Page 43 of Run to Me
“Heard you’re looking into the Blue Vipers. I know none of the heads of the main syndicate’s tolerate trafficking in New York, but this rule means more to me now than it has in the last few years. So how about we swap some information and put these fuckers down for good?” he says, his Irish accent barely there since he grew up in New York, same for mine and my brothers Italian.
“Why is it more important now?” I ask.
Finn sends a pointed look towards my brother before answering. “Because my sister finally decided to come home.”
As soon as the words leave his mouth, Marco’s entire body tenses beside me.
Fucking weird.
What has O’Brien’s sister got to do with Marco? I was young when she left the city. I know she and Finn are twins and she left right around the time I was—
Oh.Oh. Oh shit.
An image of a blonde girl with her arms wrapped around my then nineteen-year-old brother spring to mind.
Piercing blue eyes.
Just like the asshole sitting opposite me.
Holy shit.
Knowing my brother like I do; I know he won’t want to hash this out right now. We also have more pressing matters than gossiping like schoolgirls—like making sure my angel is safe.
“Sounds great. So what do you know about the Blue Vipers?” I ask, leaning back into the sofa as if I haven’t just been shocked the shit out of.
He stares at me for a moment before sighing. “Nothing concrete. They seem to be slimy little fuckers but word on the streets is that they’re based out of Queens. I don’t have an exact location yet, but my guy is working on it and hoping to have their location soon.”
I nod. It’s not great, but at least it’ssomething.
“We don’t have much either. We know they’re growing rapidly and trying to set up a new connection in Chicago since Bianchi’s death. We have a guy tracking their online presence and hopefully that’ll get us something soon,” Marco says, and I zone out as they start going over the specifics we’ve learned so far, my mind occupied by Robyn.
She’s back at work today for the first time since she’s been staying with me and I fucking hate it, knowing she’s not in my apartment and that I don’t have my own two eyes on her. It’s making my fucking skin crawl. I pull out my phone and send off a couple of texts. One to Robyn and one to Leo, the bodyguard I’ve assigned to her. Leo’s reply comes instantly, and I breathe a little better.
Report.
Leo
All good, boss. Store’s not been too busy, no suspicious customers, she’s fine.
I lock my phone and focus back on the conversation, seems like we’ve shifted over into talking about the deal we have with O’Brien down at the docks, and it’s not long before I’m watching as the man himself strolls from the room.
Now that we’re alone, I have to wonder whether Marco’s going to actually talk about the girl he’s been holding a torch for the last ten years or if he’s going to continue living in denial.
“So…” I say and he once again tenses beside me—he knows what’s coming. “The O’Brien girl, huh? I knew that pretty blonde was someone important to you, so you wanted to hide the relationship. I just didn’t realize that the relationship would start a war.” I raise my brow as his face remains stoic as usual.
“We’re not talking about this,” he says in a gruff, no-nonsense tone.
“No? But you were so helpful with Luca, telling him not to let Izzy go. Basically telling him not to repeat your mistakes… she’s in our city bro, so when you gonna see her?”
“Because he still had a chance. I don’t. It’s over Enzo, I’ll likely never see her again, and I accepted that fact ten years ago,” he grunts before jumping to his feet and storming from the room.
Denial it is.
After the strangest meeting I’ve attended in a long time, I went back to finding out everything I could about the Blue Vipers.
Which admittedly, still isn’t much.
I don’t understand how a group of idiots can manage to evade the most powerful men in the city. It doesn’t make sense.