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Twenty-Seven
Aurora
* * *
Cara’s voice is trembling down the line to me. “How?” she keeps asking. “How did you make this happen?”
“Make what happen?”
“I get a call from a guy, calls himself Matteo, tells me I’m booked on a flight back to the States. Says he works for Nico Casella. I ask him about Don Moretti and he says Don Moretti is dead? What the hell? What did you do, Rory? Did you kill him?”
I’m not sure how to word it. “It’s a long story,” I say.
“I’ve got time. My flight’s not due for another hour.”
“What do you want to know?”
“I want to know how Aurora Moretti managed to persuade Nico Casella to find me.”
“It’s complicated.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
I take a sip of my coffee. “Brace yourself for a bumpy ride.” I talk solidly for five minutes. I tell her everything that’s happened at home. When I tell her about the death of the dogs, I draw a gasp from her.
“Not Mario and Luigi?”
“Yep. Nico says his brother killed them but I want you to find out for sure when you get here.”
“How?”
“Talk to Giovanni. Get his side of the story.”
“Why are you still with Nico? Is he keeping you hostage or something?”
I explain how Nico kidnapped me from the stables. I tell her how I ended up here and the offer he’s made me. When I’m done telling the whole thing, my throat’s dry. I sip at my coffee as she breathes out slowly.
“Wow,” she says. “That’s a hell of a story. You weren’t kidding when you said it was complicated.”
“Told you.”
“I’m so sorry about Mario and Luigi.” That’s Cara all over. She knows the death of my family might hurt but she knows just how much losing my dogs means to me. “So if you marry him and have his kid, what then?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you going to stay with him?”
“I don’t know.” It’s the best answer I’ve got. “I don’t think he wants me to. He just wants to beat his brother.”
“You think Giovanni killed the dogs?”
“That’s what I want you to find out.”
She thinks for a minute. “Why not speak to Giovanni for yourself. Get his side of the story.”
“I can’t. Nico’s not letting me out of his sight.”
“He’s not watching you now, is he? Is he listening to this conversation?”
