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“Not yet, sir.”
Rinaldo huffs and lets Becca get back to her numbers.
“It’s a significant amount,” she says, “and it definitely goes back a couple of years.”
“Justin was clearly involved,” I tell her. “He’s got a brother in the area. We think he may be involved with the gangs down south.”
“Justin was with us a long time,” Lucia says. “Why would he have been skimming?”
“Because he liked money,” I say simply. “He was also an asshole.”
Lucia puts her hand on her hip and eyes me.
“Enough, Evan.” Rinaldo sounds tired.
“Justin would make sense.” Becca nods and gathers up her papers. “I’m going back to the office to see if everything balanced out prior to his involvement. I’ll report back what I find.”
“Thank you, Becca.” Rinaldo lies back in the bed and rubs his eyes as Becca leaves. “How’s the security system at the warehouse?”
“It’s got some issues,” Jonathan says as he looks over at me. “I’m gettin’ close to figurin’ them out.”
I nod. We’ll discuss it later.
“It would be nice to know that’s all done,” Rinaldo says with a sigh. He glances over to a tray of untouched hospital food and rubs his eyes. “I’m tired, boys. Let’s continue this conversation tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Evan—one more thing.” Rinaldo lifts his hand slightly in my direction. It seems to take a lot of effort. I gesture to Jonathan with my head, and he waits outside the door as I go to Rinaldo’s side.
“What is it, sir?”
“Lucia.” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “You need to take care of her.”
I blink, trying to understand just what he means. That sentence could imply a lot of things.
“In what way?”
“She isn’t going to be happy when this is all over,” he says. “When I’m gone, she’s going to find out it’s all going to you.”
“Put it in her name,” I tell him. “It doesn’t matter to me.”
“No, you have to have all the control.” He turns his head to face me a little better. “Lucia has to feel like she’s getting her share, and there’s only one way to do that.”
My skin crawls a little as I realize what he means.
“No…Rinaldo, I can’t possibly—”
“You can,” he interrupts. “It’s the best way.”
“You always said I wasn’t right for her.” I sit in the rolling chair by the bed and put my face in my hands. “You can’t believe I’ve changed that much.”
“Maybe not,” he says, “but it will placate her.”
“Placate her by marrying her? I thought she and Beni—” I stop the sentence, wishing I hadn’t started it.
“Not him.” Rinaldo furrows his brow. “You don’t trust him.”
“No, I don’t.”
