ATONEMENT | MAFIA ROMANCE | SMUT

CHAPTER SIXTY

Still, I felt bilious by the lies between us.

"Alexa, are you okay?" Jace kissed my forehead. "You don't look too good."

"I don't know." Everyone's eyes were on me, so close and suffocatingly intrusive. "Am I alone?"

"What?" Brad shared a concerned look with his brothers. "Alexa, why would you think like that?"

"You lied to me," I dared to say, and Vincent was the only man bold enough to sustain the fierceness in my eyes. "All of you."

Vincent fixed his silver tie. "In order to lie, I'd have participated in The Brotherhood's conspiracies. I was not invited to such gatherings, so your groundless accusations are objectionable." He was annoyingly calm. "By all means, ask me something. I am not one to shirk the challenge."

"What is everyone keeping from me?" My stare flickered to Brad. "I heard what you said. You told the men not to divulge. When I asked Reginald's whereabouts, you answered ambiguously."

Brad licked a toothpick from left to right.

I did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Vincent?"

"Reginald Burton is not permitted to be anywhere near my brother's case," he answered honestly. "It would seem that one of the witnesses informed the metropolitan of Liam's and Burton's unlawful association."

"Vincent." Brad's face was red with anger. "A word."

"That's not necessary." Vincent's hands slipped into his trouser pockets. "I will not lie to my brother's wife because you are too pusillanimous to bite the bullet."

"It is not about cowardice." Brad grew agitated. "Warren will go on a fucking rampage behind prison walls if concerned for Alexa."

I scoffed in disbelief. "Liam dwells in an unenlightened manifestation."

Brad's belligerence turned to me. "Surely, you are not that stupid."

"Guys." Jace strived to calm everyone down. "People are watching."

"Fuck them." Brad's lips lowered to my ear. "Warren has people on the inside. They will report everything—and I mean everything—that happens out here to the boss."

I breathed in deeply. "How can you be so sure?"

"Brad's right." Nate gave Vincent a haughty look of disdain before he spoke directly to me. "Until we touch base with the boss, we must consider all possibilities. Warren's smart. He would have lined up hirelings the moment officers chucked him in the slammer."

"Look, I get it." Brad tried to reason with me. "You're his wife. Vincent's his brother. You guys know better than us, right?" His lips meshed. "Warren was a criminal before he married you. He was a criminal before his estranged brother surfaced. Now, I appreciate how disrespectful I will sound by speaking facts, but I am going to do it regardless. You know the better part of him, which I am thankful for because if anyone deserved some sense of normality in life, it was him. You do not know how his mind operates, though. I do. I have been in his corner since the very beginning. If I tell you, the boss has an informant in his pocket? You better believe it. If I tell you, the boss will not survive if he fears your wellbeing? You better fake smile and walk into the courtroom with your head held high. If you want to challenge me at every corner, do not come to me with tears in your eyes when he self-destructs."

My mouth opened and closed.

How could I argue the matter?

He is right. And I had to respect that.

"Okay." Josh reappeared with a spring in his step. "Russian."

"Russian?" Brad's forehead creased. "Are you certain?"