Page 102 of Keep Him Like Secrets

“How do you you mean?” Renzo asked.

“Well, with your connection with this club? You know, now that he knows.”

“Heis standing right here,” I reminded her.

“Don’t get me started on you,” Teresa said, slipping into that mama-bear mode she’d warned me about earlier.

“T, I get this situation is… a lot. But don’t,” he warned. “I think you’ve already overstepped with regard to Saff.”

“Is it overstepping to tell her I was onto her? When it turns out I was right?” Teresa asked, chin jerking up.

“When it comes to Saff, yes.”

“Yeah, while we’re on that,” Renzo said, making my stomach flip. “How long you two been fucking?”

“Renz…”

“I told you not to fuck this job up. Told you how fucking important it was. Fucking Christ. You couldn’t have fucked it up more than this.”

“I—” I started, though I knew I had no leg to stand on.

“I’m going to ask you to take the bass out of your voice when you’re talking to her,” Soren said. His words made my heart squeeze and Renzo’s brows raise.

I mean, it took balls to talk to an armed man like that. It took bigger balls to speak to an armed mob boss like that.

Renzo’s gaze slid to me, then back to Soren.

“That’s the way of it?”

“That’s the way of it. I get that she… works for you. And that you think she didn’t do a good job. But you’re not going to speak to her like that in front of me.”

Renzo paused, looking at Soren for a long moment.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked, tone casual.

“From what I’m gathering, you’re Renzo Lombardi. The boss of the Lombardi crime family.”

“And you’re still gonna tell me how to talk to one of my capos?”

“If that capo is Saff, then yes.”

“Christ,” Renzo said, huffing out a sigh. “Tell you what,” he said, looking at me. “You two figure your shit out. Then you come and you clue me in. I don’t have time for bullshit. Do your job.” When Soren took a step forward, Renzo shook his head, but there was a ghost of a smile on his lips as he added, “Respectfully.”

With that, he walked off down the hallway to talk to Bass and Serano.

“So, I feel like I should probably… take the rest of the day off,” Teresa said. “My Marty has been wanting to take me out somewhere fancy. I think tonight is the night.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” he said to her, getting a nod from her before she turned to walk away. “Hey, T.”

“Yeah?” she asked, turning back.

“Thanks for swooping in to save the day. As usual.”

To that, she shot him a soft smile. “Bet you’re real happy you had me sign that NDA now, aren’t you?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye before walking off.

There was a tense silence after her departure before Soren broke it.

“You live around here, right?”

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