“Before you left, you were a loyal consigliere. You were the one who killed Michael, but the blame lies with Rafaele. We both know he should have warned you my men would be there. A man in your position would have been rightfully upset about having to give up…” Gino swirls his wine around. “Well, everything.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that it wouldn’t be so difficult to believe that you want to get even with your old boss. Especially after he threw you to the wolves when you came back.”
“The wolves being you and your sons?”
“Indeed. From the outside, it looks like you got quite the demotion. You went from leading scores of men and holding critical negotiations in gilded meeting rooms to cleaning blood and guts off cement floors after Alessio’s interrogations.”
Shock crackles through me.
That’s…what they’re making him do?
Nero’s uneasy gaze snaps my way. One look into his eyes tells me he didn’t want me to know that.
And that’s when something inside me shifts. It’s like a lamp’s been turned on inside a dark room, casting everything in a new light.
The events of the last few months whirl through my mind.
Nero had to leave New York because of someone else’s mistake. He tried to start over. He had a business, a real, honest business that he was running with his partner.
And he was doing fine.
Right up until he moved in next door to me. Right up until getting involved with me put him in the crosshairs of my ex and my godfather. The two men whose actions caused Nero’s fake identity to be revealed.
The world tilts.
How did I not see it earlier?
I put all the blame on Nero, but I’m just as guilty we’re in this mess.
What would have happened if he’d never met me?
He would have been fine. Sandro would still be alive.
They would still be working in Darkwater Hollow and living their new lives.
Instead, Sandro’s gone, and Nero’s been forced back here. He’s working for a man who nearly killed him. A man who sees him as nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard.
Nero knew exactly what might happen to him upon his return to New York, and he came back here anyway.
For me.
“You wanted that vor to see me today,” Nero murmurs. “Alessio didn’t kill him because you wanted him to run back to the Russians and tell them what you’re having me do.”
Gino nods. “Seeing you at that coffee shop also helped paint a picture. It’s a laundering front for the Bratva.”
Nero’s laugh is humorless. “You’ve really thought this through.”
“We wanted the pakhan to realize there’s someone in the family who might be willing to turn. Someone who knows a lot of secrets that would be valuable to him and the Bratva.”
Even without understanding the terms Gino’s using, I’m starting to piece together what he’s getting at. He wants Nero to help them take down a rival by pretending to switch sides.
Nero places his wineglass on the coffee table. “The pakhan would be happy to get whatever information he can from me. But what are you hoping to get out of this?”
“His location,” Vita answers.
Is this plan her idea?
