Mobster's Bones (Mobster #5) Read Free Page A

to the left, empty—to the right, empty, except for the long sleeping body by the elevator.
    “Help me get Jake in his room,” I say.
    “Help you?” Vito questions, his dark eyes devilish.
    “Yeah. Help me.”
    Vito and I get Jake up. We both sling an arm over our shoulders. Jake’s feet drag on the carpet. He’s out cold.
    “He’s a couple of doors down. He has a game this weekend. The team is going to go nuts if he’s not at his prime.” We stop and I reach into the front pocket of Jake’s jeans, fishing around.
    “What are you doing?” Vito asks, a look of horror on his face.
    “What do you think? I’m getting his keys.”
    “I don’t know what you dorm buddies do around here. Maybe you swing and shit like that.”
    I hurl him a glare and unlock Jake’s door. We hoist Jake up onto his bed. I untie his sneakers.
    “What the fuck are you doing now?”
    “I’m taking his shoes off.” The implications that we are gay are getting annoying. “Would you want to sleep in your shoes? I’m guessing no,” I challenge as I slip them off.
    “Oh.” He admits understanding. “Now you owe me a favor.”
    “For what?”
    “For helping you move Jake.”
    I don’t bother to get in a pissing contest that I would have had Jake in his room already if Vito hadn’t cut the power to the elevator, put a bag over my head, and shoved me into my room. My face says it all—not the same thing.
    “Are you friends with Megan?” The sound of his question is unnerving.
    “Yes.” Hesitation makes me draw the shit out of my yes like it is the longest word in my vocabulary. I don’t like where this is going.
    “Erin?” His girlfriend… My brother’s ex. A girl I’ve babysat .
    I am reluctant to respond. “Yes.”
    “Then let me explain something to you.” He puts his arm around my shoulder like a very bad scene from The Godfather . “You are friends with them. In turn that makes you friends with me… and Antonio is marrying Megan, your friend. Antonio is going to be the Boss . We treat friends like family. That means you are friends with, and practically family with, all of us.”
    “I find this a very big stretch,” I cut and Vito looms over me even though we are almost the same six-foot-three-inch height.
    “I don’t.” He glares at me with an icy expression. “I find it… the way it is.” His words carry a cold chill to them.
    “So you are not asking me to do a favor, you’re telling me,” I clarify.
    “I haven’t asked since I’ve been here. I told you what I needed. A favor.”
     

Alessandra
     
    I park my car in the driveway, hesitating to go inside. I really wanted to ask to stay at Megan’s for the night but her mother is a horror and doesn’t like me. Her daughter and Antonio becoming an item is all my doing. I could have asked Antonio for a place to crash, but it just seems wrong now. He’s marrying Megan. The time for sleepovers is done. I have to face my nightmares alone.
    I take my gun out of my bag and hold it in my shooting hand; I slip my purse over my shoulder and hold my keys in the other. I get out of the car taking a deep breath. I can do this. It’s your imagination.
    I slam my car door. It booms in my ears. I glance behind me fast, then to the side, and then my other side. My gun is by my thigh. My eyes dart around looking for any sign of trouble. They are hurting, straining to see the slightest movements in the darkness. I step forward and spill over my own feet, my anxiety getting the best of me. I want to be inside the house so bad that I’m unable to get myself under control, as if something is chasing me.
    My fear catapults and gets the best of me and I start running. Clack-clack-clack ricochets off the sidewalk as my heels meet concrete. I steal a peek behind me, frustrated and angry for letting this get to me—and at the night for being so dark.
    I spin back around only seconds from my front steps and run smack into Louie. I scream and he grabs my forearms. My