"You like it, don't you?"
"What?" I managed to breathe.
"The fear, Miss Night," he mused, "you crave it."
_______________________________________
Sabina Night owes Antonio Marafi her life.
But when he asks her to spy on the Russo crime family, Sabin...
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Audrey sat across the bar sipping on the cocktail I'd just mixed for her. She was actively trying not to gag and I was trying not to laugh.
"So a no for that one?"
She covered her mouth with her fingers. "Um, you know, it's not that bad. Maybe if you just—"
Damian gagged, interrupting my sister's attempt at niceness.
"Maybe you shouldn't try to make up your own drinks anymore," he said.
I made a face at him, rolling my eyes at the dramatics of the two of them. When she first arrived, Damian had looked at her with the same eyes most men did when they saw my sister. I took it as a good sign— maybe he was moving on from Lane.
Audrey, however, was polite but not interested. At least I didn't have to meddle in that interaction. There was still a Russo family member that I was actively trying to get her to avoid. Still, as she sat at the bar her eyes flicked around the club as though she were looking for somebody.
"Fine. Fine," I grumbled, serving another woman who had come up to the bar. I turned back to the two of them. "No deviating from the classics I promise."
When I returned back to my sister, a familiar man was sitting next to her grinning at me.
"The classics are classics for a reason, Sabina, why deviate?" Ryan asked, laughing at the shocked look on my face.
I yelped happily before crossing from out of the bar to give him a hug. The man I thought I loved when I was fifteen wrapped his arms around me, squeezing tightly. Audrey stood and hugged him next.
"What brings you here?" My sister asked as he settled into the stool beside her. "I thought you were working outside the city now?"
"I was. My office is in the process of relocating me to their headquarters downtown. I may or may not have gotten a promotion."
My eyes widened. "You're moving back to the city?"
"If you'll have me," he teased and I grinned.
"That's amazing news!" Audrey held up the new drink I slid toward her. "News to drink to if I have anything to say about it."
Since it was a slower night and I wasn't technically supposed to be working behind the bar, I told Damian and Lane that I was cutting out early to celebrate. Both of them waved me off, seeming slightly awkward now that they had to be left alone together. Maybe they'd finally talk.
I put a bottle of vodka on my tab and led my sister and my oldest friend to the booth in the corner. We held up our shot glasses and toasted to Ryan's promotion. And then we toasted again. And then three more times.
Something about drinking with the two of them made me feel like I was in a different life. Like I was living a life where I didn't owe anybody anything. Like I wasn't living a lie.
