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“It was the Lucas,” he spat the second I pulled the false wall closed.
“What are you talking about?” I hissed, glancing around to see if we had company. Fortunately, it was just the two of us, aside from the unconscious man tied to a chair who looked like he’d been beaten by a mob ofTwilightfans.
“It was right there on the fucking front lawn, Nico. A goddamned blazingLright there. What the hell else could it mean?”
If there was ever a man I could trust, it was Gabe. If Gabe knew the truth, he’d be forced to choose between his loyalty to our father and me.
“Calm down, Gabe,” I said, as my mind searched for a way to neutralize what had just become a very volatile situation.
“What do you mean, ‘calm down,’ Nico?” he said, waving a hand in exasperation. “You know what this means, don’t you? Dad was right. We should have been going after them all along. Hell, we should have put a bullet in every one of their foreheads.”
If there was one thing I wasn’t willing to do, it was to admit that Lorenzo Costa had been right about anything.
“Gabe, just take a breath,” I said, scrubbing my hands through my hair.
It was clear that I only had two options left.Come clean, or go to war.
My mind flashed back to the look on Dominic’s face tonight.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Nico? Don’t you want to make those bastards pay?” Gabe asked, throwing his arms wide.
I sighed. “Si, I do. I want to make the bastards pay. But I want to make therightbastards pay.”
Gabe stared at me wide-eyed, trying to make sense of my words.
“It wasn’t the Lucas,” I supplied.
“What do you mean, it wasn’t them? Of course, it was. I saw it, Nico.”
“It wasn’t them. Just like it wasn’t them who carved their name into Isabella’s arm either.” I confessed what I’d been keeping to myself for months.
Gabe’s eyes bulged. “You said Aunt Isabella had been shot. You never said anything about the Lucas carving their name into the poor woman’s arm.”
“Because they didn’t,” I ground out between gritted teeth, remembering Isabella’s bloody, lifeless body and the crudely-etched name in her arm.
“How do you know that? What proof do you have?”
“None,” I said, meeting Gabe’s gaze dead-on.
“Oh fuck, Nico,” he breathed, gripping both sides of his head like he was trying to keep his brain from bursting out of his skull. “If Dad finds out about this—”
“He’ll probably kill me if he finds out what I’ve been keeping from him, I know. And I can’t make any promises about what he’ll do if he discovers that you kept your mouth shut because I asked. All I can tell you is I’m good at what I do—you know that. I’m good because I learned to listen to my instincts. And my instincts are telling me there is no way the Lucas are in this.”
Gabe squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head up to the ceiling. It looked like a war was going on inside his head, a war I could well understand. It wasn’t every day a guy’s brother asked him to pick sides. If there were any way around it, I would have done it. Any way other than burning an innocent family to the ground.
“I know I’m asking a lot,fratello, but I need you to keep this to yourself. Lorenzo can’t find out about any of this until I’ve figured out who is really responsible. Those are the fuckers that need to die.”
Gabe was silent for a long time. So long, I contemplated calling our father and offering up the truth just to get this over with.
“All right, Nico. I’ll keep your secret,” he conceded, leaning back against the cold stone wall. “I know what you’ve done for us—for Sandro, Caio, and me. ForMamma.” He looked at me pointedly.
I didn’t think Gabe knew about the deal.
“You don’t owe me anything, Gabe. Not like that,” I said, leveling my gaze with him.
“No? I think you’re wrong. You let him turn you into a monster to keep the rest of us safe.”
The word had always been there in my mind, lurking beneath the surface, bubbling up every once in a while. But I’d always justified it. I had no choice, I told myself over and over. I had to keep my family safe—even from our own father. It had been for them. For Gabe. For the very person looking at me with eyes that knew the truth.
