Page 42

"I'm sorry, Cassian. I overreacted. I did. You have to understand that I am under a lot of pressure right now. Please. Tell me what was so special about this woman that you came all this way."

I study him and then sigh, feigning giving in to his request. "I stumbled onto something back in New York. The woman, I thought she was my friend. She works at a restaurant I frequent and I saw her one night getting dragged into a van, so I followed. I ended up getting shot and nearly died."

"She shot you?" Mario's bushy brows lift.

"She might as well have. When I woke up, my team was able to trace the bullet that they pulled out of me, and I found out that Sabina is wrapped up in something big. Something huge, actually. One of the families that work under us is trying to expand with some new deals, and Sabina has apparently been sabotaging them. That's why they snatched her. I got caught in the crossfire, but as you can imagine, it's pissed me the fuck off. I wouldn’t mind if some fucker sold her, but I want my revenge."

Mario nods along as I spin the lie someone created, acting like I've fallen for the whole thing. "That must have been hard, learning that a friend is the reason you got hurt."

"I wouldn't call her a friend." I snort. "Not anymore. Anyway, she has a lot to answer for back in New York and not just for what happened to me. There are a lot of families seeking answers about what she's been up to and for how long. Given that I was the one who got shot, I wanted to come and drag her back."

"I understand," Mario states. "Why did you not tell me any of this?"

"Honestly?" I roll my shoulders. "You're my grandpa. I didn't want to involve you more than I had to and when I saw her here, I was worried she was somehow manipulating you and I didn't want to give too much away in case it spooked her. More fool me, I guess."

"You think a woman like that can manipulate someone like me?" Mario breaks into loud laughter for a long few moments. "You forget that here in Italy, we are real men. We do not bow to women like that."

I bite my tongue and force a smile, wishing I could see how Mario would fare against Valentina. Even Raven could run rings around him, not that he would accept such a thing.

"It is different here," I agree. "But if she's not manipulating you, then why was she with you?"

"That is what I want to show you, Ragazzo. Come. Come with me." The car pulls to a stop and Mario is already out of it as he talks. I unbuckle myself and follow, finding myself in the parking lot of a hospital that stretches high into the impossibly blue sky.

There's only one reason I can think of that would bring us here, and I'm proven right when Mario leads me up to the eighth floor and leads me into a room with a large rectangular window that looks into another room.

A girl sits on a bunch of cushions with a doll in her hand, happily playing with a black-haired woman at her side. At a glance, it's a sweet sight, but the rest of the room makes the entire thing much more daunting. The bed near the wall is surrounded by machines, and the girl has a line of oxygen leading to her face.

This must be Illyana. She has the same chestnut hair as her mother, with a happy smile despite the dark circles under her eyes and the hollowness of her cheeks.

"You were right," Mario says with a deep sigh. "Sabina fled here. I think it was a stopgap to somewhere else but you see, as soon as she arrived at the airport here, I had her picked up because her face had been flagged."

"Flagged?" I tear my gaze away from the girl and focus on my grandpa. "What do you mean, fled?"

"Well, it's from my understanding that the men who shot you were from the Visconti family, yes? I know this because she escaped their captivity and got onto the first plane she could afford, which thankfully led her here."

So, he claims she escaped them and ran here? My brow tightens as I listen, nodding as if this is the first time I've heard such a thing.

"They were looking for her, and they reached out to me because, as you know, the Visconti family and I are friends."

My eyes widen before I can cover it and I clear my throat. "I didn't know that."

"You didn't?" Mario almost looks smug. "Yes, our families have been tied together for a long time. You know how it is with the old blood."

"Indeed." One thing quickly becomes glaringly clear as Mario talks. For a man who claims to want nothing to do with the States, he obviously still has information trickling out of NYC.

"I've been caring for Illyana for the past few months because she is very ill. My home is closer to the hospital and we hoped that the sea air and such would be good for her."

"She's not yours, is she?" I ask with a chuckle. "Even at your age, that's impressive."

Mario laughs loudly and claps me on the shoulder. "Good God, boy, not at all. Her father is Leo Visconti." He locks eyes with me. "As I said, our families are old friends."

Leo Visconti. The leader of the family who shot me? This is growing more tangled by the second, but it is part of Sabina's own story about her rapist being younger than Mario. She was raped by the Don of the Visconti family and not only did he steal her baby, but he kept her?

Why?

"What's wrong with her?" I nod toward the bed and the machines. "She's sick?"

"Yes." Mario sighs deeply. "She was supposed to go into surgery today for a kidney transplant, the poor thing. Sadly, the donor pulled out at the last minute."