“Your sister hates me, remember?”
“She doesn’t hate you. She just loves me more.” I laugh. “She’ll be fine. Promise.”
“Okay, I’ll go find her.”
“Just listen for the off-key singing,” I warn before kissing Frankie on the forehead and walking out.
I find Elias waiting for me by the front door. “You look like a lovesick puppy. You sure your head is in the game?”
“Fuck off. My head is always in the game,” I tell him.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
I follow my brother out the door and look around. There’re only two cars. “What are we doing?” I ask as I get in behind him.
“There’s a container being loaded down by the docks. Word on the street is some fucker is planning to hit it. We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Great.” I roll my eyes. The amount of times we’ve turned up to oversee a container being loaded because people like to talk shit about someone making plans and nothing happening, well, it’s a fucking lot.
“Hopefully it’s nothing and we can get you back home to run around after Frankie like a lost puppy,” Elias says, as if reading my mind.
“Do you have a problem with Frankie being here?” I quirk a brow.
“I have a problem with the way she treats you. I have a problem with the way you’ve always done everything for the girl and she won’t give you the time of day.”
I get it. If I saw a woman treating any one of my brothers like that, I wouldn’t want them wasting their time either. But it’s different with Frankie. I’ve always known she’s felt the same way. I also understand why she’s so resistant.
“She doesn’t want to cause a rift between the families,” I remind him. “She’s scared that us being together will cause issues between our fathers.”
“Maybe it would have when you guys were sixteen. You’re not kids anymore. Her father can’t tell her who she can and can’t date just like ours can’t control who you date,” Elias says.
“Yeah? You gonna feel that way in a few years when Eliana is the age I am now? You really think Papa is going to just let her date anyone?”
“Fuck that. Eliana is never dating. That’s different. Frankie isn’t our sister,” Elias says.
“Thank fuck for that.” I laugh.
“Kissing cousins isn’t much better, brother.” Elias shakes his head at me.
“She’s not ouractualcousin,” I tell him what he already knows.
“She calls our parentstíoandaunt.”
“Yeah? And?”
“You really think she’s going to get over her hang-ups?” Elias presses.
“She came here with me, didn’t she?”
“She did.”
As soon as we pull into the dock, I’m switched on. Although we expect there to be no trouble tonight, I’m not stupid enough to be complacent. That’s how idiots get killed. Pulling out a pistol from my jacket, I jump out of the car and walk up to the container. Elias next to me, ten soldiers behind us.
At first glance, everything appears fine. I step into the container that’s being loaded and look every man in the eye. That’s when I see the problem. One man refuses to look at me. He’s sweating as he loads the bricks into wooden crates, and his hands are shaking.
Having a Lopez turn up makes people nervous, but this guy’s more than just nervous. “You, Come here.” I point to him.
Everyone else makes a quick escape, walking out and leaving just me and the guy. I don’t know his name. I’ve never seen him before. But there are a lot of men who work for our family that I don’t fucking know.