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"You met with these fuckers two times, and you can't give us more than street names?" Brio asked.
"Two times?" the guy asked, brows furrowing.
There was that feeling again. The hair on the back of my neck standing on end, thoughts just waiting to be exposed.
"You didn't put a hit on Alessa?" I asked.
"Who is Alessa?" he shot back.
"Or my son?"
"I'd never hurt Ottavio. Britney loved him more than anything."
"Maybe he just needs some... incentive to talk," Brio suggested, evil smirk toying with his lips.
"No," I said, shaking my head. "No, I think he's telling the truth. I think it isn't related."
"So so... so what now?" the guy asked, shaking. "I didn't do it," he insisted. "I never meant for that to happen. I'm suffering enough," he added, eyes glassy.
I was just about to tell Brio I agreed, that letting him live would be the cruelest thing.
"Sorry, man, ain't how it works," Brio declared, squeezing the trigger with a silenced pop, the bullet tearing through the man's head before I could even react, spraying blood and brain matter out toward the side, splashing across the wall as he teetered then fell, dead before he hit the ground.
"Brio," I hissed, holding up a hand in a 'what the fuck' gesture.
"He hired 'em, man. And he knows who you are and who you're connected to. He had to go. Figured you wouldn't mind if I did the dirty work with this one. We'll take our time with the ones with clumsy trigger fingers," he assured me, walking back to grab the newspaper he'd touched, rolling it up, and sticking it in his pocket before tucking the gun away. "We gotta go," he added, producing a wet wipe, and rubbing off the doorknob as he pulled it open.
Since there wasn't anything else I could do, I moved out into the hall, waiting for Brio to wipe off that knob as well before we both headed back down the stairs, and out onto the street.
Like we hadn't just murdered a man.
Maybe I should have been shocked or outraged that Brit's boyfriend had to die. But, really, it was irrational for me even to entertain the idea of letting him live. That wasn't how it worked, and I knew that.
"Just gotta call the boss man," Brio said as we walked back toward our car. "See what the plan is about the trigger men. Could be messy if we can't catch them alone," he added. "Not that I mind messy. Hey, yo, Enz, we got a story, man," Brio said, launching into it as he walked.
But while Brio was busy talking to my brother about what we'd learned, my mind was racing with things not related to Brit at all, since I knew we would have that all sorted out in short measure.
We'd learned something just as explosive today as the fact that Brit's boyfriend had accidentally had her killed.
We'd learned that Alessa getting shot had nothing to do with it.
Everyone had been working the both cases as one and the same.
But they weren't.
And that was important.
If someone wasn't targeting Brit and Avi because of their connection to me, and my connection to the Costa Family, then why was Alessa shot?
Had Avi ever been a factor?
Or were they, perhaps, aiming for her to begin with?
I knew that Alessa had been an unofficial worker for her father, taking on odd jobs when they needed a hand. And the Morelli family dealt primarily in cocaine.
Could it be related to that?
Had she pissed someone off?
I liked Alessa more than was probably appropriate, but even I had to admit that she could come off as prickly. And she had a tendency to poke at people sometimes, usually in good humor, but some people could be sensitive to that.
So if someone who didn't know Alessa as well as I did got offended by something she'd said or did, I could see them lashing out. Especially if they'd been cut off from their cocaine supply or in debt for it.
Being a member of any of the Five Families made it possible to have a target on your back for any number of small or big things.
It could be work-related.
Or it could be Family unrest related.
That could never be ruled out.
Someone in the Esposito or Lombardi Families could have been pissed that the Morellis got on Lorenzo's good side as soon as he took over after our father was killed. Back when our father ran shit, he tended to give the Esposito and Lombardi families more preferential treatment. But because of the issues going on since our old man's death, Lorenzo was requiring a lower kick-up rate from the Morellis and D'onofrios while demanding the same old rate from the other two. Which could absolutely cause tension.
And since Lorenzo was never found without a couple bodyguards these days, making him a pretty impossible target, it made sense that whoever had their panties in a bunch would go after easier targets.
