What was that supposed to mean? But I knew that questioning him was problematic, so instead, I leaned in and kissed him. “I know you are.” I gently smiled. “We have the rest of our lives together, right?”

His eyes gleamed. “Exactly.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

MARCUS

After Mia entered her apartment building, I waited for a few minutes and then sped off. As I kept my eyes focused on the road, I quickly dialed Jimmie’s number, only glancing a few times at the screen. On the third ring, he answered, his voice in surround sound coming out of my car speakers. “Are you on your way?” He asked.

“Yeah, you’re home, right?”

“Yep.”

“Are you going to give me any clue about this urgent info that you retrieved?

“Nope.” The information he had must have been intense because he didn’t disclose it over the phone.

“Fine, I just dropped Mia off. I should be home in forty minutes.”

“See you soon, Bro.”

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With traffic, it was impossible to go any faster than I was already going. As I ripped through the hectic city of Greater Boston to Back Bay, where trucks double-parked and pedestrians hadn’t a care in the world as they risked walking in front of moving vehicles, my mind was immersed in the last couple of weeks. Mia was busy with school, which prevented her from questioning my absence. Jimmie and I had been working hard on trying to find any piece of information that could link us to who Michael was working with. We searched old documents and emails he had sent us.

It was difficult to trust anyone, so we walked on eggshells and were careful with whom we spoke. We knew that any of Lou’s men were out of the question. Even if we suspected one of his men, we couldn’t risk it. I hadn’t spoken to that bastard since our encounter at Gio’s home a couple of weeks back. Jimmie wasn’t thrilled with it, but it got us away from Lou, for now at least, until we found something to bring the fucker down. Lou used the club last Sunday for the first time. I had heard it was a smooth transaction, but I knew that it wouldn’t always be the case. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out his infatuation with the damn club.

After a pain-in-the-ass car ride, I finally reached my home. Hopping out of the car, I hurried into the house, tossed my keys onto the table by the door, and entered the living room area. Jimmie was there with Elle. He nodded in acknowledgment.

“Uncle Marc!” Elle squealed in excitement. I hadn’t seen Elle for the past couple of weeks either, with her being in school and with my sleeping in my damn car at night watching Mia’s place.

“Hey, sweetheart.” Elle ran over to me and pulled me into a hug.

Jimmie stood up from the couch. “Elle, Uncle Marc and I need to talk, and it’s past your bedtime. Get ready for bed, and I’ll be up in a little while to tuck you in.”

“Pfft.” She sucked her teeth. Jimmie sent an authoritative glare her way. She slightly pouted and bowed her head. “Sorry, Daddy. Good night, Uncle Marc.”

“Night, baby.” I waited until she made it up the stairs then shot Jimmie a narrow glare.

“What?”

“Why are you making my little girl pout?” I asked him.

“My little girl, Marcus. Remember that.” He shook his head. “She’s been giving me a lot of attitude lately. I need to show her who’s the parent, or she’ll walk all over me, as she does with you.”

“Whatever.” No point in getting into that. “What’s going on?”

He looked over my shoulder and then leaned in to whisper, “I found out who was working with Michael, and you won’t fuckin’ believe who he is.”

“Who?” He nudged his head behind me. I turned to see my office door closed. “He’s here?” Jimmie nodded. “What the fuck, Jimmie? Are you sure he’s not working with Lou?”

“Marcus, I have evidence: photos of Michael and him together trading information. When I confronted him, he didn’t deny it. Marcus, he knew every single detail of the info Michael gave to us. Everything.”

With a deep breath, I nodded, spun around, and stormed over to the office door with Jimmie following closely behind me. I wasn’t sure who to expect as I opened the door, but once I entered the room, my chest constricted when I saw who it was.

Vinnie, my right hand man when it came to jobs for Lou, was standing by my desk. “Vinnie?”

“What’s up, Marky.” He nodded his head.

“You were working with Michael? But . . .” I tried to make sense of it. Nothing came up.

“I know it comes as a shock.”

“A fuckin’ shock is an understatement, don’t you think?” I shook off the uneasiness in discovering that bit of information and walked over and grabbed a seat behind my desk and looked over at him. He and Jimmie took a seat in front of me.

“I don’t understand. Are you with Boston PD?”

“Nah, I’m actually with the FBI.”

I laughed once, but I wasn’t the least bit amused. How the fuck did I miss that? An agent? I shook my head in disbelief, “For how long?”

He leaned back in his chair lost in thought. “Well, I’ve been working with the agency for six years now and on the Sorrento case for about three years.”

“That’s around the time Vinnie became involved with the Sorrentos.” Jimmie reminded Marcus.

“Yeah, I remember that,” I replied to my brother, then focused my attention back on Vinnie. “So when you began working for Lou, that’s when you started the investigation?”

Vinnie nodded. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“But, Michael didn’t confront us with any information until about a year ago.”

“Michael was working with us, trying to bring down any corrupt cops working with the Sorrentos. He was involved with the case from the very beginning, but we needed to get in deeper. What we had wasn’t enough. Granted, it takes time to build a case against someone like Lou. I worked on a case before this one in New York, which was a five-year investigation and still ongoing.”

Jimmie adjusted in his seat to face Vinnie and asked, “So why were we involved?”

“Bait.” Vinnie shrugged. “We knew the two of you were the closest to Lou. He trusted you guys with anything, well, until recently, that is. When he requested information on Mia, we knew you guys were fucked. I was the one he asked to collect info on her. I’ve had one of my men looking out for her ever since.”




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