At the same time, Cassandra moved from Brooklyn to Ohio at the age of eight with only her mother.
CarmineBellini.Whose only friend in my father’s inner circle was Marco Chiavari. Whose daughter had been childhood friends with Cassandra.
But perhaps the most damning piece of evidence was that Cassandra’s father died a month ago.
When CarmineBellinihad shot himself in the head before my very eyes.
“You know it’s true,” Danny is saying, but I can barely hear her over the ringing in my ear. “Let’s just get back to the way things were.”
Cassandra can’t know. Couldn’t know. Could she?
Could she have been playing me this whole time to enact some kind of sick revenge?
I can’t believe that. Refuse to. She’s been through too much for that to have been an act. I had seen the truth in her eyes when she’d bargained for her protection.
Besides, she’s been alone with me in my own home countless times. Countless, veryvulnerabletimes, and yet she’s done nothing to take advantage of that.
But why is she here? Now? After seventeen years, magically appearing only a week before Carmine’s death?
If her mother had taken her to Ohio to getawayfrom Carmine and the Guild and all the pressures of the Italian Mafia, why would she suddenly know to come back now? Why not come as soon as she turned eighteen?
Is it all just a tragic coincidence? Carmine finally found the courage to reach out, only to die before he got the chance to meet.
Unless…somehow, heknewhe was going to die.
But what kind of father would drag their estranged daughter into something like that? He must have known his life was on the line when he betrayed the Guild. Would he really endanger her like that? For the sake of his own closure?
“You are going to do great things, Rocco.”
None of this makes any sense. Every question only branches out into five more.
Somehow, this has to be connected to the missing rat. The timing is just too perfect. I just need to figure outhow.
A pair of lips press against mine, and I’m abruptly torn from my spiral.
For a moment, I remain entirely frozen, stunned that I had let my guard down so thoroughly that I hadn’t noticed Danny’s very obvious intentions.
The feeling of her tongue attempting to gain access to my mouth jolts me into action.
My hand snatches at her golden hair, and I pull down sharply.
Her gasp elicits nothing but contempt.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
My entire body begins to shake with rage. I am entirely disgusted by every inch of her skin that touches mine.
“Rocco!” She turns those watery blue eyes on me to no effect.
“Get. Off. Me.”
I don’t know if it’s the threat of my tone or the sharpness of my expression, but something akin to fear crosses her face. Good.
She scrambles away, landing straight on the floor, and I release her hair with a flick of my wrist.
“If you dare touch me again,” I hiss down at her. “If you touch anyone again without their consent, you will never get up on that stage again.”
Danny puts her hand to her mouth to conceal a sob. “I…I thought…”
