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“But I can. I forgive him. Do this for me. Trust me. Please . . .”
Matteo lets out a long-drawn-out sigh and then nods his head to Roberto. He clearly looks as shocked as Matteo that I would even ask this of them.
“If you so much as look at my wife, or even me for that matter, I don’t care what she says, you are dead.”
“It was never against you,” Jonathan says.
“It sure felt that way when you had a gun pointed at my head.”
“Marino said he had more information about my mother. He promised if I took care of the problem, he would tell me.”
An audible gasp escapes my mouth. “He was blackmailing you too. Do you think he was going to tell you she was alive?”
“At this point, no. I think he was using Julia and me to do his dirty work. Once Matteo was out of the picture, I have no doubt that he wouldn’t have.”
“I don’t know,” I mumble under my breath.
“What don’t you know?” Matteo asks me.
I stand from the chair and walk to Jonathan’s cell. His chains drop to the floor, the clanking sound of the metal echoing off the concrete.
“Why go through all this trouble to tell you anything?” I ask Jonathan. “When did he tell you about your mother?”
“After you married Matteo.”
“And before that, why were you working for him?”
“He approached me about the job. I was going to move away, and he told me to stay. At first, I did odds and ends. Then he approached me to work undercover with Matteo, to sell myself as someone he could trust. He did tell me a lot, but seeing as he had always supported me, I thought I owed it to him.” His fists clench at his side.
“So many things don’t add up.”
“No, they don’t.”
“I think there is only one solution,” Julia says from beside me. “You need to take us to our mother.”
“She’s at a hospital that my father runs. Can you get us in?” I ask my husband. If anyone has the connections, it’s him.
“I can.”
“Good, then let’s go.”
“There’s only one thing,” I say. “Where does Salvatore tie into this? None of that makes sense.”
“It could be as simple as money. The port access is a billion-dollar profit as is. Add in the women he plans to bring in. Triple it.”
“This is all about money for him?”
“And to get back at me. I think Marino and Salvatore also are doing this as an opportunity to combine forces, so that they can kill two birds at the same time. Help each other out in a mutually beneficial way.”
“There is something I have to tell you,” Julia whispers.
“At this point, just spit it out,” Jonathan says to his sister. “She will find out, eventually. Obviously, everything is a big giant ploy, and we were the fucking pawns.” The anger and venom are not lost on any of us.
“The man I was dating . . .”
I vaguely remember her telling me she met a man at a club.
Oh my God.
“No.”
She nods her head.
“It was Salvatore.”
43
Matteo
* * *
Each piece of the puzzle starts to fall into place. So many variables we were all blind to.
Now that I know the part my cousin had in this whole mess, I’m not surprised. He used false information Marino gave the twins and then sweetened the deal to get them to play right into his hands.
It almost worked too.
If Viviana hadn’t stepped in front of a bullet for me, we would all be dead. Then to think of the countless women who would have been hurt.
I pull my wife toward me and hug her. Puzzled by my move, she looks at me. “What was that for?”
“For saving me.”
I’m not just talking about the bullet this time.
“Always.”
After I place a kiss on her mouth, I pull back.
“Let’s go.” I turn to Lorenzo. “Have Price hack into the facility. I want no eyes on us.”
“Got it, Boss.”
From there, everything moves rather fast.
We make it from the compound to our destination in less than an hour.
Instructed by Jaxson Price through an earpiece, we are able to avoid security using a back door and a security code he hacked.
I’m going to need to give this boy a raise, that or convince him to work only with me.
Once inside, we are led through the hallways. We walk as though we belong, even though we don’t.
No one stops us.
A part of me wonders if this is too easy or a trap, but then it dawns on me. Marino probably thinks his daughter is dead. He probably thinks I’m dead.
Or he thinks Jonathan is, and seeing as I’m quick-tempered, we were never able to get to the bottom of this.
When we open the door to the room, Julia falls to the floor. There, in the corner, is a woman who looks like her. Except instead of blond hair, it’s gray and oily. Her eyes are dull and lifeless.
