Rafe shakes his head. “Gemma had her baby. Cleo is with her in Italy until next week, and I’m flying there early tomorrow to spend New Year’s Eve with everyone.”
His words disorient me. I hadn’t even realized what day tomorrow is.
Blake will spend New Year's alone.
It seems like something that shouldn’t matter, but the thought of her alone in this big city hits me with a fresh wave of regret.
If Cleo were around, I’d ask her to go over there and try to cheer Blake up. Would they get along? They’re both strong-willed and stubborn. They have at least one other thing in common—they both got married to guys they despise. Although it didn’t take too long for Rafe to win Cleo over. The thought that I won’t get the chance to do the same with Blake tugs at something deep inside of me.
“Well, maybe that’s for the best,” I mutter.
Rafe’s watching me intently as he brings his drink to his lips. “Where’s Sandro?”
I glance down at the bottom of my glass. Time to start fessing up to the clusterfuck that happened in Missouri. “Gone.”
“What happened?”
“He was killed.”
A beat. “Start from the beginning.”
So I do. I tell Rafe everything that happened from the moment we left New York. I tell him about Darkwater Hollow and Handy Heroes. I tell him about the Iron Raptors, and how they sniffed me out. I tell him about the pile of bodies I left in Missouri before I drove back to New York.
But I don’t tell him about Blake. Not yet.
“The Iron Raptors contacted Ferraro’s men and told him they had me cornered. Ferraro would have come hunting for me when those biker rats didn’t show up for their scheduled meeting.” I lean back and taste the whiskey, savoring the familiar burn as it goes down my throat.
“You made a mistake.”
I lift my gaze to Rafe and notice he looks pissed. “I didn’t have a choice. This would have blown back on you.”
“Giorgio has been helping us plant various false flags since you left. There have been at least five reports of someone seeing you, none of them true. Ferraro no longer pays attention to them. If no one had shown up to the meeting, he would have forgotten about you. You should have done like I said and stayed away from here.”
Heat prickles across my nape. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not. I knew there was a chance you’d be spotted eventually, so I took precautions. But now it’s too late. Now there are photos of you in New York. Camera footage of you entering your condo. Footage the Ferraros are monitoring.”
“Can’t Giorgio erase it?”
Rafe exhales. “It’s not a risk I can take at the moment. Fabi is engaged to Cosimo Ferraro.”
Shock travels through me. “You gave your sister to that stuck-up fuck?”
“The wedding will be in spring. Or at least, it’s supposed to be. The Bratva have gotten a lot more aggressive, and my alliance with Ferraro needs to be rock solid. It’s never quite gotten there after you killed Michael.”
So I just seriously fucked him. Ferraro’s going to find out Rafe lied to him about my death, and that might put their plans in danger.
I drag my palms over my face. “I didn’t come here to beg you to save me. I’m ready to face whatever Ferraro wants to do to me.”
He arches a brow. “You came here to die? You should have kept running, Nero.”
“I couldn’t risk it.”
“Why not?”
Time to come clean. “I have a wife.”
“A wife?” His surprise is evident.
