away, but I was suddenly alert as I noticed an unfamiliar box sitting on the coffee table.
It was exactly as Gary and Merrick had described it.
It was stunning, really.
My hand shook as I pointed to the offending object. “Is…is that…”
“Robbie?” Ciro had stood up after waking me up and, as I glanced around, I saw everyone surrounding the coffee table. “Luca found it.”
I could feel my eyes widened. I had searched everywhere. “Where?” I whispered in shock.
“In the air duct,” he answered.
My eyes flew to Luca freakin’ Benetti’s obsidian ones. He further shocked the hell out of me when I noticed nothing but compassion on his too-gorgeous face. “During spring, when the weather doesn’t call for heating or air conditioning, the air ducts are an ideal place to hid things.”
“But…but I checked the ducts,” I protested. “I unscrewed them and looked inside with a flashlight.”
Luca’s tender grin bordered on sweet. “You didn’t check the air duct underneath the backdoor landing.”
I shook my head. “There isn’t an air duct down there,” I insisted. “Why would there be?”
“It’s an old house,” Phoenix chimed in. “It was probably placed there in its original build, and they forgot to seal it when the house was upgraded with a new central air system.”
“With that, I must make my leave,” Luca announced, confusing me. “So, let’s crack it open.”
Frankie noticed my confusion and explained, “It’s rare they’re all in the same place together. It’s too dangerous. Someone might try to take them out all at once.”
I blanched at her explanation. Regardless of Ciro’s claims, I wasn’t a part of this lifestyle. Something like that would never have occurred to me.
“Do you want to open it?” Ciro asked, bringing me back to the subject at hand.
I shook my head. “No.” And I didn’t. I was curious, but I didn’t want to be the one to open it. I had no idea what was in that box, but it was worth my life. That…implied power frightened me.
The only thing that secured the box was a small, regular snap lock. No combination lock. No intricate fingerprint lock. No secret latch to look for.
Nothing.
Just a simple lock you could find on any random teenager’s high school locker.
It seemed…insulting. Surely, if whatever was inside was worth a human being’s life, it should be locked more securely, right?
I glanced at Ciro. “It’s locked,” I pointed out.
He scoffed.
Then, I watched, mesmerized, as he pulled out what looked like a slim wallet. He opened it and took out a pen or something, and I sat there, staring, as he went to work on the lock. Within seconds, he had it open.
I was in awe, but then I quickly remembered who I was dealing with. I looked over at Frankie. “Does it get any easier?”
She let out a dark chuckle. “Nope,” she answered honestly.
Everyone crowded around as Ciro opened the lid. He painstakingly took each item out of the box and the box had been filled with more than I could have anticipated.
Holy. Shit.
Ciro pulled out several bands of money, three thumb drives, a small bag of a white substance, a gun, a brown leather ledger, a band of foreign currency, and a key taped to a scrap of paper with some writing on it.
The three men took turns examining the items as Ciro passed them around. “This is a safe deposit box key,” Luca commented. “The bank, code, and name that the box is under is written on the paper.”
“I’ll check out the thumb drives,” Phoenix stated.
“I’ll go through the ledger,” Ciro said.
My eyes danced between all three men. “What now?”
Ciro looked pained, and the jolt in my chest made me feel like he might really have meant what he said. “We need to get back to Morgan City and go through all this.” He glanced at his sister. “Plus, we need to get Frankie home.” He gave me a soft smile. “You might not be able to tell, but Nix and Luca are reaching their breaking point not having her safe at home.”
The back of my eyes started to sting with that comment.
I couldn’t imagine being loved like that. I mean, I knew my parents loved me, but their love came with conditions. The second I didn’t heed them, I was reduced to occasional phone calls during the holidays. All the men I’ve dated in the past were losers and barely put my wants above theirs, much less worry about me to such an extent. And I knew my friends cared about me,