Page 75 of Pretty Lies

J bloody on the cement floor.

Probably already dead, then.

Cory and Della were long gone.

Like the drugs inside the warehouse.

“How much?” Cory heard his uncle, Theo, ask Georgie.

“A lot, Theo.”

“How much?”

“Three-quarters of a million.”

It wasn’t like Theo to make a trip like this—to come in when bad shit had gone down and do the rounds to put things together. Then again, his uncle was a lot like him and hated hospitals. He tended to do this kind of business after everything was said and done and people were back at home. For whatever reason, Theo was here now.

“Tommas will be coming around,” Theo said. “You know when Outfit business becomes affected, he gets directly involved until it’s cleared up.”

As always, Cory knew.

The Capo nodded. “He might want to start with Frankie. I don’t think this attack and boost on the warehouse was a plot on me, specifically. Heard he’s been having issues with a certain gang because of … well, you know.”

Georgie’s words followed his stare straight to where Della stood next to Cory and the windows. She wasn’t looking their way anymore—the tree outside the glass had taken her attention, but he was fine to let her do whatever she needed to get through this horrible fucking day.

Already, it was noon.

Cory knew what they were waiting for now.

The word.

Confirmation of death.

“Cory.”

The sharp call of his name had Cory stepping away from Della without a word. He joined his uncle, he and Theo moving to the other side of the room where Frankie Costello currently sat on a corner chair staring at his clenched hands in his lap.

“What were you doing there?” the man asked.

Theo cleared his throat, passing Cory a questioning look. “Well?”

J’s father didn’t look up.

He was mad.

Hurting.

Stranded in a place that felt like limbo. Knowing—or pretty sure—that his son was dead but still holding on to some kind of hope that this could be the miracle. J could be the one miracle that God gave them.

The truth was cold, though. In the mafia, there were no miracles. Not for men like them.

“I’m not sure our presence at the warehouse made a difference to what happened today,” Cory said. “Something like that—how they came in on the place and J, that was planned.”

Theo made a noise. “Like they had info?”

“They would have needed it, I think.”

Silence followed that revelation.