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Chapter One

Saturday, July 21st, 1923

I stood at the door and watched the red Buick tear down the street,

Joey had kissed ain But for real this time

I brought ers to my mouth and closed my eyes I could still see the barely-suppressed fury on Joey’s face as he put everything together—my uncharacteristic nervousness, the thousands of dollars in cash I’d just handed over, the diamonds at my throat

He knows

He hadn’t said so, not in so many words, but Joey and I had known each other for years And even though we’d spent et worked up enough to kiss : he realized what I’d done with Enzo

Which was everything

Twice

At the thought of Enzo’s naked body pressing against htless For ahiainst the doorjarounded again, I opened er pinched off the warmth inside me Go to hell, Joey Lupo!

Not once in seven years had he done anything but tease hts, and the one ti ere a couple to fool the Prohibition agents who’d spotted our boat full of bootleg whisky on the lake Now just because sootten their hands on ot proprietary Well, tough!

And he hadn’t even given rabbedsome nonsense about how he knew me, how he’s always known me

Huffing an angry breath, I sla you’ve known me or how much you helpedyour ealips Goddamn you! I stomped up the stairs to ht about it, thery atthat kiss

For enjoying it

Going straight to the dresser, I placed the diaiven rabbeduilty about finally going after so to showright now!

Hurling the hairbrush across the rooainst the wall In fact, it felt so good I scanned the dresser for so else to throw My eyes fell on the blue box, and I nearly picked it up Instead I braced both hands on the dresser top, stared hard at my reflection, and took a deep breath And then another

A memory surfaced

A few nights ago, I’d stood here inbut that necklace as I touched Enzo in ways Joey could only dream about Let hiht Maybe I’d enjoyed that phony embrace in the boat last week, and maybe the impulsive kiss downstairs had me worked up a bit, but I wasn’t the same person he’d known all those years—and if I wanted to make a mistake with my life, it was mine to make

Because if that mistake was tall, dark, handsoue, then I illing to risk it

“You don’t know me, Joe Lupo,” I whispered to ”

I felt superior for exactly ten seconds, which is how long it tookon et soet back at the River Gang and its leader, Sa a ship froo It hadn’t just been any old shipo was forty thousand dollars worth of opium, which even the hijackers hadn’t known about Briefly I wondered what had happened when they discovered it Joey worked for the River Gang, and he had just returned froo, where they’d sold the hijacked load, but he hadn’t s

Then again, he’d only been at ry, kissed me, and stormed out

“Shit,” I ain if I had any hope of discovering where the gang’s next load of booze would come from and when it would arrive Fear shimmied up my spine, cold and unwelcoh with the right inforiven me a deadline, I knew I’d better act quickly

Trust was shaky between us, to say the least