it and you come back to the city with me and hide out for a few weeks before I reveal to everyone that I found you. No one will ever link the mountain man to Angelo and we’ll be home and dry.” He grinned like an over confident asshole and despite my better judgement, I found myself liking him. Christ.
“Why do I get the impression you’ve covered up shit like this before?” I asked him.
“We got away with hiding the fact that Sloan killed our cousin, Clarissa’s son, Guido. Clarissa is a dumb bitch who believes what’s convenient. If she wasn’t Papa’s sister she’d barely be involved in the family affairs at all. As it is...” He shrugged. “She’s a thorn in our side. If you stick around you’ll figure that out for yourself. But at least when you have to suffer through her company you can console yourself by laughing your ass off over the fact that you burned down her entire cannabis farm.”
He started laughing and I couldn’t help but join in. There was something free and light about him, something just so easy to like. I didn’t know if it was just the way he was or if it was because our blood recognised each other, but I found myself relaxing in his company already. Well, shit.
“So who’s your girl?” Frankie asked. “Are you going to introduce us?”
I hesitated. If Duke and his gang had been employed by Clarissa Romero then that meant that they worked for Frankie’s family. So there was a damn good chance that Clarissa or someone else in their organisation had arranged for Winter to be tortured. If I trusted him with her identity then I could be risking her safety. But he seemed like he had my back, and maybe he’d be able to help me figure out who the fuck had organised what had happened to her.
“We’re a package deal,” I said, that growl coming back to my voice. “If I tell you what I know about her then you’re going to agree to either leave her alone or help her. If you do anything to put her in danger I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Back the fuck up, stronzo, I asked her name not for a turn with her,” Frankie joked, holding his hands up innocently.
I huffed out a breath but there was nothing I could do aside from tell him. I couldn’t risk bringing her to his home without knowing what he’d do when he discovered her identity. At least if it happened here I had the upper hand.
“She was being held up at that camp. Tortured for information she doesn’t even remember. The poor girl doesn’t even know what her name was before all of this, let alone what they want to know.”
Frankie released a long whistle, glancing at the closed cabin door and then back to me. “You sure she’s worth the trouble?” he asked, not cruelly, just curious.
“Yes,” I growled.
“Alright. But if she was up there then Clarissa will be linked to it. I dunno if it was her job or one she was paid for, but I can maybe find out why they had her.” The calm sincerity in his voice had me relaxing again. He didn’t even flinch at this new problem. Just took it in his stride and tried to figure it out - he was a fixer, the kind of guy you called when something went wrong because he always came up with a plan. And the fact that he was willing to help me with this so easily got my heart racing.
“You’ll help me protect her?” I confirmed, needing to hear him spell it out.
“If she’s your family then she’s my family,” he confirmed with a firm nod. “Now, get your shit together, anything you can’t bear to let burn, and get your girl ready to go. If we’re not off of this mountain within a few hours then we aren’t going to get away before Clarissa’s stooges show up. I’ll go get a body to use for our fake mountain man.”
He strode away like that was the end of it and I watched him head out into the trees in his designer ski-wear with my eyebrows raised. Apparently I’d gone from being all alone in the world to suddenly having a family who would help me with no question at all. Winter, Frankie, maybe even Enzo and Rocco too. I didn’t really know how to process all of that so I just