Page 97 of Cruel Secrets

“You trusted him enough to drive out here with me and her.” Skyla takes another drag before stubbing out the cigarette against the railing and tossing it into the flowerpot in the corner.

I take a final drag of my own, tossing the butt with hers. “That was more about trusting you than it was him. He’s still not happy about me and Royce. I saw it before they left to get guns.”

“Aiden doesn’t have a choice.”

“He does. He could make this worse for both of us. There’s no stopping him from handing us over if he feels like it either.” I twist back around as Bianca topples into a large snowdrift and Ellie fishes her back out, laughing as they get on a sled together.

“Noah will be dead long before he gets his hands on you.”

I scoff, the thoughts in my head spinning in a thousand different circles, all of them overlapping each other until my mind is one jumbled mess. “He’s like a cockroach. He’s going to outlive everyone, and he’s going to make it my problem. He’ll stop at nothing and all of us are going to end up dead.”

“You really think your own brother would kill you?”

“Yes.” I tip my chin in the direction of Bianca. “She’s the only one I think he won’t kill, but that’s more because she’s a child than anything else. He may be a monster, but he has a code of conduct at least.”

Skyla shifts her weight to one side before stepping back and perching herself on the edge of the picnic table. “We have a plan in place. Summer and Jade are taking care of everything back home, and Aiden is going to kill Noah.”

I swallow hard, conflicting emotions going to war. “You guys don’t know what Noah is really capable of when he gets going. You think that you know the worst of it, but he’s going to come at you hard.”

She pats the picnic table beside her. “Take a seat and take a breather.”

“I don’t think it’s that easy.” I sit down beside her but there’s still a shiver running down my spine that I can’t shake.

“We have a plan in place.” Skyla nudges her shoulder into mine. “If shit gets bad, I’m taking Bianca and I’m running while you stall your brother.”

“If he doesn’t kill me first.”

Skyla chuckles. “Well, there is that to consider now too, but I don’t think we need to go to the worst-case scenario immediately, Besides, there’s your brother’s ego to consider. He’s going to want to save you for last and make a point of it, if he does want to kill you.”

“Thanks,” I say, tone dripping with sarcasm as I give her a flat look.

“Either way. We’ve got this. We’re going to take care of Noah, and you and Bianca are never going to have to look over your shoulders and worry about him again.”

“I don’t know if the worry is ever going to end.”

“From what I know after helping raise my younger siblings, it doesn’t get any better. You’re always going to worry about them and hope that they’re making the right decision. And then when they feel like they can’t even come to you about who they were dating, it hurts.”

I press my shoulder into hers. “To be fair, would any of you have taken it well?”

“Unlikely.” Skyla smirks and leans back, propping herself up with her forearms on the table. “We wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with a Rinaldo, but sometimes there are more important things than that.”

“Such as?”

“My little niece and her mama, who happens to be amazing at forging art, which you and I need to talk about. If it’s what you want to keep doing after all this is over, then I have some connections who happen to like both art and money laundering.”

I snort, eyes rolling. “Yeah, okay. Optimistic of you to think that there’s a future after this.”

“I know there’s going to be.”

Before I can respond, my phone starts ringing, the bright and cheery tone breaking through the peaceful morning.

Mom’s picture appears on the screen as I pull it out of my pocket. My heart drops to my feet just looking at it. I don’t know if the call is safe to answer. Hell, I don’t even know if I can fully trust her when she puts so much of her faith into Noah.

I swipe my thumb across the screen and hop down from the picnic table. “Hi.”

“Where are you?” she asks, her voice high-pitched. “I need you to tell me where you are right now, Gia.”

I force down the swells of worry that surge to the surface at her panicked tone. “I’m not going to tell you where I am.”

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