Family Ties (Morelli Family 4)

I knew there was something off about her!

Before I can fully process or respond to what he just said, he goes on.

“You can’t tell your brother. He’s going to find out, I’m going to leak some information for Adrian to connect her to my dad, but you have to keep quiet about it until that happens.”

Fear creeps up my spine, anxiety twisting my stomach. “What if she still has it? What if she’s just been trying to get close to him so she could poison him?” I need to warn him. I need to tell her she’s a stupid fucking double agent and he needs to get her the hell out of his bedroom.

Salvatore raises his eyebrows sternly. “She’s not. Like I said, she never wanted to, my dad just threatened her. She has Mateo’s protection now. Unless she actually does hate him, there’s no reason for her to want him dead, and it doesn’t sound like she does. It’s also highly doubtful she still has the poison.”

“But what if she does? What if she hurts Mateo?”

“It’s unlikely,” he says, though he’s not as horrified by the prospect of someone killing my brother as I am. “It won’t be much longer. Everything is coming to a head. That’s not even the part that’s going to piss you off.”

The look on his face backs up his statement, and now my stomach sinks for a whole different reason. I just finally got up the nerve to take his side, and now he might make it worse. What if he’s decided to get behind his father’s plan to kill Mateo? I can’t get behind that. I can’t support that. I can’t keep that secret, and I can’t tell on him, either, or Mateo will kill him. I really hope he isn’t about to break my heart in a whole new way.

He watches me for another tense minute, then he says, “I need your brother distracted for a couple of days before that bomb drops. My expectation is, once he finds out, he reacts quickly and violently. I need to make sure you’re out of the crosshairs before that happens.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and me are gonna lay low. He won’t expect me to hide, and it’s good to surprise people—that’s the official story, at least. Truth is, I just don’t trust any of my father’s men to keep you safe. But I need Mateo distracted for a few days so I can get you out of the house and get us safely tucked away before the rest of the shit goes down.”

“What shit? Are you guys going after Mateo?”

Sal shakes his head, and I watch for signs of deceit, but to be honest, I don’t know what he looks like lying so I don’t know what to look for. “Not as far as I know.”

“Does your dad know about me now?” My head is spinning with all he hasn’t told me. I can’t even catch up with all this.

He looks more guarded than I’m comfortable with, but he slowly nods his head. “I had to tell him.”

“And he’s okay with us?”

“He’s…” He rocks his head left, then right, faintly grimacing. “That’s not the word I would use. But I’m working something out. I have plans A through D to cover every possible eventuality. Wherever the cards fall between our families, you and I are going to be together.”

My heart soars, but plummets a second later because that doesn’t make sense. I may not know what Sal’s deception looks like, but I know when two plus two doesn’t equal four. He’s been adamant about his father not knowing about me, and now he’s outed us himself?

“Now, let me get to the part that’s gonna piss you off.”

Oh good, none of that was the worst of it. I pull out of my thoughts to hear what else he has to add to the chaos going on inside my head.

“I’m gonna kidnap Mia.”

My jaw drops open, my eyes going wide. “What?”

“Well, not me personally, but I’m organizing it.”

“No! Are you crazy? You can’t hurt Mia.”

“No one’s going to hurt Mia,” he assures me. “I just need your brother distracted.”

I reach forward and shove him in the shoulder. “You’re using information I gave you to hurt my brother. You’re not supposed to do that. We had an agreement.”

“Sweetheart, I don’t think you understand how serious this is. We’re going to war here. You don’t play dirty, you don’t win.”

I don’t want you to win.

I manage to stop short of the words launching out of my mouth, but I don’t. I realize how much I don’t want that—because if he wins, that means my family loses. And I don’t even have enough faith in Sal’s family to believe they can take on Mateo and win, so what happens if Sal loses? It’s not like my brother will open his arms to him after defeating him. No, he’ll kill him. He’ll have to.