if circumstances were different.”

“We’re strategizing,” I say. “Doesn’t hurt to take the edge off.”

“Uh huh. You boys have fun down there.” She waves.

This brat is playing house in her head. Like this is what a normal family looks like. Yeah, I love her. I admit it. But this isn’t some sort of celebration where we run to our parents and cheer about it.

We’re worlds apart no matter how we’d like the chips to fall, I scoff to myself as I shut the cellar door behind me. Then, why the fuck am I smiling?

As I make my way down the stairs and pop the top of the beer for Patrick, he looks at me funny.

“Cheers,” I say.

He clinks the bottle against mine. “Quinn sounds awfully cheerful up there.”

I motion to the cut on my eyebrow. “Likes that I got the shit kicked out of me, I guess.”

He hoots at that and leans back on the bar while taking a sip. “I see the way she looks at you, Arosso.”

It takes a lot to make me flustered, but being called out about something so taboo brings with it a roaring fire up to my throat.

I’m not sure what to say. Do I tell him about my past family again? How my daughter would almost be her age by now—God, even the thought of it makes me want to scratch my own eyes out.

I stay cool, thinking of the poker game.

Don’t tell him that you’re holding onto the queen of spades.

“She’s a kid,” I finally say.

“Far from a kid,” he scoffs. “My daughter is a brilliant young woman—”

At least you’re not blind.

“—And I’m afraid I held her back out of fear.” He looks away.

I take the opportunity to breathe. It’s been twenty years since I had to face a woman’s father like this. I was a twenty-something-year-old kid then—a fucking lifetime ago. Brings me right back.

“How do you mean?” I take a swig.

“Well, the boys she brought home in her high school years… they weren’t, how do I say, up to par.”

“Is anyone ever for Daddy’s girl?” I pull up a chair and take a seat.

“Guess not.” Patrick moseys on over to his own seat a few feet from mine.

“They were strapping, I guess. One was a running back for the D1 team. Big guy, full of muscle and good grades. But she walked all over him.” He laughs.

“She would blame me—say I caused them to be scared, but the truth is… it’s her. It’s always her.”

“She is tough, and persistent,” I admit.

“Yeah.” He looks at the ceiling. “And when you brought her back to me… that’s something I’ll never forget.” The mood shifts. “But…” He leans forward in his chair. “Don’t even give her a second glance.”

I hold his eyes, stuffing down my frustration.

Every part of me wants to duke it out with him like I did with Donny. It’d be easier, if I’m being honest, and I can go for another round.

“ Hey. ” He taps the beer bottle. “At first, I thought I was going crazy, but your silence is pissing me off. There’s no way in hell I’m letting her run around with a mobster. Ex or current. Understand? I don’t care if you brought me back from the dead.”

I get up abruptly and pace away. Lying isn’t really my thing. Being in disguise on a job is one thing, but Quinn’s father? She’s not just some girl I saved anymore. She’s rapidly becoming more.

Shit.

“ Hey! ” He gets up, raising his voice. “She’s half your age.”

I spin on him, pointing a finger with the bottle in my hand. “You don’t think I know that?”

“Then what’s with the fucking emotion? Arosso. We have a shit situation to get out of. I can’t be worried you’re trying to scoop up my little girl.” He comes right into my face. “Especially after you delivered her to me.”

I growl and turn away.

“If you care for her… you’ll stop whatever the fuck you think is going on between you two.” He punches the bar. “For fuck’s sake!”

“You’re alive because of her,” I admit. “ Only her . Had I not seen her hopeless face sitting on that side stoop, I would’ve kept walking, and you’d be in a bratva meat house by now.”

“You said she reminded you of your family!”

“She did! But then I realized it’s something different. She’s different.”

“Arosso, I swear to God.” The bottle cracks in his hand. “Arh.” He balls his fists, blood leaking between the fingers. “I’ll strangle you and take my chances with the Russians.”

Here we go, round two.

I ball my fists, feeling fire run through my arms like old times.

“ Stop! ” Quinn rushes down the stairs. “ Stop it !”

She jumps in the way of her father and pushes him. “Dad, you’re bleeding.”

He grunts, eyes focused on coming after me.

“Hey!” She slaps him lightly in the face, enough to get his attention. “Dad.”

“ No! ” He shoves a finger in her face. “You’re not dating a fucking mobster, ever .”

“Have you learned nothing sitting down here staring at the darkness for weeks?” she asks. “’Cause I have being dragged around by the mob and policemen. There’s good and bad on both sides. And him? He’s our guardian-freakin’-angel. Cut off his wings and we’re all screwed.”

“You put your rescuer on a pedestal. I raised you smarter than that,” he growls, not hearing her in the slightest.

“No,” she protests.

“ Yes. ” He places his hand on her shoulder and forcefully drags her to the side, leaving the space between us wide open.

“This ends now, Arosso. No more bullshit while I sit in a fucking basement and you put my daughter in harm’s way.

Install me back into the precinct. Use me as bait, and let’s get this inevitable show rolling. ”

“What, you just walk back into your office after missing for months? The ‘cartel’ just up and let you go?” I speak the obvious. How this hothead is the head of homicide is beyond me.

I’m being too harsh.

“You need to sit the fuck down and listen to your daughter.”

“ Dad. This isn’t the precinct where you have an army to delegate. It’s just me and him, and you,” Quinn says. “And Sil—I mean, Arosso is not the problem.”

He grunts. “Seems to me he’d like it to stay this way forever.”

As ridiculous as it sounds, I am clinging onto my last days of life, aren’t I? Could’ve figured something out and pulled the trigger weeks ago.

“That’s crazy, Dad.” She puts a hand on his belly and another on his arm to calm him.

“It’s not.” I look up. “He’s right, too.”

Her eyes go wide at me.

“I knew the answer for a while now, and just chose to delay… to spend more time with you.”

Her cheeks flush pink immediately. I love how her skin does that. It’s impossible to hide anything on that face.

“Suppose your father is right. I’m no good for you, and this can never work. So might as well get this over with.”

The words destroy me to say, but I need to say them for her to eventually move on. She’s just a kid, for fuck’s sake.

Then again, our pull is so strong. I doubt she’ll buy it.

“ Silver! ” She drops the charade and runs up to me, grabbing both my wrists. Her irises tremble. “ Don’t do this, ” she whispers. “ He’ll come around. ”

I want to give her a comforting kiss so bad, but it’s not the time. Patrick is right. My selfishness could mean missing our window. I gently remove her hands from my wrist.

“We give Ferraro a tip that Nikolaj—one of the bratva bosses—is waiting for him at the south Jersey casino. Ferraro will be frightened for his own life, and maybe unhinged since his wife was caught in the crossfire, so we’ll have to be delicate about it.

” I start to pace, the pistons in my mind churning.

“We send you there, Patrick, to keep eyes on the two most vested in the operation.”

“To what end?” He bares his teeth.

“You’ll leave a tip at the front door of the casino for Niko’s eyes only. It’ll say that Quinn will be dropped at her residence in exchange for a deal. He’ll jump at that. Especially because his boss—Yuri Patrovski—has been fuming about his unquenched revenge for some time now.”

“You’re not using her as bait—”

“Never,” I say. “I’m using them as bait. Ferraro will panic and call in every officer the bratva has at their disposal. The crooked ones.”

“They’ll never go for it unless you provide proof of Quinn’s whereabouts,” Patrick says.

“And we will,” I promise. “A video showing we have her and she’s locked up.”

Patrick shakes his head. “Ferraro might call it in to the real cops, not the crooked ones. Too risky.”

“You haven’t seen what we’ve seen, Dad. Uncle F is not the man you remember. I saw it in his eyes.” Quinn folds her arms. “He’ll do anything to get out of his debt. He sacrificed his own wife.”

“Then what? I don’t see how this is going to solve anything for us,” Patrick asks.

“Then, once the crooked cops are on scene searching for Quinn, I go in, posing as an officer so I blend in with them. I’ll identify and take out every dirty cop they have stationed at your house, effectively clearing your PD force from ever sabotaging you again.”

He scoffs. “Rambo? You’ve lost it.”

“I haven’t. You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

“I know you’re human, and you bleed like the rest of us.” He nods toward my face.

“We’ll get IDs on the crooked officers to make sure we have them all.

Then… when Nikolaj shows up, I give myself in as a revenge trophy for some old jobs I carried out.

Why would he accept? ‘Cause we just took out all his crooked PD support, so he’ll have nothing left there.

I’ll explain that Quinn is off the table for Patrovski’s revenge, and I’m the best they’re going to get.

Take it or leave it. If he leaves it, I signal Donny and start a war they can’t win. ”

“ Silver! ” Tears leak out of Quinn’s eyes. Her dad notices and furrows his brow.

“I’ll tell them I’ve been acting alone, and that Donny wants my head as much as they do. But today… the bratva gets the prize.”