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That was when I heard the creaking of a door and footsteps coming from the back bedroom, the one my parents had converted on the main floor.
I turned my head. “Effie?” But it couldn’t be her. I’d waited until she’d fallen asleep upstairs.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I watched the dark hallway as the steps grew closer. Terrified and unable to drag my gaze away from the shadowy space, I fumbled for my cell phone on the coffee table.
I knew who it was. Who it had to be. But still, when Dominic stepped into the light in the living room, I gasped, shocked, suddenly shaking when my gaze fell on the pistol he held at his side.
“Toss the phone, Lucia.”19SalvatoreI walked back into the meeting room at my father’s house. About a dozen men were gathered around the table, all family, cousins and uncles. My father raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment on my having left the room to take the call.
I hated leaving Lucia alone. She didn’t know to what extent things had progressed in the last twelve hours. Hell, I was shocked to hear it all myself.
After I’d left Dominic’s house, my father had apparently gone ballistic on my brother. Roman filled me in on the details. Franco had been furious with Dominic. So much so that he’d apologized to Natalie himself. I knew he was going to her house to make sure she knew he would protect her, but to apologize? That wasn’t Franco Benedetti’s style.
He’d also stationed men at her house when she’d refused to come to the city with him and stay at his house until things settled. She’d had no choice in the matter. He would do whatever he needed to do to protect his grandson.
And he had sent Dominic to the house in Florida to cool off. To “get his head out of his ass” were apparently his exact words.
The shooting of Luke DeMarco had surprised my father. It wasn’t done on his order and obviously not on mine. The video footage only showed two masked men walking into the bowling alley and opening fire. It was a wonder more people weren’t hurt.
Two of our businesses, one a restaurant and another, a bicycle shop, both of which fronted for money-laundering operations, had been attacked, but no one had been killed. Nothing of the businesses connected directly to us, so investigators would not find anything linking the crimes, but this was only the beginning. Money was taken from both businesses, but the amount of cash wouldn’t have warranted the burglaries.
No, a message was being sent.
This was the prelude to a war.
But Luke DeMarco’s shooting threw us off. He was working with the Pagani family. Why would he have been attacked?
That was the piece that gave us all pause.
“I feel real uneasy about this,” I said. “They wouldn’t have attacked DeMarco. Hell, if things had progressed to this point, DeMarco wouldn’t have been at a fucking bowling alley. Something isn’t right. It’s someone else.”
“Isabella?” my father asked.
Roman glanced at me.
“I saw her at the hospital. She’s beside herself.”
“You were at the hospital?” he asked.
I’d told Roman where I was, but not my father. “They’re Lucia’s family.”
His lips tightened. “You miss the point of everything.”
“By point of everything, you mean my treatment of Lucia.” I knew. It wasn’t a question. “If it’s the fact I’m not a monster to her, then you’re right, I miss your point. Maybe you should have given her to Dominic after all.” The thought sickened me, but my saying it out loud to him, and in front of other members of the family, it only reaffirmed the fact that I would never allow that to happen.
My father made no reply, which surprised me. But it also strengthened me.
Every man in the room seemed to be holding their breath.
“Leave Lucia out of this. She’s my concern and mine alone. Period. Let’s talk about the damage done, who’s behind it, and what we’re doing about it.”
He exhaled but turned his attention back to the task at hand. I assumed he’d deal with me later, but when that time came, he’d learn there would be no more dealing with me. My strings had been cut. I was no longer his puppet.
Maybe it took that contract to teach me that, to break me from my weakness, my cowardice when it came to Franco Benedetti. If any good could come out of something as terrible as stealing a life, this had to be it.
“Back to who is behind this,” Roman began. “I believe the Pagani family is carrying out the attacks. I don’t believe Isabella DeMarco would have her cousin assassinated. Assuming that was the intent.”
“What else would it be? They put two bullets in him,” I said.
Roman agreed. “Maybe Isabella is a bigger threat than we gave her credit for. Maybe Luke was an underling, a cover for her.”
