Page 60 of Shield

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I ask, balling my fists as he stands, stepping up to me until we’re nose to nose. He doesn’t back down. Neither do I.

Valentina cackles from the dining table, her laughter ending in a contented sigh. “So the trashy bitch is coming between the brothers? This is too good.”

“Fuck off, Valentina,” Vin barks and steps between Tommy and me, placing a firm hand on both of our chests. “Nothing comes between us. Ever. It’s not an accusation. It’s just a question. Franco’s been MIA for a week, and so has Siena.”

“She’s been here with me,” I snarl.

“The entire time?” Vin asks, his voice low and measured, trying to keep things from going off the rails.

“The entire fucking time,” I say, still locked in on Tommy.

Tommy holds my gaze for a beat, then gives me a short nod and steps back. He turns to Siena. “My apologies.”

Tommy sinks back onto his chair, spinning a ring he’s wearing on his right ring finger, deep in thought.

Slipping an arm around Siena’s waist, I pull her back down onto the couch on my lap, but she’s stiff in my arms.

“Why isn’t Franco still at the Edge?” I ask, my pulse spiking. I’ve been so focused on Siena that I left Olivia to deal with Franco on her own. Did she let him out? Did he overpower her?

Vin raises his eyebrows at me. “The footage shows him finding a set of keys left in his room by someone who wasin a hurry to…” Vin shoots a look at Siena then back at me. “Take care of something.”

“Oh my fucking God,” Valentina snorts.

I was a fucking mess the day I went to Franco’s room to interrogate him after fucking Siena for the first time. Once he told me Aurelio had a hit out on Siena, I don’t remember much except how my stomach seemed to fall out of my body when I found nothing but her jacket in Siena’s room.

I take Siena’s hand and squeeze it hard. There’s nothing I won’t do to make sure that never happens to her again.

I frown. “If you’re saying that I was the one to drop the keys in there, that would have happened over a month ago, and you said he’s only been gone a week.”

Vin shakes his head. “He’s been off our radar for a little over a week, but he’s been spotted out and about over the past month or so.”

“He was in pretty bad shape. Probably all healed up now, though,” I say.

Tommy speaks up. “And hiding out. But he’s got connections and he was all in on planning this job. So I don’t know if Aurelio moved up his timeline because he found out Franco is making moves, or if Franco heard Aurelio was going in and wants to get in there first. Since no one has the codes, one could be luring the other into a stand-off. We just don’t know what we’re walking into.”

“Fuck.” I blow out a breath.

“‘Fuck’ is right. Aurelio is spooked, Franco is ready to strike, and we need this hit if we want any shot at turning our… bigger plans into a reality.” All of us are skirting around the words, unsure of how Siena will respond.

“So your missing detail is the codes, and your potentialobstacle is Aurelio or Franco or both,” Siena says thoughtfully.

“Good job, genius. Thanks for showing up,” snorts Valentina.

Siena rolls her eyes but continues. “Why the sudden shift between them? Especially with this job on the line? My understanding is that they’d been… working together for years.”

Siena shivers, and I squeeze her to me. I know she’s thinking about all the things Aurelio told her about Franco and her family when he tortured her.

Tommy darts a glance at me, asking my permission to speak freely about Franco, and I give him a slight shake of my head. He clears his throat. “Yes, Franco has been working with Aurelio for years, Siena. But in the past few months or so, their connection has been severed. We don’t know why.”

We know why. Franco didn’t kill Siena when he was ordered to. Even though it’s because I locked his ass up at the Edge, Aurelio views it as a failure, and Aurelio is not a forgiving man.

There’s silence for a few minutes as Tommy and Vin look at each other and then at me as they try to navigate having this discussion in front of Siena. Valentina yawns loudly and taps her nails on the table.

“It’s good news for you, at least, princess,” Vin grins at us, and I narrow my eyes at him. He needs to stop calling her that. “Aurelio’s been so busy dealing with the Franco situation that he hasn’t had time to fuck with you. Until you couldn’t keep your hands off my boy here and started stalking him all over town.”

Siena’s lips twist into a sneer, and I throw up my hands up with a look that says ‘what the fuck?’ and shoot him a glareas Valentina snickers. “That’s not accurate,” I say.

Vin is tactless on a good day, but at least he didn’t continue by stating what is obvious to us but not Siena: even though Franco escaped the Edge and knows where Siena lives, he didn’t come after her because he was too busy going to war with Aurelio and no longer interested in doing his bidding.

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