Page 147 of Hexed
“I actually asked Pops once if he thought someone was contracted to take out Peppino and me. He said it wasn’t worth looking into, brushed it off almost entirely.” I pause, giving Gio a pointed look. “Don’t you find that weird?”
“What, likehecontracted out to kill his own sons?” Gio shrugs. “Your pops has gotten increasingly overconfident and sloppy as hell, so it wouldn’t surprise me. You really think he’d try to take out his own flesh and blood like that though?”
“Who knows with him these days.” I nod again, rubbing my hand underneath my chin. He’s probably right. “And you still can’t find anything on Jersey or the Frankie Bianchi and Trent connection?”
Gio’s brows draw in. “I can find you Frankie, E…but there ain’t no paper trail that ties him to the Kingstons. And you always know the De Lucas in Jersey are willing to sit down and talk. You want me to set up a meeting?”
I shake my head. “Not yet. But if you can find Frankie, then we don’t need a paper trail. Bring him to me.”
Gio shoots finger guns at me, makingpew-pewsounds like a douchebag, and stands up. “You got it, Lover Boy. Hey, who was that chick last night at the fight?”
My heart pounds with impatience, knowing I’ve got Scotty on his way to pick up Venesa from the Marino and bring her to me as we speak, and I can’t help the smile that breaks across my face.
“I don’t know who you mean.” I play nonchalant.
Gio laughs and slaps his leg. “Oh! You’ve got jokes. Tits likeMadonn’and that sparkly white hair you just know looks good wrapped around a fist?—”
He makes a thrusting motion with his hips, and I’m out of my seat faster than lightning, my hand wrapped around his throat in the next second. “Watch your fucking mouth.”
Gio’s eyes widen as I release him, and he reaches up to rub at the red marks on his neck, chuckling. “Oh, fuck. It’s like that, huh?”
I drop into the chair next to him, annoyed at my lack of control. “Yeah, it’s like that.”
A grin spreads across his face.
Before I can respond, my office door swings open wide.
“Christ, doesanyonework out there?” I yell to Jessica. “What the hell do I pay you for?”
I see a flash of her through the opening, and she gives me a wide-eyed look that screams,What do you want me to do?
It’s a second later I realize why. My father waltzes into my office as though he owns it, a small black cane in his left hand that he doesn’t need and doesn’t use, just brings along to have an extra weapon at his side.
“Pops,” I say, clearing my throat.
The hammer inside my head smashes against my skull, and I wince.
He takes a seatbehindmy desk.
“You look like shit,” he says.
“I’m fine.” I brush off his comment.
“Leave us,” he commands Gio.
Gio hesitates, his brows shooting to his hairline as he looks at me. I give him a subtle nod.
My father leans forward in the chair after he’s gone. “Can we speak freely?”
I know he’s asking if there’s a chance the office is bugged, but it gets swept every morning before I come in. “Yeah, everything’s good.”
“Good,” he repeats.
I hesitate. “But itwasn’tin South Carolina.”
Despite Pops’s old age, he has an air of power around him that can’t be mistaken. His is the one I first learned to emulate.
“Someone tapped my phone.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Not someone.Aria.”
