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Seeing Dom was like a gift that jump-started a piece of me I’d been ready to let die, but I wasn’t ready to walk right into their home and act like nothing had ever happened.
While I’d already given up on my reckless plans, it seemed that despite Tommaso’s good advice, I hadn’t made peace with my past yet.
I wasn’t ready to move on.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nico
Gabe and I had been sitting side by side for the past few hours, sifting through haystacks for a conniving needle—Avalone’s illegitimate son. Phone calls, research, countless hours of scanning surveillance footage.
Thus far, no needles. Nothing resembling it either.
I itched to go out, make deals, chase a bastard, carve him up, get some answers. Not sit behind a desk and work until my skin’s all pruned up.
Our men were out there taking down Novas like dominoes, yet I found it hard to believe that a retired accountant would have anything to do with this.
Gabe was scanning through Avalone’s decade-old phone records, looking for any number out of the ordinary. Avalone had probably already chased this lead, but we were too close now to leave any stone unturned.
Our men had gone through everything with a fine-tooth comb, but they were missing something.
They had to be.
On the screen in front of me, I scanned through hour after hour of surveillance footage I found from anywhere near Avalone’s estate. Street cameras. Security footage. Anything that could give me a better picture or a relevant license plate. This guy was out there somewhere, making plans for his next hit.
For some reason, ever since Abruzzo, it felt like there was a bull’s-eye on the back of my head. I could feel the red dot like a hot laser beam.
“I’ve got nothing,” Gabe said, sighing and scrubbing his fingers through his hair. “No weird calls to the guy’s house or his cellphone. Maybe Avalone is bullshitting us.”
“No,” I said with more certainty than the situation seemed to warrant.
For the first time, something about this whole thing seemed clear to me, the haze lifted. Whatever else Avalone was, he wasn’t a liar.
At least not about this.
“Is your Spidey-Sense going off?” Gabe asked with a grin.
I smirked. “Something like that. I just know we’re on the right path.”
“All right.” Gabe yawned and stretched his arms. “I guess we just keep following the yellow brick road, Dorothy.”
I barked out a laugh.
I was just about to make another coffee run—and if I happened to stop by Raven’s hotel room along the way, who could blame me?—when my phone rang.
I cringed, pulling my phone out of my pocket. There hadn’t exactly been a whole lot of good news lately. I glanced down.
Lorenzoappeared across the screen.
I could have passed the phone to Gabe—what else were younger brothers for?—but I answered the phone and put it to my ear.
“Ciao,” I said in a short clipped tone then waited to hear my father’s voice like waiting for nails to scrape across a chalkboard.
“You’ve been keeping secrets from me,” he said, seething.
All I had to do was find the goddamn needle.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, playing dumb.
