Hold Him Like Gravity (Lombardi Family #4)

Chapter Twenty-Three

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Rico

When she broke down, I knew it wasn’t some evil plan. To distract me with intimacy then rob me blind.

Sure, I’d seen more than a few people use tears and begging to try to get out of trouble for fucking me or my family over.

But this was different.

She fucking shattered.

And despite the betrayal I’d been feeling, I couldn’t just let her suffer, sobbing on the floor like that.

I pulled her onto my lap. I held her as she purged all that toxic shit so she could talk this shit out with me.

I knew there was something going on, something pushing her to do what she’d done.

I didn’t expect for it to be her abusive ex she thought she’d killed and her piece of shit, disloyal brother.

I mean, for fuck’s sake, what kind of brother would team up with the man who hurt his sister only to further terrorize and manipulate her?

I didn’t know.

But I planned to have a little chat with that shithead about it.

My mind was racing, anger at someone fucking me over and on Kick’s behalf making me feel racy and ready to haul off and punch something. Preferably the faces of Kyle and Jake.

Until, of course, Kick’s small voice broke through the tornado of thoughts, asking something I couldn’t have seen coming.

“Who are you?”

To be fair, there were times when I thought it was weird as fuck that she didn’t ask me shit about the family. Considering everything else we’d talked about over the past few weeks.

Then again, it wasn’t exactly something I’d brought up either. And I imagine that people assumed that they couldn’t ask about family business.

It never crossed my mind that she simply didn’t know who I was, what I was involved in, that the shop was a money laundering operation more than just a normal, legitimate business.

Then again, Kick wasn’t from the area.

She had no friends around here.

So unless one of the guys at work mentioned it, there was no way she could have known. And I didn’t think those guys would be dumb enough to talk about their boss’s other business practices while at work.

“You really don’t know?” I asked, watching her face for any tell.

“No, I mean… I thought I knew who you were. But…” she said, waving at me.

Exhaling hard, I nodded. “Does the name Lombardi mean anything to you?” I asked.

“Aside from it being the name of the meat shop, but not actually your last name?” she asked.

“Yeah, besides that.”

“No. Should it?”

“Lombardi family ?” I tried.

“Are they famous or something?” she asked, looking lost.

“Infamous, maybe,” I said. “Alright. Well, not to pile on to an already overwhelming night,” I said, gesturing for her to sit. She did, on the end of the coffee table, watching me with suspicious eyes. “The Lombardi family is a crime family.”

“A crime family?” she repeated. “Wait… like… like the mob?” she asked, brows scrunched.

“Yeah, exactly like that,” I agreed, watching her eyes as she processed the information. Then, she let out a little laugh. “What?” I asked.

“The guys at work,” she said, shaking her head. “They used to make these jokes about The Sopranos . It never made any sense to me before. I… get it now. So, you’re, you know, in it? The mob?” she clarified.

“Yeah. Pretty high up, actually.”

“So the meat shop…”

“Launders mafia money,” I confirmed. “Which is probably why that shithead ex of yours thought you could get away with skimming. The money at the shop is… complicated. Not just, you know, matching the cash up to the receipts and shit like that. If I kept less precise books, it probably wouldn’t have gotten found out so soon,” I added.

“Rico, I’m so—“ she started.

“I know,” I cut her off. “I know you didn’t want to do it,” I said, thinking of that haunted, far-away look that she often had that had been bothering me.

“You’re… not mad at me?” she asked.

“I was,” I admitted. “Actually, that’s not even right. I wasn’t mad so much as…”

“Hurt,” she filled in when I couldn’t find the word.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

She nodded at that, blinking some fresh tears out of her eyes. Then her gaze fell, studying her shoes as she spoke again.

“Are you going to have to… kill me?” she asked.

Christ.

I mean, yeah, we were a notoriously ruthless family. But the men? We didn’t hurt women. That said, we were the only family that had female capos. And they didn’t have the same qualms about hurting or killing women that we did. So, yeah, some women had died in the Lombardi name in the past.

But it bothered me that she thought I would do that to her. That I would be capable let alone willing.

I moved across the room in a few quick strides, reaching out to grab her chin and force her to face me.

“No,” I said, voice firm. “I’m not going to have to kill you. I would never kill you. I wouldn’t put a hand on you.”

“But… your boss…”

“Will understand that you were a pawn,” I cut her off. “That the only people to blame are your ex and your brother. And maybe those shits who also robbed my place.”

“You’re going to kill them?” she asked, gaze surprisingly clear as she looked at me.

“I’m on the fence about Jake,” I admitted. “Since he’s your brother. But he can’t get away with this either. But that ex of yours? I’ll be happy to take him outta this world. For good this time,” I added with a smirk that had a strangled laugh escaping her.

“I stabbed him,” she admitted, watching me. If she was looking for a reaction of shock or horror, she wasn’t gonna get that from me. I’d stabbed people too. For a lot less. “In the throat and thigh,” she said. “Someone saw me at work after Kyle beat me,” she added. “He told me how to do it.”

“In the Bronx?” I asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Curious if he might be an Esposito.”

“Is that another crime family?” she asked.

“Yeah. They run that borough. Can’t believe that fuck lived when you got him in the throat.”

“I know,” she said. “Believe me, he had things to say about that when he showed up again.”

“Well, you’re not gonna need to hear shit from him again,” I told her, then looked around her place. “Alright, listen,” I said, “I need to go talk to Renzo and… everyone else,” I told her.

“Okay,” she agreed, nodding. “What should I do? Do you need me to tell them everything?”

“No, I can do it. You’ve dealt with enough tonight, I think. But I don’t want to leave you alone here,” I told her. “He got in here once already, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I’m taking you to my place,” I told her. “Wanna go pack some shit?”

“You… want me to go to your place?”

“Need to know you’re safe with this clusterfuck of a situation. And if I stationed guards here, if someone is watching you, it might tip them off. I don’t want them to know that I know.”

“You don’t have to take me to your place. I’ll be okay,” she insisted.

“No, you’re not staying here.”

“Rico, you don’t owe me anything,” she said, shaking her head. “After what I did.”

“Alright, let’s get this shit out of the way,” I said, waiting for her to look at me again. “Knowing what I know, I’m not mad at you. I get why you did what you did. So, the stealing, that doesn’t change shit between us, okay?”

“It has to.”

“It doesn’t. Look, babe, in my world, there’s a lot of gray area. This is just more of that. But we can talk about it more some other time. Right now, I want to get you somewhere safe. Then I gotta put this up the chain. Talk about the plan.”

“Okay,” she agreed, but was still tense.

“You got a carrier for Evander?” I asked.

“No. I, well, I wasn’t sure he was mine, so I didn’t buy that kind of thing.”

“Got any old delivery boxes he will fit in?” I asked.

“My end tables?” she said, waving toward the cardboard boxes that had been serving that purpose.

She was living like this, busting her ass at work, while her shithead of an ex took as much as he could from her.

“That’ll do,” I said, tamping down the anger that rose up again. I’d get to take it out on Kyle eventually. But right now, I needed to handle this shit. “Go on. Get some of your shit.”

“How much?” she asked.

“Enough for a few days. I’ll grab stuff for Evander,” I told her, then watched as she gave me a nod and walked off toward the bedroom.

Alone, I reached for my phone, shooting off a text to my cousin, telling him to grab one of the family’s cars and meet me at Kick’s place.

We made our way out a while later, an angry Evander yowling and whacking his body against the sides of the box.

The confused look on Bastian’s face made me think he was half-expecting me to need the ride because there was a body involved or something.

“Hey, Bass,” Kick said in a small voice, her head ducked.

“Kick,” he said, opening the door for her. She climbed inside obediently, then took Evander’s box from me.

“Just one minute, babe,” I said, closing the door.

“The fuck is going on?”

“Long story. I only wanna repeat it once, so I’m gonna get Kick settled at our place. Then we’re gonna go talk to Renzo and the others.”

“Sounds good,” Bass said, moving around the car to get in the driver’s seat. On the ride to my place, I made sure two of my soldiers were at the building, ready to keep Kick safe while Bass and I were gone.

“The fuck you got trapped in that box, a demon?” Bass asked as Evander continued to shriek.

“Sorry. He’s always been… very opinionated,” Kick said, trying to coo at the cat who was having none of it. “I’ll try to keep him quiet in the apartment, so your neighbors don’t complain.”

“You could start a cat shrieking band in the apartment and no one would say shit,” Bass said.

I glanced back at Kick, who nodded.

“Right… right,” she added, voice softer, still trying to process the whole mob thing.

There would be time to discuss that more later.

There would be time for a lot of things later.

But right now, I had to get her somewhere safe.

Then I needed to deal with this shit once and for all.