Another two weeks went by before Bianca revealed what the secrecy was all about.


    Sandro was in an underground tournament called the Game of Bosses. But the biggest shock of all was Dom’s uncle Luca found his wife alive and had his own fight against the Russians in Chicago.


    My loyalties were to the Rossis. My affair with Dom didn’t make me loyal to him. We kept it a secret for a reason. But a month of being shut out by everyone except Grigori of all people had taken its toll on my mental health. I woke up this morning hollowed out of purpose, and I struggled to get out of bed.


    With politics between the Russians and Italians shoved to the forefront, those who didn’t pick a side were left floundering. That was why Grigori was trying to lock me down to work for him. A cleaner like me couldn’t y both sides. No matter how each job with the Russians felt like ckmail, I had a feeling choosing a side was imminent.


    Grigori needed unquestionable loyalty. I didn’t me the Italians for keeping information from me. I was a weak link.


    It made the address of the cleaning job worrisome. It was at the Venezia Tower unit 504.


    “Did you know something that was going down tonight?” Billy’s voice was suspicious. “Isn’t that the building you had me do a drive-by weeks ago?”


    Queasiness rocked my gut. I’d missed my period, but it could be from all the stress. I was oddly numb about the idea of pregnancy.


    “I told you it was for Bianca. She gave me the address,” I lied. “It’s probably a love nest of sorts for mobsters.”


    “You could be right. Maybe Grigori whacked one of his girls.”


    I nced at Billy sharply. “If you’ve been helping that asshole?—”


    “What the…” My brother’s eyes widened, staring straight ahead and shouted, “Watch out.”


    My head whipped forward, my heart lurching in my chest with the most feeling it had in weeks. A cked-out SUV screeched to a stop in front of us.


    “Oh my God.” My foot mmed on the brakes, but instincts had me reversing only to be blocked in by a police cruiser.


    “Shit,” Billy muttered in a way that told me he screwed up.


    Dread slithered up my spine. “What’s going on?”


    “Stay here,” my brother said. He got out of the van and jogged over to the driver’s side of the ck Chevy Tahoe.


    He was arguing with the driver. My gaze shifted to the rearview mirror to see cops redirecting traffic.


    Billy returned and said, “Follow the Chevy.”


    “What the hell is happening?”


    “Sis, for fuck’s sake, listen to me. Follow that Chevy and don’t call any more attention to yourself. This wasn’t supposed to go down this way.”


    I followed the SUV and crossed the intersection. “Are you a snitch?” Because that SUV had feds written all over it.


    He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Five minutester, the Chevy pulled into an alley and I parked right behind it.


    Three men emerged, but betrayal smacked me hard when I recognized one of them. I couldn’t trust anyone anymore.


    My neighbor Phil stood right in front of the van. But he wasn’t looking like the software salesman. He was in ck tactical gear.


    I red at him and got out of the car. “I take it you’re not awork security vendor.”


    “Sorry for this, Sloane.”


    “Who the fuck are you? Fed?” My gaze swept to his otherpanions. One was in a suit. The other was dressed simrly to Phil.


    “Phil is fine.”


    “Fuck you.”


    “Listen, Sloane, you’re on limited time. Grigori is expecting you at the Venezia Tower.”


    “You bugged my phone?” How? “What else did you do?” Oh my God. He would know about Dom. The familiar turmoil in my stomach started. I pped a hand over my mouth, barely keeping down the tacos I’d eaten for dinner.


    “I’m sorry.” And he really looked apologetic, but it could all be an act. After all, he fooled me. “I cloned it. But I was under orders from my superiors.”


    His words went in and out of my ears like a faulty radio because I was drowning in the sea of repercussions of Phil being a fed. The outing at the pub. That was in December. That was the only time he would be close enough to clone my phone. Oh. My. God. I didn’t care about Grigori, but the catastrophic consequences to Dom terrified me.


    I could only manage more than a whisper. “If you want me to ghost Grigori, you better have new identities for me. My brother. And…and Harriet!”


    “No. We want you to go through with it.”


    “Then I don’t understand. If you want me to hand over evidence, you must know I never leave a job with it.”


    “We know that.”


    I red at Billy, who had gotten out of the van and was standing motionless, letting Phil do all the talking. There was time to interrogate my brotherter.


    “And you’re very thorough about it. You don’t even leave traces of it in your vehicle.”


    I narrowed my eyes. His meaning clear. He’d broken into my van.


    “We lost contact with our informant and we have a feeling the Russians got to her, so it was a break when they called you.”


    “Then what?”


    “We’re going to outfit you with a camera.”


    “Oh, hell no!” I snapped. “You’re going to get me killed. Anton is going to be there, and he scrutinizes every inch of me, waiting for me to fuck up.”


    “Put it on me,” Billy offered. “They tend to bypass me, thinking I’m dumb as fuck and wouldn’t try anything like this.” My brother winked at me.


    “We’re not sure what we’re looking for, but our informant hinted about a thumb drive that could win the case for us.” Phil looked at my brother. “He’ll fill you in on the rest. You gotta go.”


    It took all of ten minutes to give us instructions. It wasn’t hard to follow. They wanted me to be less than thorough with my cleanup. Plus, the primary objective was to know who was there, and that all important thumb drive.


    When we were back on the road, and when I’d calmed down some and gotten oxygen back into my lungs, I asked Billy, “Fill me in.”


    “I didn’t want to involve you, but you know you have that picture of De Li and their informant on your phone.”


    “The woman is a fed informant?”


    “Or would-be whistleblower. They’re trying to build a corruption case against a politician. I’m not clear about the details. But they want me to feed them information about Grigori’s sex-trafficking ring, but it was leading nowhere because I got sent to Florida.”


    “So all these fuckups…” I whispered.


    Billy exhaled heavily. “Some of them were my stupidity, but I found out Grigori became less guarded around me when he thinks I’m just a dumb henchman who did as hemanded, no questions asked. Phil approached me earlyst year after he’d moved to Harriet’s apartment. The feds had been looking for the weakest link in the bratva.” He gave a brief self-deprecatingugh. “Apparently that’s me.”


    “So you’re okay getting out?”


    “Yeah.”


    I wasn’t touchy-feely with Billy, but at that moment, I wanted to hug my brother. I settled for reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze instead.


    “I wish you’d kept me in the loop! We could have made ns.”


    “No, Sloane. You had enough to think about with school, with keeping Harriet in that nursing home…listen. Let’s get through tonight…all right? Then see if we can get Phil and his boss what they want.”


    “They’re just after Grigori?”


    “The New York Russian bratva is too big to take down. They’ll settle for the brigadier running the sex-trafficking operation, so yes, just Grigori.”


    “What did they promise you?”


    “New identities for you, me, and Harriet. A fresh start somewhere.”


    I chewed on the chain of events. I thought back to the man who died in the ER, Wade Stephenson. His name was etched in my heart. I wondered if he was connected to all this, but if the feds were involved, then it would be a district attorney issue, not a corporatewyer from New Jersey.


    When we arrived at the Venezia Tower, we were directed to the rear entrance where we took the service elevator to the fifth floor. Anton admitted us into the apartment. He had scratches across his face and arms. He was wearing a shower cap same as I was because the cleanup job location wasn’t owned by the Russians.


    My eyes drifted to the room. The ce waspletely ransacked.


    “Scope?” I asked because if they expected me to put the stuffing back into the throw pillows, they were dreaming.<fnaa71> Chapters first released on f?i?n?d?n?o?v?e?l?</fnaa71>


    “Blood and hair.”


    “Where’s Kolya?” I asked. Please say he isn’t here because I don’t want him double-checking my work.


    “He’s out of town.”


    “The package?”


    “Grigori has someone else taking care of it.”


    “Okay.”


    “Don’t worry, Sloane.” Antonughed. “You’re not dismembering anyone else yet.”


    And I never would because after this I was gone.


    “Vacuum and mop the entire ce. Wipe every surface clean,” he continued. “I’m bagging the pillows and taking them with me, so don’t touch them.”


    He was probably looking for the evidence.


    “On it,” Billy said and looked at me. “Why don’t you take care of the blood?”


    I unpacked my tools and cleaning chemicals. Crouching by the concentration of blood saturating the floorboard, I analyzed the scene. It appeared the subject hit her head and she was dragged across the parquet flooring. If there was any doubt about the identity of the victim, the strands of blonde hair mixed with the blood were very damning.


    An hour had passed when Anton came back to me. “Sloane?”


    He didn’t tell me what he needed, but expected me to follow him into the bedroom. The nightstand lights were lit, illuminating a custom-built bed with luxurious bedding. My gaze numbly transfixed on that bed and wondered if Dom and the woman ever spent time on it. Although given the feds and Russians’ interest in her, arge part of me still believed Dom’s association with her wasn’t sexual but a power y.


    Still, I couldn’t help fretting that he wanted to set me up in a luxurious ce like this.


    “Sloane! What the fuck?”


    Jolted out of my torturous thoughts, I turned to Anton. “What do you need?”


    “Go through the pockets. Any storage device, give it to me.”


    So she had evidence against the Russians. Was Dom making moves on the Russians and they found out because this building belonged to him?


    Forty-five minutes passed, but we found nothing. The hot-pink coat I’d seen the woman wearing was hanging in the closet.


    I was sick to my stomach how this life had spiraled so far into the dark side, every fiber inside me was screaming to pack Harriet and Ginger in the van and get the hell out of Dodge. Because if my only choice was working for the bratva, I would be left without a soul.


    I didn’t know Grigori’s ns and endgame, but it only made sense he was making his moves tonight because the entire underworld was focused on the Game of Bosses. There was no other brilliant night to execute whatever plot he had in mind.


    Anton left me to finish up and exited the room. He appeared agitated, and it didn’t take two guesses why. He killed the only person who had the evidence that could incriminate them. But if the evidence was a thumb drive, then it would be floating out there. Anton was more brute than brains. He probably intended to knock the woman around. She slipped, hit her head, and died.


    When I left the room, he was on his phone. “Done?”


    I nodded.


    Anton returned to the caller. “Okay, send them up. Make sure the cameras are on a loop. This needs to be quick and clean.”


    “Can Billy and I go now?”


    “We’ll all leave through the service elevator.”


    Billy and I exchanged a look. That sounded ominous.


    Men in ski masks came in and hauled out the garbage bags. Anton was still on the phone inspecting my work. I held my breath. He didn’t have Kolya’s cold, meticulous eyes, but he had the malicious eyes of a bully.


    “Let’s go,” he muttered. We rode the elevator in silence. Billy usually made conversation, but I guessed he was nervous because he was wearing the wire. Meanwhile I had a death grip on my cleaning caddy. We emerged from the building into the alley where I parked my van. Regardless of what the feds nned to do with us after, I was going to try to run.


    Fuck this life.


    I had enough money saved under Harriet’s name. I could buy a new identity, except hauling an octogenarian with me could be tricky. It was up to Billy if he wanted toe with us, but I was done with Manhattan.


    I was walking steadily to my van when Anton grabbed my elbow. “Grigori wants a word with you.”


    “He can call me and set an appointment.”


    Billy came between us. “Let my sister go, man.”


    Anton whipped out his gun and pointed it at Billy. “You wanna say that to me again?”


    “Why does he want to talk to me?” If Phil was seeing this, I hoped to cause enough dy for them to spring into action.


    “Listen.” Anton lowered his head and snarled, “If Grigori says jump, you ask how high?” Another thing I despised with this Russian was his tough-guy clichés. I would have rolled my eyes, but the precariousness of our situation was trilling rm bells in my head. He yanked at my elbow again causing me to drop the caddy. My brother intervened and shoved Anton with surprising strength that made the big guy stagger, loosening his grip enough for me to break free.


    Billy grabbed my arm and we started running. We left all our shit behind.


    I spotted Phil and his feds at the mouth of the alley.


    “Come on!” Phil yelled.


    Just when we dashed past our van, a shot rang out and a gunfight erupted.


    Billy fell and dragged me down. I banged my knee. I was still gritting at the pain when I closed my hands on his shirt, attempting to yank him up.


    “Go,” he roared.


    “I’m not leaving you!”


    “Get her out of here,” Billy growled just as hands closed around my biceps.


    My body left the ground, swung up bridal-style and I was spirited away from the chaos.


    Muzzle shes flew past us and sparked against the dark alley walls.


    I heard a grunt, and then my body was free-falling.


    The pavement rushed up to greet me.


    ckness.