Read Online Playing with Fire by Renee Graziano - Free Book Online

straightforward answer. He wasn’t uncomfortable with his brother’s vocation, he just didn’t quite understand it.
    “This has nothing to do with religion. You’re intelligent. I want to pick your brain a little.”
    “Intelligent? What a compliment. I should hope I am, but we do come from the same parents, so maybe I am just fooling myself.”
    Nick couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, you win that round. Let me rephrase. There are not a lot of people I feel I can discuss matters with confidentially, but you are one of them. Besides, your specialty is to give advice and I think I might need some.”
    “So you are visiting the priest, not the brother?”
    “I am visiting both, as it happens. People tend to think just because we bend the law now and then we aren’t family-oriented people, and that is the worst misconception on this planet. I trust you. I’d trust you with my life.”
    “Let’s hope that isn’t an issue, but I’d protect you as well.” John leaned back in his chair. “What is it?”
    How to answer that one? Nick took a minute. “How important is the truth if it frightens or hurts someone?”
    “Is this pertinent or a just philosophical debate?” John’s blue eyes were very direct.
    “Pertinent.” Nick thought about Reign. He said slowly, “I know someone in danger. I like this person, but explaining the situation might destroy our relationship.”
    “Relationship” might have been stretching it a little. One hot morning of wild sex was not a relationship.
    “You seem to care about ‘this person.’”
    He did. Inexplicably. After one encounter? Usually with his lovers he was pretty detached. On purpose, but still detached. Nick muttered, “I don’t want her hurt.”
    His brother, the priest, sat for a moment and seemed to reflect. “Her? So, a woman? What kind of danger is she in?”
    “The bad kind.”
    John frowned, picking up a pen and rolling it in his long fingers. “Is it because of you?”
    “Actually, no.”
    “That’s a surprise, given what you do. Okay, so what exactly are you asking me?”
    Nick ran his hand through his hair. “You know, I’m not sure. I’m having a small moral crisis. That’s all. I know something she doesn’t and I’m trying to decide if I should tell her or not.”
    “At the risk of sounding like a priest, can I mention that it is about time for the moral crisis?”
    “No.” The word came out as a growl.
    “I think I’d like to meet this woman that has you, of all people, rattled.”
    No. His brother was a priest and Nick was … certainly not one. He was fairly sure Reign would find that amusing.
    “I think I came here for advice, which I am not getting by the way.”
    “How will she handle it?”
    When Nick thought back on the other night, he was able to say honestly, “She’ll deal. That’s how she operates. Straightforward and, though ‘accepting’ isn’t the right word, she lives in this real world. Our world, to be specific.”
    “Our world? Mob wife?”
    “Mob ex-wife. I don’t sleep with married women, remember?”
    “I’ve always admired that about you despite a few other flaws I have to overlook.” John’s smile was more of a boyish grin but he sobered quickly. “Nick, here is what I have to say. If you lose her through honesty, so be it. If you lose her because you said nothing, that will be very hard to live with, won’t it?”
    Nick rubbed his forehead. “You know, I had a feeling you were going to preach something exactly like that.”
    John slightly lifted his shoulders, his smile serene. “And when you walked through the door, I think you already knew the answer.”

 
    Chapter
    S IX
    He walked into the restaurant and heads turned.
    Reign noted it as she sat at the table, smoothing the moisture on the side of her drink glass.
    If she had to call it, the men recognized a dominant male when they saw one, and the women were just noticing a drop-dead gorgeous guy. Nick Fattelli leaned over to say