Gio

But there's no way in hell I would ever betray my family.

“You have him cuffed to the fucking table? Is that necessary?” My dad has two distinct modes. Lawyer and father. If you combine the two, he’s fucking vicious.

He’s a good lawyer, great even, but if one of his kids are in trouble a scary side comes out in him.

“Uncuff him.” He demands.

The cop that led him back here looks unsure. “Sir, I-”

“Uncuff. Him.” Giuseppe demands again, this time sternly. There’s a chilling tone to his voice. “And turn the fucking heat down, will ya?” He reaches up and loosens his tie.

I chuckle to myself, midnight on a Saturday and my father is fully dressed in a suit and tie.

“Something funny?’ Giuseppe slams his suitcase down on the shaky metal table.

“Not at all.” I return, straightening my features.

Behind my father enters Ricky Maldonado, the son of a fellow made man. Ricky went to law school, his father was determined to keep him out of the life, but he owned Giuseppe a favor for the letter of recommendation that got him into law school.

Apparently he was redeeming that favor for me.

He sits down across from me, eyeing the officer who removes my cuffs then leaves without another word.

My wrists are raw from where the cuffs cut into the skin. I rub them as my father heaves a disappointed sigh. Now that the cops are gone his facade begins to crack. He hates when we’re arrested.

“Ricky’s going to represent you.” He tells me. “You were taking a walk.” His tone is serious as he leans onto his elbows and makes eye contact with me. “You were taking a walk, you didn’t see anything, the building was robbed before you even came across it.”

“I was just taking a walk.” Gio shrugged.

He nods approvingly.

“How is she?” I ask. I can’t get her face out of my mind since I left her. She looked so disapproving when I shut the car door on her.

I got her into this mess, I wasn’t about to risk her getting arrested. The rest of us could handle it, we know this is the type of risk we face in the life we live, but Annie’s not like us.

She’s pure, innocent. She would never be able to handle life behind bars. And she doesn’t deserve it. She doesn’t deserve that kind of suffering when the only mistake she’s ever made is trying to be a good sister.

No, I would go down smiling if it meant protecting her.

“Broken ankle.” My dad tells me. “Doc’s at the house.”

“Damn it,” I hiss.

Giuseppe turns to Ricky and gestures to his ears. Wordlessly Ricky pulls out a pair of Beats headphones and covers his ears, punching his phone quickly to turn on music. Unlike us, Ricky isn’t a made man, there are some things we won’t discuss in front of him.

My obsession with Annie being one of them.

“Why would you do this?” My father glares at me. “Are you stupid?”

It’s rare that my father insults me. Our home growing up was nothing other than loving and supportive. He had no intention for us to grow up and join him in la famiglia. He wanted us to be doctors or even better, lawyers. He loved us every second of our childhood.

But now, sitting in front of me in the interrogation room, he’s angry at me.

“I couldn’t let her get caught.”

He sighs. “Then why did you bring her.”

“We need someone her size.” I lament.