4

Wynter

THREE MONTHS LATER

   We sat in my Jeep in the parking lot of Whole Foods on the Upper West Side in New York. The top was down, the May breeze blowing, and it was a welcomed reprieve. I was fuming on the inside, like flames licking at my skin. Ironic really given our current situation.

We just meant to go get Davina’s stuff while Garrett, her now ex-boyfriend, was still at work. Unfortunately, Juliette went all rogue and Ivy clumsily dropped a match on his alcohol soaked rug.

I could scream at them, but it wouldn’t do me any good. I was just as guilty as they were.

I pressed my head against the steering wheel, regret and hindsight plaguing me. It was so damn stupid. I should have known better. Now Davina’s ex-boyfriend’s entire goddamn house had burned down. We were lucky the entire neighborhood didn’t go up in flames.

Soot marred my cheek and my clothes, but I was too tired to keep rubbing it off. It seemed like I cleaned one spot and another would appear. Like a damn disease. I just needed a shower.

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” Davina’s panicked voice pierced through and her breathing was labored. “We’re going to jail.”

God, if Garrett’s threat was serious, and I was attached to a crime, my chances at the Olympics would go down the toilet. I’d disappoint my mother. This was her dream as much as my own. Sometimes it felt like my mother’s love only came when I skated. Naturally, I always wanted to appease her so I ensured I skated the best.

And this… This would ruin it all. My mother would be disappointed.

Garrett’s text message to Davina played in my mind over and over again, like a broken record.

*Stupid bitches. I know it was the four of you. The cameras were on. Five hundred thousand dollars. Twenty-four hours. Bring me the money by 10 p.m. tomorrow. Or I’m going to the police.*

If my name was connected to something like that, I’d be banned from competing. All of it would go down the toilet.

“I’m sorry,” Ivy cried. “It was an accident. Maybe we can explain.”

She was the clumsiest one out of the four of us. I gently banged my head on the steering wheel, wishing pointlessly that I could turn back time.

“Explain what?” Juliette muttered, her eyes wide with shock. I guess her temporary insanity wore off. “We had matches and alcohol. We had intent.”

Suddenly my cousin knew the law. It was a tad bit too late. She should have thought about that before she handed the goddamn matches to anyone.

“You had intent.” Davina was furious. Rightly so. “I just wanted my stuff and then to get the hell out of there!”

“Davina’s right,” Juliette muttered, looking slightly defeated.

“I shouldn’t have let y’all go,” I groaned, then followed up with a few creative cuss words. I heard plenty from my cousin, Killian. “I shouldn’t have driven you. Made us all stay back at the dorms. We should have called Uncle Liam and asked him to send someone there.”

I straightened up, meeting my friends’ eyes. We did this together and we’d get out of it together. That’s what friends and family were for, we stuck together.

“Maybe we ask Uncle to help us now,” I suggested, pushing both hands through my curls. My hands trembled badly. “We’re out of our element here.”

“No!” Juliette screeched, her eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“No,” Davina protested firmly. “You have all done enough. I should go to the police and just tell them I did it. I was mad and lost my temper.”

“Fuck no.” Juliette, Ivy, and I retorted in unison.

“Besides, that fucker said he has all four of us on tape,” I told her, trying to reason with her. “No sense in admitting anything with such evidence.”

“That weaselly little fucker,” Juliette snapped. “We should just kill him.”

“Yeah, let’s add murder to the destruction of property and arson charges,” I snickered. That was sure to get me expelled from the Olympics.

Only if caught, my mind whispered.

One of these days, Juliette would bark at the wrong person and end up getting us killed. She was too rash at times. And seriously, killing him? We weren’t killers. Heck, we weren’t even criminals.

Uncle Liam and Killian did a good job keeping Juliette and me in the dark about their underworld activities. Despite not being part of the Brennan mafia and geographical distance from Uncle’s territory, we’ve heard rumors about Uncle’s war with the Russians and DiLustros. We didn’t know the reasons for it. Heck, Uncle and Killian could make people disappear and we didn’t even know how to sneak into a house undetected. Of course, setting Garrett's house on fire wasn't in the original plan.

Ugh, I wished Uncle and Killian taught us some criminal activities, rather than treating us like fragile things that needed protection. We might have known how to get out of this clusterfuck.

“But the tape will show that it happened by accident,” Ivy reasoned.

Assuming someone gave us that much credit, for being dumb and clumsy, we’d still be guilty of starting a fire. Accident or not.

“Juliette, we should get out of town,” I said. Seeking refuge in Uncle’s Hampton home would give us time to regroup and maybe even come up with an idea of how to handle the mess we’d found ourselves in. “Let’s go to Uncle’s beach house in the Hamptons.”

“You want to go on vacation now?” Ivy asked in shock, her hazel eyes darting between me and the girls.

“You might be onto something,” Juliette agreed pensively. The two of us shared a glance, then Juliette explained, “We might be able to find something of value and pay off this prick. Or at the minimum, lay low until we figure out how to get out of this mess.”

Cash would be better, I mused silently, though there was nothing amusing about this shitstorm.

“And what about when he doesn’t stop at just five hundred thousand?” Davina questioned. At least she was smart. More than likely Garrett would try and blackmail us again. “At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he blackmails us for the rest of our lives.”

“Then we kill him,” Juliette concluded, as if that was a normal solution to any blackmailer. If you listened to Killian, it was indeed a solution.

“Let’s not become killers quite yet,” I retorted dryly, rolling my eyes at my cousin’s idiotic suggestion, then started the Jeep so we could head to the beach house.

“God, I need a drink,” Juliette muttered from the back seat.

“Me too,” Ivy agreed.

Juliette and Ivy continued to throw out ideas as I placed the Jeep in drive and pulled from the Whole Foods parking lot. I tuned those two out, not in the mood to listen to their ideas. Most of them would land us behind bars before we got our diplomas from Yale.

Davina sat next to me, her mood somber and matching mine. I knew she blamed herself, but truthfully, we all fucked up. We all knew right from wrong.

My phone buzzed and I glanced at the caller ID. It was Uncle Liam. I ignored the message. He had been demanding either Juliette or I call him. Neither one of us responded. There was only so much shit I could put up with today. Juliette had been ignoring him for months now, and I wasn’t in the mood to play peacemaker.

I sped down the streets as my brain vigorously worked on possibilities. I wasn’t a criminal mastermind, but there should be a way to get out of this unscathed. All four of us.

Killing Garrett, Davina’s cheating ex, was a no go. It’d put us in more trouble.

Giving him money was an option, but just as Davina said, I wouldn’t put it past him to blackmail us again. Assuming we could come up with five hundred grand. Uncle Liam was loaded but it didn’t mean he threw money at us. Both Mom and Uncle believed it would build character if Juliette and I earned our own money.

Not that the proceeds from his criminal activities were actually hard earned money.

My fingers gripped the steering wheel. I hated this feeling of helplessness. Mom always said hard work would get me anywhere I wished. Well, I worked my fucking ass off for as long as I could remember. I was amazing on the ice and the pair figure skating gold medal was what I wished for.

The lights turned red and I came to a stop at a four-way crosswalk. I watched the lights, but in my head, I was far away. The stranger with dark eyes and even darker hair flashed in my mind. It had been three months since I’d seen him, but he’d often crossed my mind.

Something about him piqued my curiosity even before I learned who he was. When I snuck back after my training session, I overheard my uncle mention the visit from him to Quinn.

Basilio DiLustro. Kingpin to the New York Syndicate.

I had heard of the DiLustros, but truthfully, I didn’t know a lot of specifics about them. So I looked him up. G****e was full of information on the DiLustro family. The Kingpins of the Syndicate were whispered to be one of the most dangerous crime families in the world. The speculation was that the Syndicate consisted of top dogs of Yakuza, all the way to the rússkaya máfiya, and everyone in between. They had connections to the most influential families in the States. Reading about Gio DiLustro didn’t particularly interest me. Basilio DiLustro, on the other hand, I devoured all I could find.

One day, Basilio would become head of the New York Syndicate. And he was just as deadly, if not more, than his father. Although, he didn’t strike me as being as cruel as the infamous Gio DiLustro.

After all, he caught me falling off the balcony. It was kind of romantic, if you really thought about it. Like a Romeo and Juliette kind of romance. My brows furrowed. Those two had a tragic love story.

Maybe I should refrain from that comparison.

Either way, my breath was cut short the moment our eyes connected. It felt like the world stopped turning for a single breath and my life was forever changed. It was ridiculous, I knew it. But I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since.

I looked him up. More than once.

Unlike my best friends, I didn’t waste my time on boys. Boys were a distraction I didn’t need. But that man. He wasn’t a boy. Basilio DiLustro was a man who knew what he wanted and how to get it. I’d stake my whole life on it. My Olympic gold medals. A warm rush ran down my spine when I met his heavy gaze with the darkest brown eyes and longest eyelashes I had ever seen on a man. Even now, thinking about him, something unsettling fluttered in the pit of my belly.

Davina’s hand covered my hands gripping the steering wheel forcing my focus back to now.

“I’m sorry, Wynter,” Davina rasped.

I looked at her, pushing all the thoughts of Basilio DiLustro aside. My mouth turned down and I shook my head, my damn curls bouncing with each movement.

“It’s as much my fault as yours.” I smiled tiredly. I didn't like to see her upset. Out of the four of us, Davina worked her ass off. She was at the top of her class and worked in a coffee shop in the mornings and closed the shifts at night. “Everything happened so fast.”

A loud horn sounded behind us, startling us all. Juliette and Ivy jumped up in their seats and started cussing the car like native New Yorkers. I shook my head at them, glancing in the rearview mirror, then returned my eyes onto the road.

That was when I saw him. He was coming from the opposite direction, driving a sleek black sports car.

My eyes widened and immediately an idea popped into my head. Basilio DiLustro was the answer to all my prayers. Our eyes connected. That same fluttery feeling shot through me, but also hope.