Breaking Bones (Mariani Crime Family #2)

by Amanda Washington

  About time.

  Satisfied and bubbling over with anticipation of finally getting what I really wanted for my birthday, I let him tug me out of the club and into a cab. We were on our way home and headed for bliss, when he got the phone call.

  Bones glanced at the screen and grinned at me as he answered. “Hey Noah. Yeah, it’s a great time. What did you think?”

  I tried to listen in, but he must have lowered his receiver volume after the call with his mom.

  As Bones listened, his smile stretched further across his face. “I told you she was good.” He chuckled. “Yeah, she’s a knockout.”

  I felt my cheeks heat up under Bones’s stare. But then his smile started to fade. I searched his face for clues as to why, but saw nothing.

  “Yeah, I get it. Sounds good. I’ll pass along the information and let you know,” he said before hanging up and pocketing his phone. His jaw tightened.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Nothing.” He smiled. “It’s all good. Great news.”

  I couldn’t tell which of us he was trying to convince. “What is?”

  The cab pulled up to the curb.

  “I’ll tell you inside,” Bones said, paying the cabbie.

  We hurried upstairs, and I went straight to my room to check on Markie. She wasn’t there, so Bones tapped on Angel’s door. Markie had fallen asleep watching another movie. I leaned past Bones to see my sister passed out in her pajama shorts and top, a peaceful smile spread across her face.

  “She looks really comfortable,” Angel said, sounding reluctant to move her.

  “Yeah. I’m glad she has you, Angel. You guys are amazing together.”

  He smiled. “She’s my world.”

  I choked up at his words. Sure I was happy for my sister, but man, I wanted what she had. I needed someone to love me like Angel loved Markie. I wanted to be someone’s world. Markie deserved it, though. I didn’t.

  Angel went to bed and I went looking for Bones. I found him coming out of the bathroom, wearing a black tank top and pajama pants.

  “You ready to tell me about this great news?” I asked.

  He looked over my body. “Wanna get comfortable first?”

  Uh, no I didn’t want to change. Especially not after the way he’d just looked at me. “I am comfortable.”

  I followed him to the sofa and sat beside him, making sure our thighs were touching. Bones tensed and scooted away, turning to face me. Before I could call him out on his standoffish behavior, he gave me a forced smile.

  “So… great news. I didn’t want to tell you this until after you performed, but—”

  “Performed? Oh, you mean after you guys set me up to sing at dinner?” I couldn’t help but smile at the memory. “That was a really great birthday present, by the way.”

  His gaze flickered to something behind me, and then back to me. I turned to look, but nothing was there but the closet door. Feeling unsettled, I asked, “What were you waiting to tell me?”

  “There was a talent scout at the restaurant. He’s a friend and I asked him to—”

  “Ohmigod! There was a scout there? And you know him? What did he think? This is great news! Why aren’t you freaking out with me? Oh God, did he hate me?”

  “No, no, Ari.” Bones patted my shoulder. “He thinks you’re amazing. You are… amazing.”

  Heat flooded my cheeks again. “Thank you, Bones. But why do I get the feeling there’s some huge ass ‘but’ that you’re holding onto?”

  He rubbed his chin and looked away, as if trying to figure out how to word what he needed to say.

  I wanted to shake him. “Come on, this is me. Give it to me straight. Tell me what’s up.”

  “More good news. He has the perfect opportunity for you.”

  I groaned. “I’ve heard that line before.”

  “No, he’s legit. I trust this guy. We go way back. But here’s the thing… you take the job and you can’t leave Vegas for at least six months.”

  “Okay.” I shrugged. “So I try this thing out and catch up with you guys when it’s finished.” I leaned forward and gave him a peck on the lips before nodding toward the empty bed in Bones’s room. I had a great buzz going, Markie was bunking with Angel, and I’d just gotten the best news of my life. If I could get Bones out of his pajamas, my birthday would be perfect. “We should go celebrate.”

  Bones’s eyes dilated. I took it as a good sign and gave him another kiss, this one longer. He didn’t kiss me back. I leaned into him, but his hands shot up to hold my shoulders away.

  Feeling rejected, I lowered my head. “What’s wrong?”

  “We can’t. It would be a mistake.”

  A mistake. Sex with me a “mistake”?

  That hurt. “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to complicate things. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for you and Angel, Markie, and I will be leaving soon and—”

  Ice filled my veins. “And you don’t want me to join you after the six months is up.”

  “No, it’s not like that. You’ll need to stay in Vegas a minimum of six months. Maybe longer. And what if this leads to something bigger? Something more? Then what? You’re just gonna throw away your dream job to come live with us?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Ari, this is the reason you moved here. It’s what you want. You should stay here and take this shot.”

  He was right. I wanted to sing. But I also wanted mountaintop picnics with my gym buddy. I needed to see his sexy smirk every morning and to smell his delicious scent every night. I longed for the feel of his hands on my lower back and his lips working their way down my neck. But more than all that, I wanted to be his world.

  And I could tell he wanted the same thing, but he was willing to walk away. He’d start a new life somewhere without me, and I’d be here alone. I don’t know what I expected him to do about it, but my stomach twisted at the thought. Tears blurred my vision as I pushed myself off the sofa and stared down at him.

  “You don’t have a clue what I want, Bones.”

  I walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind me.

  He’ll come. He’ll follow me. He won’t leave me in here alone.

  I sat on the bed waiting to hear a tap on the door that never came. The only sound I heard was the main door opening and closing.

  Bones left.

  My heart felt like it was being shattered into a million pieces.

  It hurt so bad I wanted to die. I needed to fix the pain… to numb it. Tears rolling down my face, I picked up my phone and called Matt. His phone went straight to voice mail. The hollow ache in my chest grew, threatening to consume me.

  I needed to get out… to go somewhere… but where? A notification blinked on my phone—a missed call from Piper.

  Piper!

  Desperate, I called her back. She picked up on the third ring, sounding way more chipper than a person should.

  “Hey, Ari! Happy birthday, girl!”

  Yeah. Happy freakin’ birthday.

  I swallowed back a sob and tried to sound normal. “Hey, I know it’s late, but you still wanna go out for those drinks?”

  “Yeah, sure, of course. What’s wrong? You sound… is everything okay?”

  “Just a shit day. Can you pick me up? In fact, can I go ahead and move in with you now? I have my share of the rent.”

  “Oh shit, that sounds like a story. Yeah, of course. Pack up what you need and I’ll come get you. What’s your address?”

  I gave it to her, grabbed my jacket and purse, and headed out, texting Markie to let her know I moved in with a coworker—in the middle of the night—because why not? Hopefully she’d write it off to my impulsiveness.

  Since I didn’t want to deal with the nosy doorman, I slipped out the back entrance and ran around to the front of the building. Half expecting Bones, Markie, Angel, and the entire National Guard of mobsters to come bursting through the doors any minute, I waited in the shadows until a car pulled up to th
e curb.

  The passenger door swung open and I peeked in.

  Piper’s smiling face greeted me. “Get in. It’s freezing out there,” she said.

  “Thank you so much for picking me up,” I said, sliding into the passenger seat. I turned to pull the door shut behind me, and felt a prick in my left arm. Startled, I turned to see what had stuck me just in time to see Piper pulling a syringe out of my arm.

  “Sorry, Ari, but someone’s offering a lot of money for you.”

  Then everything went dark.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Bones

  I HAD EVERYTHING I wanted sitting in front of me—her big, beautiful brown eyes practically begging me to accept her, but all I could think about was something Pops once said. We were in my bedroom looking down at a glass jar stuffed with grass and leaves. I’d punched small air holes into the lid of the jar, so the little side-blotched lizard I’d caught could breathe, but not escape.

  “Well, where is he?” Pops asked, leaning over my shoulder to get a better look.

  I tapped on the glass, but my lethargic little lizard did not come out of his hiding spot.

  “You know, lizards don’t like to be bottled up like that,” Pops said.

  “But I want to keep him.”

  Pops put his hand on my shoulder. “I know you do, Son, but do you want him to die? They’re not meant for captivity.” He frowned. “People aren’t either. Never believe you can keep anything or anyone by bottling them up. They’ll only fight harder to get away from you.”

  Pops had disappeared less than a month after that conversation. I’d never connected the dots before, but after hearing Martin’s tale at the convenience store, I realized how many childhood details I’d repressed—entire weeks Pops never came home, fights between him and Ma, school functions he never showed up for. Pops had left long before he’d disappeared.

  Why? Hadn’t we been enough for him?

  My gaze roamed over Ariana’s flawless body. She nodded toward the bedroom and I almost lost my mind. But if we hooked up, it would only mess with both our minds. I wanted more than one night. Hell, I wanted to bottle her and keep her forever, just like that damn lizard, but she wasn’t meant for captivity either.

  She was meant for the stage, her soulful voice enchanting the crowd. She might settle for me, but she’d never be happy. I loved Ariana, and I’d do anything to make her happy. The only way I could do that was to set her free to follow her dream.

  The anger and hurt in her eyes told me this time she wouldn’t forgive me. I’d finally managed to blow it with her for good. It was what I wanted, right? Then why did I feel like shit?

  Unable to sleep, I slipped on socks and sneakers, grabbed my gym bag, and headed downstairs. I needed to work the rest of the alcohol out of my system so I could think clearly.

  I hit the weights, punishing my body until I could barely move. After a quick shower, I returned to my bed on the sofa where I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember, I was being shaken awake. I reached for the gun on the coffee table as Angel jumped over the recliner and positioned himself between me and Markie, putting his hands in the air.

  “Bones, everything’s okay. No gun,” Angel said.

  I dropped the gun and sat up, wiping sleep from my eyes.

  “Everything is not okay,” Markie said, pushing her way out from behind Angel, phone in hand and tears streaking down her face. “What happened between you and Ari last night?”

  I tried to shake the cobwebs from my head. “Why? What’s going on?”

  “She’s gone. Said she moved out. In the middle of the night. Why?”

  Angel draped his arm over Markie’s shoulders. “I’m sure there’s a good explanation. Let’s calm down and get a cup of coffee, then we’ll get this all figured out.”

  Markie pulled away from him, holding up her phone. “She’s not answering my calls. She was drunk, and I don’t even know when she left. What if she did something stupid? Did you hear her leave? Why didn’t you try to stop her, Bones?”

  Last night’s events filtered through my mind. “She came onto me. I… I… I got a call from Noah. He was impressed with her. He can place her as long as she plans on staying in Vegas.”

  Angel nodded.

  “I tried to explain why we couldn’t… but she was pissed. She stormed back into the room and I thought that was that. I felt like shit, so I went to the gym and worked out. She must have slipped out while I was gone.”

  “Crap.” Markie blinked back tears and stared at the ceiling. “She doesn’t take rejection well. What if she’s back with Matt and”—she swallowed back a sob—“what if he kills her this time?

  “She’s not with Matt,” I blurted out before I could clamp my mouth shut.

  “What? How do you know that?” Markie asked.

  Since I couldn’t tell her Matt was worm food without explaining how I knew, I looked to Angel for help.

  “No.” Markie folded her arms across her chest. “You’re not gonna do some sort of bro-code thing and keep me out of this. She’s my sister—the only family I have left—and you two are gonna get your crap together and tell me what’s going on here.”

  Angel rubbed his temples and stared at the ceiling.

  “I’m serious. Start talking,” Markie demanded.

  Angel gave me the nod, and I collapsed back onto the sofa and broke into the abridged version. Markie leaned against Angel, and he massaged her shoulders as she listened. She took it surprisingly well, without reaction or outward signs of judgment. After I finished, she blew out a breath and asked, “Any idea who this coworker is that she moved in with?”

  A girl’s face came into my mind. “Dark, spiked hair with blue tips, piercings, maybe five-foot-seven.” Angel once said that remembering people was my superpower. I could usually put a face with a name, but I was struggling with this girl. I closed my eyes and let my memory drift down to her name badge. “Her name starts with a P.”

  “A P?” Markie asked. She thumbed a few keys on her phone and started reading names. “Paige, Pamela, Pandora, Patricia, Phoebe, Piper, Portia—”

  “Piper. It was Piper.”

  Angel was already at the table with his laptop open. “Great. I’ll hack their payroll system and find a last name and an address. Call Tech and have him pull up the building’s security footage and see if Ari was picked up in front. Maybe he can get us a make, model, and license plate.”

  Tech could hijack any of the cameras in Vegas, but since the Mariani family owned the building we lived in, he would have easy access to the footage from last night.

  “I’ll call the restaurant and see if they’ve heard from Ari or Piper,” Markie said, dialing.

  Since Angel and I were no longer officially in the family business, I didn’t know how Tech would respond to my request, but either nobody told him not to help us anymore, or he was bored, because he promised to get right on it. I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat at the table beside Angel, wondering what else to do. It felt like I was missing something… some giant clue that would tie this all together. Maybe that was it. Maybe this Piper chick was somehow connected to Joey Durante. Only Piper couldn’t have been the long-haired, curvy beauty who contacted Matt. Nothing up.

  Still, I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, so I did the one thing I could think of. I called Ariana’s phone. It rang once, twice, three times, and then the phone clicked. Expecting her voicemail message to start, I was about to hang up when a woman answered. “Franco, thought you’d never call.”

  Only Ma called me Franco, and this definitely wasn’t her, nor was it Ariana. Didn’t sound like that Piper girl either. Gesturing at Angel and Markie I put the phone on speaker and set it on the table. Markie and I crowded the phone as Angel’s fingers flew over his keyboard, setting up the trace.

  “Who is this?” I asked.

  “Firstly, rude. You should at least start with hello. And secondly, I’m a little disappointed you haven’t figured th
at out yet.”

  “Please, enlighten me.”

  “Well since you asked nicely, my name’s Natalia. My dad named me after his mom.”

  Not random information, it was a clue. Not a clue, a confirmation, but I refused to say anything which would draw Angel into this mess. “Is Ariana there?”

  “Wow.”

  “Please, I need to know she’s okay.” I sounded desperate, but Natalia already had Ariana, so she had to know how I felt about her. Pretending not to care wouldn’t change the situation at all.

  “Now you’re just being offensive. I haven’t heard from you in… well, I’ve never heard from you, and all you want to do is talk to this little skank? She was leaving you, Franco. I did you a solid by picking her ass up.”

  Markie started to reply, but I gave her a look and she clamped her mouth shut.

  “Is she okay?” I repeated.

  Natalia sighed. “Still worried about the girl. How goddamn romantic. Makes me want to barf all over her. Yes, she’s okay. And as long as you do what I tell you, she’ll stay that way.”

  “How do I know you’re telling the truth? That you really have her and she’s alive?”

  I heard another sigh, followed by rustling noises.

  “Say something. Tell him you’re alive.”

  There was silence and then a slap, followed by more rustling. Then Ariana cried out, “Ow, ow, ow, get your hands off me, bitch!”

  Markie turned into Angel, burying her head in his chest. He held her and whispered something in her ear.

  Natalia came back on the phone. “She’s fine. And so classy.”

  And Natalia was doing god-knows-what to her. The thought of it turned my blood to ice. “You have her, you want me. Where and when do you want to do the swap?”

  She clicked her tongue. “You have no talent for small talk, you know that?”

  “Where and when?”

  Angel signaled me. Tech had tracked the call and we had a location. He grabbed our coats and tossed me mine.

  “I’m still really disappointed in you. Be a doll and figure this one out on your own.”

  “But—”

  “Chill out, Bones. I’ll even leave you a note. Prove you’re competent and find it, will ya?”