Free Devious Little Lies by Erin Ashley Tanner Page B

strapped down as a nurse injected something into her IV. She fought them. This wasn’t what she wanted. All she wanted was her son, but soon she saw and heard nothing. Oblivion claimed her.
    * * * * *
    Wiping tears from her face, Rena tried to compose herself. Why was she remembering the most painful day of her life? Baptized Reno Gabriel Rosetti before he was laid to rest, her son would have been nine now. Nine years old and full of life. Instead, he lay on a cold stone slab inside the Rosetti family mausoleum. Out of sight and forgotten by everyone except her.
    She glanced at her phone and the truth dawned on her. Today would’ve been her son’s birthday. July thirteenth. The knowledge hit her like a ton of bricks. His fucking birthday. Dear God. Sweet God. Grief hit her all over again.
    “We need to make a couple stops before we head home,” she managed to say.
    Cesare glanced at her in the rearview mirror before quickly looking away. “Where to?”
    “I need to get flowers and then I need…I need…”
    Her voice trailed off as she tried to pull herself together.
    “You need what, Rena?”
    “I need to go see my son.”
    Not a word left Cesare’s lips as he turned at the next intersection, but Rena knew he understood. Every day she had to be the tough as nails broad no one wanted to cross. A mob boss’ wife who was untouchable. But today…today she was simply a mother grieving the child she’d lost. For now everything else had to wait.
    * * * * *
    From a distance he watched undetected. To anyone that unexpectedly happened to pass by, there was nothing about him that screamed threat. He was just a regular person out walking, but someone more observant might recognize the picture he presented was just a façade. He was strolling through a cemetery, one of the most private ones. It would be well and fine by itself if he weren’t following a visibly distraught woman.
    He couldn’t help but to feel like a voyeur of the foulest degree as he watched her, tears streaming down her face behind dark shades. She carried a bouquet of simple white orchids. They seemed so out of place with the extravagance around them, but that said something about the woman. Something he was reading too much into.
    A man walked with her. His reputation preceded him and because of that the man was aware that he needed to remain hidden. The last thing he needed on his covert operation was to be found out. He was green. So damn green that his heart still twitched as he watched the woman continue to cry. He knew he couldn’t let her tears get to him. He needed to toughen up in the worst way because the path he had to follow would lead to bloodshed, more tears, and destruction. By the time he was done he was certain that he would wish for the days when a few tears affected him.
    The woman stopped walking and took a shuddering breath before she withdrew a key and opened a set of bronze doors. The man patted her on the back as he said something to her, but from his vantage point he couldn’t hear. She nodded and inside she disappeared, while her companion closed the doors and kept watch. It seemed that grief was an all too human emotion for everyone, criminals included. So for now it was time for him to take his leave. After all, the time would come soon to meet his mark.
    Today his job was done and as he walked away it was with the knowledge that the game was in play and in a foundation that appeared solid, he had found his crack. A crack when hit the right way would send everything tumbling down around it. It was time to get his hammer.

Chapter Ten
    Sleep eluded her like a weight goal that could never be reached. Tossing and turning for hours, Rena turned on the TV for background noise but hardly listened. Her mind was elsewhere. Visiting her son’s grave had really torn her open all anew. Though it had been nearly a decade since she lost him, fresh pain hit as soon as she saw his name engraved on the stone that hid his body. Her only