Page 54 of Heartless Sinner

“Has Papa told you anything about what I’ve been up to?” I asked, changing the subject and wanting to know what information about Vince and myself had circulated it’s way to my brother.

He shook his head. “Just that you were safe, after the sniper attack.”

I took a deep breath. “Well, everyone’s going to know pretty soon, and I want you to hear it from me. I’m engaged. To Vincent Russo.”

Alexander stared at me like I’d grown a second head. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am. Why would I joke about something like this?”

“Because he’s not your type?”

“You know nothing about my type,” I scoffed. “You never even gave me a chance to figure out my type on my own. Any time a man so much as looked at me you’d send him running for the hills!”

“The Russo’s are a bunch of troublemakers, everyone knows it. Look at Marco. Or the youngest, Dante. I’ll be shocked if he isn’t talking to the feds already.”

“Vince—”

“Oh, it’s Vince now, is it?” Alexander’s voice was cutting. Cruel, almost.

I hadn’t ever heard him use that tone with me, but I wasn’t going to take it lying down. “Yes. It is. That’s what I like to call him. I’m going to marry him, and you can’t do anything about it.”

Alexander narrowed his gaze. “Why? And don’t say it’s because you love him, Marla. You and I both know what a load of bullshit that would be. We worked hard to keep you away from men like him.”

But I think I do love him. At the very least I was in the process of falling for him. All my hard work to try and protect my heart and look at where I’d ended up. Right in Vincent Russo’s lap.

Not that I’d tell my brother that little fact. I could barely handle that realization myself, why would I share it with Alexander?

“I agreed because he needed a wife. His father put the pressure on him. And I proved I was the best candidate for the job. In exchange I get to move up in the ladder,” I said sarcastically. “I get all the pretty things I want, and I get to rack up a huge bill ordering in Thai food.”

Alexander leaned back in his hair and shook his head. “So, you just decided you were going to give up your dream of leaving the mafia just because the guy’s rich?”

I jolted, my knee bumping the table. How had he’d known my decision to walk away, to leave this life behind, when I’d never voiced my plans?

“Oh come on, Marla. Dmitri and I both knew what you were planning to do. I think Mom suspected but she never said anything. Papa has no idea, he’s never paid attention that way. But it wasn’t hard to figure out,” he said, his gaze shrewd. “You got a degree that would get you pretty much a guaranteed job anywhere. Everyone needs a tax person or an accountant or something. You distanced yourself from other women in the families, and you never showed interest in any of the men. No friends or dates. You got an apartment outside of our territory. We knew it was only a matter of time until you walked out. How far you ran was the only question. Now you’re moving even deeper into the spider’s web. So, what happened?”

I rubbed at my temples and decided to be honest. “I went to Vince the night of Dmitri’s murder. Dmitri asked me to find out who did it. He said that I was the smartest person in the family, that I could figure it out.”

As I said it, I remembered Dmitri’s last words to me. Always so smart, so capable. He put such faith in me. I had to be worthy of that faith. I had to be.

I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “But I couldn’t do it alone. We owe the Russo family, we’re under their umbrella. So I figured, it would be easy to convince Vince to clean up his own house, you know, and help give me some resources to look into this. Marriage was his price.”

Alexander’s jaw tightened. “Dmitri wouldn’t want you to tie yourself to a Russo.”

“Last I checked, Dmitri wanted to be alive,” I said, louder than I’d intended.

The man behind the deli counter glanced our way and I composed myself.

Alexander leaned in. “Trust me, Marla, you don’t want this marriage to a capo. Back out. Let me handle Dmitri’s murder.”

I bristled, realizing with startling clarity that I did want this. With Vince. “It’s too late. We’ve announced the marriage.”

“Nobody would bat an eye if you changed your mind and left the mafia,” he said. “I’d work it out for you and make sure you were left alone. Don’t you trust me?”

“To help me? Yes. To figure out who killed our brother? No.”

Alexander’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “If I find the murderer before Russo does, will you not wed him? Will you back out?”

I didn’t want to back out. “I can’t promise you anything.”

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