Page 7 of Together Again with the Don

“Sierra,” he got out, the fire in his gaze fading just enough to give her a minimalist greeting.

“I made it into his office today and found a file with pictures and some documents. I took photos of all of it and went to get them printed after work.”

He didn’t respond, looking through the papers and clenching his jaw. I peeked over the side of the desk and found pictures of Tommy—lots of them. They were from before he was shot. As Frankie went through the rest of them, I also found a handful of pictures of Louis and me. Only one photo of Frankie sat among the stack.

“That was quick,” I replied, thinking about how she’d only agreed to help us two days prior. I’d expected to have to remind her to gather information, push her in the right direction a time or two. I hadn’t thought she would do so much so quickly.

“This is what you wanted? I’m done?” She didn’t even spare me a glance, focusing only on my brother.

Frankie chuckled darkly and shook his head. “This is great. But it’s a prolonged task. We anticipate you’ll find a lot of other things over time. Keep up the good work.”

Her smile faded slowly, and she took a deep breath. “It’s not going to be this easy moving forward,” she said.

“Then be careful,” I told her, but again she didn’t say a word to me. She only stared at my brother and awaited his reply.

Frankie looked between us, a smirk tilting his lip upward. “Get what you can. Let us know if you need anything in the meantime.”

It was a clear dismissal, and Sierra could tell as much. She nodded once before turning and striding out of the room. “Have a splendid evening…Frankie.”

No sooner did the door shut than Frankie’s smirk turned into a full beaming smile, something I rarely saw. His shoulders shook slightly as he chuckled. “That girl has balls,” he said, pointing to the door. “I don’t think anyone’s made me laugh this much in a long time.”

“It’s not funny,” I scolded, grinding my teeth and standing. I didn’t do anything more than Frankie in this situation, yet she acted like I was Satan incarnate.

“You need to let me in on what you did to piss her off so much,” he said, his smile fading into a neutral expression. “Because from my experience, when people learn we’re in the mob, they become more respectful—fearful, even. Sierra’s too pissed off to do that.”

I pushed my chair away and strode toward the door. “I’ll talk to her.”

“Can you record it?”

I slammed the door behind me, cutting off his deep, rumbling laugh once again. One way or another, we were going to settle this.

6

SIERRA

I didn’t know what drove me to ignore him. I honestly had no idea why I felt the way I had when I saw him in the office, sitting beside Frankie. Maybe it was the adrenaline that still pumped through me hours after breaking into Virgil’s office, adrenaline that should have deterred me from doing something so ignorant. I didn’t need to do something so dangerous, yet I did, because Carlo gave me no other choice.

I should’ve been just as mad at the other three brothers, but I couldn’t bring myself to hate anyone as much as I did Carlo. So I ignored him, speaking only to Frankie with a chipper tone I defaulted to when emotions ran high. Then, I walked out the front door and down to the lower garage below their house where I’d parked my car. I clattered down a small flight of stairs, the tension in my shoulders causing a small headache to pound incessantly in the back of my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about how to get out of this agreement. I wasn’t ignorant enough to think I could get out of it fully without repercussions, but how little effort could I put into it without being called out?

“What the hell is wrong with you?” His voice from behind startled me, and I squealed as I turned and faced Carlo. He barreled toward me, looking angrier than I’d ever seen him.

I only pursed my lips and crossed my arms. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

He huffed, stopping a mere inch from my face. I didn’t want to admit how intimidating he appeared at the moment with his firmly set face and tall, muscular demeanor. “Don’t try me, Sierra.”

I forced myself to laugh. “You’re the one who followed me out here. What do you need?”

“You can smile and joke with my brother—withFrankie,of all people.” He said Frankie’s name as if his brother were a wolf. “But you won’t even look at me. What the fuck, Sierra?”

“It could be because I don’t like you,” I mused, tilting my head as I looked up at him.

The hurt that flashed across his expression surprised me, but he covered it up quickly. “You were never like this before,” he snarled, his eyes flickering between my scar and my eyes. I wondered if he’d ask me about it again. I wouldn’t tell him what had happened, but I could see how desperately he wanted to know. “What the hell changed between us?”

I shouldn’t have been honest. My honest answer didn’t matter, but it slipped from my lips anyway, settling like a weight between us. “You left me waiting for you and never came back.”

His jaw clenched, and he grabbed the outside of my arms as if to shake me. His gentle touch surprised me, though. The fierce expression on his face combined with how quickly he grabbed me left me tensing in anticipation, but he only gave me a small shake. “You have no idea what I went through trying to get back to you.”

“Trying?” I scoffed. “It’s not that difficult to make a decision and stick to it. And if you didn’t want to be with me, why would you even decide to kiss me? Why wouldn’t you just leave me to live my life? It’s because of you that everything in my life went to shit. Everything is your fault.”

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