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“Her head is down. Shoulders forward. I can’t see her face, but I can read her body language. She’s sad. The kind of sadness that only happens when ...” Enzo’s gaze cut back to me. “When you feel like you can’t be with the person you love.”
My hand climbed to my chest at the anguished expression on his face as he studied me, and I couldn’t help but replay his words to me in the theater room that we hadn’t had a chance to discuss. His “I love you” had been buried among fear and worries, but it’d been there.
“Go back to the cameras by the club. Change the time to within thirty seconds of when she left. Let’s see if we recognize anyone leaving the club after her,” Alessandro suggested, and Enzo slowly faced the screen as I gripped the armchairs, nervously waiting, and it didn’t take long before Alessandro hissed, “Stop.”
“Is that who I think it is?” Constantine asked, and I stood to try and get a better view as he zoomed in on a man’s face.
“He was at the club that night?” Enzo whispered in disbelief, and chills scattered over my body.
“Who?” I asked, my timid voice nearly just a squeak of sound.
Enzo slowly faced me. “Giovanni’s son-in-law. His daughter’s husband, Nico.”
“Wait, the man outside the club that night is also the same guy in charge of the three men who came to your place yesterday. And now he’s on his way here?” That felt a little ... suspect. Even for me.
Enzo’s palms went into prayer position, and he bowed his head against his hands and tapped twice. He cursed, this time in Italian, and dropped his palms. “Those three idiotas weren’t stupid. It was an act. They didn’t have a side operation. They knew who I was beforehand, and Nico sent them to me. I’d felt like I was being watched the night before when Jesse was talking to me, but he said he hadn’t been followed.” He shook his head. “That’s because they were already in Charlotte. Watching me.”
Wait, what?
“Now that we know the Brambilla family regularly used that cleaner, it makes sense they’d keep tabs on him. The moment they knew there was a breach, they’d started working on a game plan,” Constantine said.
“For whatever reason, Nico must be in league with the Brambillas, and he clearly has been for a long time,” Alessandro spoke up.
“They’ve been watching my every move since I arrived in town,” Enzo said. “Must have followed us to the cabin last night. We led them right to the cleaner.” He cut an angry hand through the air. “I was playing checkers while they were playing chess. I walked right into it because I was—”
“Distracted,” I murmured in defeat, assuming that was the direction he was going, and bricks of guilt suffocated me at that fact. “What does this all mean?”
Enzo looked at me and let go of a ragged breath. “Nico’s men saw me with you in the parking lot before Jesse showed up. They saw you show up at my place later that night. And maybe they were even outside the morning before when Thomas came.”
“You’re saying they framed Thomas?” I asked in shock.
“Nico gave me Thomas’s name, because he wanted me to think it was Thomas. For me to think the attack yesterday was all a big coincidence. Nico planned everything. Even getting word to Thomas about the attack, which made him look guilty.”
Thomas is innocent. My heart slapped my rib cage with a hard whack. “Why would they do that?”
“A Trojan horse,” Constantine answered.
“I’m still not following.” I wasn’t dense, but this was still over my head.
Enzo swallowed the space between us and reached for me, guiding me to my feet. “Nico had those three men show up at my place yesterday not only as a distraction but to use it as a reason to get inside our home here. Open the gates for them, like we’re about to do, so they could apologize for the attack.”
Instead of a gift, the trap is an apology?
“Giovanni may not know Nico is working with the Brambillas,” Mr.Costa pointed out. “But if he does, he’ll do whatever is necessary to protect his family.”
“And if the Brambillas have Nico by the balls,” Constantine said, “they’re more than likely behind everything that’s happened in the last few days. The mastermind behind the plot.”
I turned back to the screen that was paused on this Nico guy. “But why’d he want to hurt Bianca? His wife is family.”
“We can’t really think Bianca fell in love with not just the enemy but a married man, right?” Alessandro asked. “And then he killed her because ... why?”
“I don’t know,” Enzo said, his tone softer that time, and he squeezed my hand and faced Alessandro. “But Nico was there that night, and he’s about to be here now. And we know for certain the Brambillas hired the cleaner to cover for Bianca’s murderer. This is the only thing that makes sense, even if it doesn’t make sense now.”
“Can you cancel the meeting?” I asked what felt like such a silly question, because of course they’d cancel now that they knew the truth.
“They’ve been two steps ahead of us,” Constantine replied, “and if we cancel, they’ll know for sure we figured things out. If we let them walk in, they’ll assume we’re still in the dark. And they’ll believe the client list died with the cleaner last night.”
“So they may not attack once here?” I asked, searching for clarification.
