"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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I owed my sister an explanation for the events that occurred in the club with Gio and Ryan, but from the look on her face when I entered my apartment the only explanation she wanted was about what just happened in the hallway.
"What did he mean?" she asked as I shut the door behind me.
I arched a brow. "You mean about the, um, sex with me—"
"No!" Audrey shook her head vigorously. "Jesus, no! The other part. I heard you guys talking about whether it was real. Was it ever not real?"
Shit. That.
"It's hard to explain, Audrey."
"Stop doing that," she demanded in a voice that was uncharacteristically firm. "Stop treating me like a child. Like I can't handle the things that go on with you. You've just been expecting me to be okay without any explanation and I try to, okay? I try not to ask too much of you because I know that your life is... complicated. But I deserve something, Bina."
There was a long beat of silence. Neither of us moved. I'd barely made it inside the door before she started arguing with me and I didn't know how to react. Audrey never started arguments, never raised her voice, never looked so... confused. And it was because of me and my lies.
"I keep things from you to protect you. You know that."
"Do I?! Because it feels like you do it so you can live two different lives and I'm sick of being left out of your other one. I'm your sister! Something happened tonight and I have no idea what it is, but I'm scared! And it's because you haven't told me anything!"
I swallowed.
"Gio and I were pretending to date for my safety and," I took a deep breath before rushing out the next part. "So I can pay my debt back to Marafi and be free of him."
Audrey blinked.
After a long moment of staring at me, she turned and walked toward the couch. She flopped onto it and then pointed at the spot next to her.
"Sit," she demanded, "explain. Now."
So I did.
The whole explanation took a couple hours, especially due to the fact that my sister started asking question after question. But after all of these years of hiding my life and hiding my pain, I felt something loosen in my chest as I answered each one of her questions honestly. Even about how I used to be able to pay for her medicine and about how I started working about Enigma.
The Russo's were the hardest part of the story that I had to explain. How was I supposed to explain that the people I was sent to ruin and spy on were friends now. At least, some of them were. Audrey paid close attention when I would mention Cass and eventually I couldn't pretend any longer that I didn't notice it.
"You like him," I said, almost as a question, but I already knew the answer. Audrey nodded slowly. "He's dangerous. He's not like the men you normally pick for yourself. He's the adopted son of Don Russo."
