DINA TAPPED HER EMPTY water bottle on her knee and stared at her phone.

Tonight she was not making the same mistake she had the last two nights. Wine was the only thing she could blame for texting Trevor on Sunday and then again on Monday. There was no more wine in the house so she was fully capable of exercising more restraint.

It wasn’t like they’d discussed anything major. Having a good day. The weather. Some weirdo neighbors. He hadn’t pressed her for any details, there were no leading questions to indicate he was digging into her past.

This couldn’t last.

Eventually he’d want more answers than she could give, her story would be too weak and he’d know something wasn’t right.

She unlocked her phone screen and stared at Trevor’s last message from earlier this afternoon.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

The truthful answer to that one would haunt her for the rest of her life.

She scrolled up to his other messages. The questions read like he’d picked them off a list of some magazines top ten questions to ask on a first date.

He was getting to know her.

Any other woman wouldn’t see that as a threat, but Dina did. People who got too close to her took a risk, and she didn’t want any more blood on her hands. That meant keeping everyone at a distance and staying on her island for one. But that made for a lonely life. Her only friends were a bunch of other anonymous names on the internet. They weren’t people who could really be there for her. Even Trevor was running a risk he didn’t fully understand.

The right thing to do would be to shut this down. Ghost on him until he forgot about her. They could awkwardly pass by each other at the grocery store until all of this was a distant memory.

She would binge watch something on TV, probably buy stuff she didn’t need on-line and talk to people on the internet, telling herself these were the only human connections she needed. This was how she got to keep living her life without risking others.

Dina scrolled to the bottom text again. Her heart did a painful flop in her chest.

The downside to her plan for a long life was that it didn’t leave room for any kind of romantic relationship. She could have friends she kept at a distance and love only for a night, nothing else. Wanting more was impossible. This thing she had with Trevor was dangerous even if it made her feel good.

She liked that he didn’t play at being cool, there was nothing distant about the way he engaged with her. He was just like he’d been at the bar. That hadn’t been an act. It was just him.

If she were still living her life as Dina, he would never have been allowed to talk to her. There had always been strict rules that governed her social life. If Mom and Dad had their way, they would have selected her husband for her, ensuring she married a good Italian man loyal to Cosa Nostra. She’d face a life of domestic slavery all while forced to keep up appearances and pretend she was happy.

Comparing her two lives, Dina much preferred her island of one. At least now she wasn’t complicit in the family business. She wasn’t looking the other way, she didn’t have to lie and be someone’s alibi. Sure, it was lonely, but at least it was honest.

It was hard to hold honesty at night.

She picked up her remote and scrolled through the TV offerings.

10 Things I Hate About You caught her eye.

A cute romance between two sets of people that shouldn’t work?

Why not?

She clicked the movie and grabbed a pillow, hugging it to her chest.

Maybe she should move out of the country. Go somewhere far, far away and then she could fall in love, start a whole new life and pretend this one never happened.

Problem there was that she’d need a passport, and the good ones were hard to come by. No, it was better if she stayed here where she had connections and ways to escape if she needed to.

What if she took the plunge? Rewrote herself as a wife with a family?

She’d always assumed children were in her future, that she’d be a homemaker. It was a dream she hadn’t known she wanted until it was off the table. But did it have to be? Could Dominick really want her dead after all these years? He had to realize she wasn’t going to turn on him even if he was just as guilty as their parents.

Her phone vibrated causing her heart to leap for joy.

Trevor?

She jabbed the pause button with one hand and lifted her phone with the other.

No, just the confirmation of acceptance for her last invoice for a job done

Shit.

She flopped down onto her back and stared at the ceiling.

“I can’t keep doing this,” she said to the empty room.

Dina couldn’t keep being alone.

She’d gone into WitSec at eighteen and hadn’t looked back for almost ten years. Ten solitary years. She hadn’t had a best friend or a boyfriend the whole time except for a few instances in the very beginning.

Her boyfriend had sold her out.

Her friend got kidnapped.

Dina had learned her lesson.

But those were normal people. Trevor was a cop. Even if things didn’t go far, he was at least better equipped to handle himself.

How much could a little texting hurt, anyway?

What if they never went out?

What if she told him she had some horrible phobia of crowds and unfamiliar people?

It was just more lies to keep track of. Always more.

Could she never have something for herself? What if she indulged with Trevor for a week or two, then broke it off? They could totally hate each other.

Screw it. This was different from when she was younger.

The biggest risk I’ve taken? Starting my life over again.

Dina hit send. A tingle swept through her, tickling her toes.

Maybe this was stupid, but damn it, this island of one was lonely. She wasn’t looking to make Trevor a permanent feature, just stretch her wings a little. Live some.

She watched her phone for a bit, but it didn’t light up. There was no notification vibration. Just the time mocking her for how long she watched. She pressed play on the movie and let her mind wander.

What would he do if she surprised him at his place?

She knew where he lived.

It wasn’t that far from her. Granted in this small town nothing was that far away.

Would that be weird? Was that what she wanted?

Sex was a commodity she could get at any bar, but this connection with Trevor was special. This banter, the way they carried on, would she lose that if she took that step?

The screen lit up.

She snatched the phone and greedily read the message.

That’s a lot more risk than I’ve ever taken. You’ll have to tell me that story sometime.

He’d get the fake version about her abusive ex-husband, who was the reason for her new name and life. She couldn’t tell him the truth, but she could pretend.

PHILLIP HATED TEXAS already.

Everything was spread out. There was nowhere to hide. Too many eyes could see.

Why had Little Tony lost his cool?

Phillip glanced at the large man sitting shotgun in the borrowed car. The three of them, Phillip, Dominick and Little Tony had grown up together. Dominick was older by all of a few months and had the good grace to be born into a family that skated through much of the busts that had decimated Cosa Nostra in the eighties and nineties.

Dominick was always getting them into problems with his grand ideas. Little Tony followed along faithfully because that was who he’d been programmed to be. And Phillip was more often than not the one left to dispose of the evidence. He’d had his ass beat so many times taking up for Dominick and Little Tony as kids it was amazing he had any feeling left in his body.

Looking back, Phillip wished he’d taken up for Dominick a little less. The guy had been a spoiled brat. Losing his parents had yanked the silver spoon out of his mouth and grounded him, but he still looked at every other person as though they were disposable. The tie that kept Phillip in D’s crew was Little Tony.

The guy was a fucking giant. Well over six feet with the build of a linebacker, most people were right in being scared of the guy. But they’d all been little boys and growing up LT had endured more black eyes and beatings than any other kid Phillip knew at the hands of his father. It’d been Dominick who first stood up for Little Tony, earning him the undying loyalty he didn’t deserve.

Little Tony was Phillip’s best friend. The only one who knew the kind of hell they’d grow up in. But Phillip was beginning to suspect that something had happened to his friend. He wasn’t the same anymore, and the incident with the cop only proved that.

“Up here, turn left,” Little Tony said.

Phillip hoped that this Rudy guy didn’t know anything about Dina. What she’d done was wrong, but Phillip got it. Her best girlfriend had been killed, but she didn’t know the full story. She didn’t know why Rosie had to be made into an example.

He hoped they didn’t find Dina that she was finally tucked away somewhere she could be happy. He didn’t think Dina fully understood what had happened back then. The only reason Phillip knew was when Dominick let a few choice words slip one night when it was just them and they’d knocked back a bit too much vodka. Phillip didn’t agree with Dina turning on her family, but he understood how she thought that was her only way out.

Unlike Dominick, Dina had never stopped being the sweet little girl he remembered from the playground. She’d remained mostly untouched by the business. Pure. Good. So very kind.

Maybe if she’d been included, even a little, none of this would have happened. They’d be in a different place now. But that wasn’t how things had worked out, and now Phillip had a job to do. He wasn’t going to enjoy it, but he had no other option.

To save Little Tony, he’d have to kill Dina.

It wasn’t a fair trade, but LT had been there for him.

Dina had abandoned them all.

“Here.” Little Tony nodded at the run-down house on their left.

Phillip went to the end of the block and parked at the curb.

“Lights on in the front, one car in the drive.” Little Tony twisted around.

“I’ll go up through the back and have a look.” Phillip killed the engine and pulled his flashlight out of his pocket.

“If he’s alone, he should be easy.” There was no emotion in Little Tony’s voice. Sometimes Phillip wondered if the guy had a soul or a heart.

“Come on.” Phillip got out of the car. His revolver pressed against the small of his back. Some guy’s liked to make fun of Phillip’s family piece, but he never had to worry about bullet casings.

They walked toward the house halfway down the street. From the looks of things there was a single light on. That didn’t mean anything though. There could be a dozen people in the house or none at all.

“Wait here.” Phillip cut through the neighbor’s yard and vaulted the waist high chain-link fence into the back yard.

A big black dog bounded at the fence, barking up a storm.

He hated dogs.

Phillip glanced at the neighbor’s house, but no one moved.

They had to be quick about this.

He crept toward a window and peered inside. It was near impossible to make anything out with the think blinds. He picked his way through the tall grass to the back porch. The kitchen was dark and the window over the sink didn’t even have a curtain.

A stack of pizza boxes sat on a table. The garbage was overflowing with cans. Not a soul moved.

They could scratch off a small party inside. Now Phillip just hoped they could find the guy they were after, knock this problem out and be gone.

Phillip went the length of the house, peering into windows. The only one that gave him a glimpse into the house was the kitchen. He pulled out his phone and jabbed at Little Tony’s name.

“Yeah?” the guy said after a ring.

“If he’s here, he’s alone. Come around back and let’s try to jimmy the sliding door.”

“I’ve got the kit.”

When they’d landed an associate of the family had been there with a car, clothes and some equipment. They hadn’t been able to even go home. With any luck the heat would die down in a few days and Dominick would cool off.

The neighbor’s dog continued to bound from fence to fence, barking and carrying on. No one came to investigate, which was good for them.

Little Tony appeared a few moments later with the duffle bag. They didn’t speak. They’d worked together long enough that words weren’t always necessary. Phillip kept watch while Little Tony used a few tools in their arsenal to unlock the sliding glass door and move the security rod out of place, allowing them to slide the door open.

“Take that, mother fucker,” a man called out.

Phillip ducked and winced, but no shot rang out.

Little Tony poked him with the security rod then jerked his head toward the door. Phillip nodded and the other man crept into the house. Phillip drew his gun, pointed it at the ground and followed Little Tony into the house.

“Oh, don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare,” the same voice called out.

Phillip crossed to the door leading into the rest of the house and pressed his back to the cabinets, then leaned around the doorway.

A young man sat in something that looked like a recliner with at least three screens surrounding him. He had a joystick in hand and headphones on.

Video games.

The guy was playing video games in his boxers.

Phillip shook his head and stepped into the room. With those bright lights in his eyes, Rudy was blind to their approach. They could have busted in the front door and he’d have never known a thing. Phillip lifted his gun and approached the chair. Rudy never even flinched until Phillip pressed the muzzle of his six shooter to the guy’s temple.

Little Tony yanked the headphones off.

“Rudy?” Phillip asked.

The man’s eyes bulged.

Little Tony shoved the back of the recliner. Rudy lurched forward.

“What the fuck do you want?” He held his hands up.

“Get on your knees.” Phillip didn’t know what Rudy had stashed in the chair cushions.

“Okay, okay.” Rudy swung the monitors away from him on some kind of rolling pole attached to a track on the ceiling.

Little Tony planted his hand between Rudy’s shoulder blades and forced him to the ground.

Phillip glanced at his partner, but Little Tony wasn’t watching him. What the hell had gotten into LT? He’d been on edge lately, and Phillip could understand the cop, but this was a routine shake down.

“Keep your hands up,” Little Tony said.

Rudy knelt on the stained carpet, his hands up by his head.

“Dina Profaci. We want to know where she is.” Phillip focused on Rudy. They’d get this job over, take a little breather while things blew over back home. Everything would go back to normal.

“I don’t know who that is.” Rudy’s shoulders lifted and his fingers spread wider. He was a good liar.

“We got a hot tip you’d helped her. That’s surprising for a family man.” Phillip didn’t believe Rudy for a moment. Dominick’s intel was always good.

“Oh, shit.” Rudy’s eyes went wide. Now he knew who he was dealing with.

Cosa Nostra didn’t have much of a foothold in this part of the country, but those connected to the family knew their reach was far.

“Dina’s brother wants her to come home. He’s very worried about her,” Phillip said.

“I don’t know a Dina. Honest.” Rudy glanced at Little Tony briefly before focusing on Phillip, probably targeting him as the easier mark of the two. He was right. Phillip didn’t enjoy this work. “I’m telling you the truth. I ain’t helped no Dina.”

“Are you sure?” Phillip pulled out his phone and brought up a picture of Dina. It was from some surveillance footage a few years back, but it captured her face perfectly.

“Uh...” Rudy squinted at the screen. “I’ve seen a lot of girls that look like that, man. That whole brown and blonde thing is in.”

“He doesn’t know nothing,” Little Tony said.

“I think he’s remembering, aren’t you, Rudy?” Phillip hadn’t expected the guy to roll over on her. Dina would know better than to use a guy like that. Rudy knew, he was just playing dumb.

“Let’s just kill him and be done.”

“Wow, wow, wow.” Rudy twisted to look at Little Tony.

That was an extreme solution to the problem. Where had that come from? There was no reason to kill the kid. Phillip finally caught Little Tony’s eye and shook his head. They weren’t offing the guy. They just needed information.

“Have another look at this picture. Maybe this one will jog your memory.” Phillip swiped to an older picture of a teenage Dina.

“Oh—Kate!” Rudy laughed. Sweat had begun to bead on his brow. He was getting the drift that they weren’t just going to accept his word as truth. “I’ve never seen her with that blonde stuff. I totally know Kate.”

“This woman is Kate?” Phillip mentally added that to the list of names they’d tracked to Dina over the years.

“Yeah, she got out of a bad marriage and wanted to get away from the guy. Asked me if I could help.”

“And you did that out of the goodness of your heart?” Phillip had heard that from at least one guy they’d tracked down. Some people were a sucker for a sob story and Dina knew how to spin one.

“No, she paid me to do that job.” Rudy straightened a bit. So there was a spine in there after all.

“Where is she now?”

“I can’t tell you that. It would hurt my business. You understand, right?”

Phillip didn’t know Rudy’s scam, but he could guess. Fake documents, new IDs, helping people disappear or skirt the law. There was good money to be had there, but to be successful the forger had to have a solid reputation. A guy worth his salt wouldn’t turn over on his clients.

“You help us and we’ll help you.” Phillip lowered his weapon. They’d sufficiently scared the guy enough that he’d practically pissed himself. He wasn’t going to fight back. “You’re doing a job for the family, helping take care of a snitch. It’s all in how you spin it.”

Rudy licked his lips and glanced at the front door. He wasn’t sold on Phillip’s offer, but it was the only one Rudy was getting.

“That or Little Tony here gets to have some fun.” Phillip grinned while on the inside he cringed. LT used to know when to pull his punches, how to rough someone up without crippling them, but right now Phillip didn’t know what Little Tony was capable of.

“You’ll make sure people know I was helping silence a snitch?” Rudy asked.

“Of course. For the family.”

“She’s living in a small town called Ransom north west of Fort Worth. She goes by the name Katherine Johansson.” Rudy braced his hands on his thighs.

“Address?” Phillip asked.

“I don’t know that. I set her up with a driver’s license, social, some history and she picked the place. I didn’t ask where she was living.”

“How’d you pick the address for the license?”

“Real estate listings. Pick one.” Rudy shrugged.

“Ransom, Texas. Katherine Johansson.” Phillip nodded. It was more than they’d had. A small town was a better target than a whole state. They were getting closer. “Can you reach out to her? Set up a meet?”

“That’ll tip her off. I don’t call her, she calls me.”

“Then what use are you to us?” Little Tony growled.

“You know, we could use someone that’s good with documents. Plastic.” Phillip could see them bringing Rudy back with them, setting him up with a front business and pumping work through there. It could be a steady income stream for him and Little Tony.

“Can I get up now?” Rudy asked.

“You ever think about—”

The flash of muzzle fire momentarily blinded Phillip. Even with the silencer, Little Tony’s gun was a loud bang in the enclosed space. Liquid splattered Phillips face and hands. His clothes grew sticky.

“Fuck.” He shook his head and stepped back, white bursts of light dancing I his eyes.

The monitors illuminated the slumped form of Rudy’s body laying on the carpet.

“What the fuck? Fucking hell, man?” Phillip gaped at Little Tony.

“We don’t work with snitches,” Little Tony said.

“We could have used him.”

“He’d have turned on us.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

Dominick was going to lose his shit when he found out Little Tony had killed their source. There was one body to clean up and now another one.

The neighbor’s dog howled outside.

Think.

They had to clear out and fast.

Phillip slid his gun into his jeans. Time was not on their side.

“Take the monitors. Grab something expensive looking. I’ll wipe the door down. Don’t touch anything you don’t have to,” he said.

Little Tony grunted and reached for the monitors.

What the fuck had gotten into him?

He had always been the muscle, maybe a little slow, but that didn’t matter. They looked out for each other. Dominick might be the boss, but even he cleaned up Little Tony’s messes. This was getting out of hand and Phillip wasn’t sure he knew how this would end.

DINA WISHED IT WEREN’T a Wednesday. Wednesdays were the calm before the weekend storm. Of all the nights, she wanted to lie in bed, talk with Trevor and live in her happy, make believe bubble where everything was right.

“What do I like most about my family? That’s a hard one.” Trevor hummed through the phone.

They’d been playing these question games. At first they’d made her sweat until she realized she didn’t have to tell the truth. A version of it would suffice.

“Yeah, like—family meals or vacations.” The kind of stuff Dina never liked about hers.

“I was always very proud of who my family was, but I don’t always like who we were.” His usual jovial tone was somber.

“Why?” She clutched the pillow tighter to her chest. There was a story there.

“I’ve got to head into work.”

“Now?” She glanced at the clock. It was almost seven.

Trevor had explained he worked nine-hour days, nine out of ten business days, but as the low man on the totem pole he could get called in if something happened on a weekend or overnight. This was a strange time to go into work.

“Yeah, something’s come up,” he said.

“We can skip family questions. I don’t like mine.”

“Your question was fine.” His tone gentled. “It’s just...you aren’t from here so you don’t know my dad’s history. He’s the detective who busted the bank robbers and kept the town safe. As soon as he retired, he says everything went to hell.” By the time he stopped speaking a bitterness had crept into his words.

“That has to be a difficult legacy to grow up with.” She swallowed.

Dina knew a hell of a lot about legacy.

“I really do have to go. I lost track of time.”

“Got a hot date?” she asked before she could think better of the question.

“No.” He chuckled. “It’s a work thing. I can’t talk about it, sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Some of the tightness in her chest eased, soothed by the responsibility of work. She knew how that went.

“You have plans this weekend?” he asked.

“Work.”

“All weekend?”

“It’s kind of my busiest days.”

“Maybe you could squeeze me in somewhere?”

“Maybe.” The tightness returned. She couldn’t see Trevor. That wasn’t a good idea.

“Well, have a good night.”

“Night.”

She hung up the phone and laid it on her knee, staring at the screen.

Three hours and twenty minutes.

That was how long they’d spent talking this time. They hadn’t gotten too personal, it was like he knew to keep them in the shallow end. Then she’d gone off and asked about his family. The one thing she couldn’t talk about, but she wanted to hear about his. In her head he had this picture perfect family like on one of the old black-and-white TV shows that used to play on rerun during the days when she was little.

She’d always wanted that. Something normal, that didn’t involve being afraid of the cops or any man who walked through the door. She’d learned from a young age what she could and could not get blood out of thanks to the family business. Whatever that was.

She closed her eyes and slumped sideways on the sofa.

This thing with Trevor couldn’t last. She’d thought a little harmless texting could be fun, then he’d called and she couldn’t tell herself no. They talked. He made her laugh. She was starving for another human in her life, someone she could just be with. And then there were the warm fuzzies. She knew he was attracted to her, how he kissed, the way he held her during climax.

Yeah, she did not need to think about those things.

With every question he was building up more facts about her. The more he knew the more dangerous he was. But he’d never pressured her for answers with substance, hadn’t asked her about her past.

She couldn’t give him up. Not yet. This might be the only time she got to enjoy this side of intimacy, the one she couldn’t get from a guy at a bar she went home with for the night. These long talks, the flirting, just knowing he was there. They were small pieces of the picture to every other woman, but to her these were the most dangerous, the ones she couldn’t indulge in and probably shouldn’t be now. But all things came to an end.

Dina stretched out on the sofa, staring at the ceiling.

This could go on for what? Another week? What did she want out of it?

The dream. The impossible.

She wanted him here, under her roof where they could talk, watch TV, laugh, have sex and hold each other.

He could never come into this house. That was a line she couldn’t cross. But she knew where he lived.

They would barely talk over the weekend. She’d be busy, but next week, what did she want?

More than anything she craved the simplicity of being together, but sex wasn’t far behind. If she invited herself to his place tomorrow night would she lose this open communication? The banter? Or could she have both for a few days?

She was going to have to move away from Ransom. Not because she was afraid of her safety, but because Trevor was here. She wasn’t strong enough to resist this desire eating her up. No, he may not have the picture perfect family and he wasn’t the man she’d envisioned for herself, but the way he made her feel—that was dangerous.

Dina was a Profaci. It didn’t matter how many times she changed her name or how she looked that name would haunt her for the rest of her life. And Profaci’s didn’t get happy endings. The best she could hope for was a long, lonely life spent on the run.