Page 186 of Valentino

I’m pacing back and forth in my bedroom, and my nerves are so high that I’ve even thrown up a few times. The shooting has been all over the news and my mother and father are freaking out because someone got shot at my house.

I’m also freaking out, but not for the same reason as them, it’s because of the radio silence.

Every minute that passes the more the policewoman’s words haunt me.

You were sent into Valentino’s bed to keep him occupied so that Carlo could move in and murder him.

Surely Val doesn’t believe that…. How could he?

You did hide that phone…. I feel sick to the stomach, why the fuck did I hide the phone?

Why?

Just fucking why?

He’s angry with me, he has to be. He would have called me by now.

My phone vibrates on the side table, and I scramble to pick it up.

Francesca.

Finally.

“Hello.” I answer in a rush. “Are you okay? Is Valentino okay?”

“Tell me it’s not true,” she snaps.

I blink, startled by the venom in her voice. “What do you mean?”

“Did you hide a burner phone from Carlo?”

“It wasn’t….”

“Yes or no, Anna. Did you have a burner phone from Carlo or not?”

I close my eyes. “It’s not how it sounds.”

“Really?” she fires back. “Tell me how it is then because I heard that you took the SIM card out and went all the way to your office to hide it from Val.”

He knows…every detail.

Panic rises in my chest, is that why he was so horrible last night?

“It wasn’t like that,” I stammer.

“Really? Because it sounds a lot like you’re siding with Carlo and double-crossing us.”

“I’m not.”

“Do you understand what you have done?” she fires back, “You do know why Carlo turned up last night, don’t you?”

I stay silent.

“He turned up to kill Valentino, Anna. Just like Val told you he would. What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you trying to get everyone killed?”

“I was just trying to defuse the situation,” I stammer. “I thought that if I had a way to contact him I could talk him down.”

“Down from what! He wants to kill us all, Anna. All of us, Val, me, Giuliano…all of us. You know this as facts,” she screams. “He came there last night with only one goal and he nearly succeeded. He was going to kill Val, and then you.”