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Finally, his gruff voice comes from the shadows.
“It was meant to be fun.”
I grit my teeth. “And it would have been, had I had my Glock, and had you turned on a fucking light.” When he doesn’t reply, I rake my hand through my hair, shaking my head. “I should have let you deal with Dante and his men your way.” I glance down at my knuckles. “Combat is your thing, not mine. Besides, I should have known you were more likely to torture the chess pieces than play them.”
The boards on the windows shudder. Jesus and his cross sway from a rusted nail behind the altar.
“I still have him. Griffin too.”
Christ.I let out a slow hiss, my thoughts filling with that fucking cave. The shadows from the fire dancing on the craggy walls. The screams that echo off the sweat-drenched ceiling. Dante’s been in there fortwo weeks,Griffin even longer. It’s like something out of a horror movie.
I know why my brother is telling me this. “I appreciate the offer, but it’s back to regular programming for me,” I say dryly. “Give them both a good kick in the nuts on my behalf, though.”
I stand, and the silhouette shifting in the darkness tells me Gabe does too. As he walks toward me, something about the uneven patter of his footsteps instantly raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
When he steps into the dim light, my chest clenches. “What the fuck, Gabe?” I mutter, instinctively reaching for the grip of my gun. “Who did this to you?”
He only stares at me through the swollen slits of his eyes. He’s a bloody, bruised mess. Busted lip, blackened cheekbones. Fuck, looking like this, I wouldn’t recognize my own brother in a police line-up.
As I search the empty pews for an answer, the realization hits; he’s Gabriel Visconti. No one could get close enough to him to do this much damage.
Unless he let them.
“Why?” I grit out.
The thick trunk of his throat bobs. He avoids both my stare and my question. “I’m going away for a while. I need…” He shakes his head, like he’s ridding his brain of noxious thoughts. “Dante will be dealt with, and my men are all yours.”
He pushes past me and limps down the nave. I’ve gotten used to my brother leaving without warning over the years, but after everything that’s happened over the last month, it doesn’t feel as easy to watch him go.
Suddenly, he stops. “You didn’t deal with the girl.”
My shoulders tense. Fuck, I don’t know what’s worse, hearing Penny’s name, or hearing her reduced tothe girl.
“I did.”
“You didn’t.”
“Idid.Just not in the way you suggested.” I swallow. “She left town.”
“No she didn’t.”
The fuck?“Christ, Gabe—”
“She’s in her apartment watching that film that makes everyone cry.” He glances back at me. “On repeat. At all hours. With that scruffy kid from across the hall.”
Confusion and something hotter bites at my edges. “What?” I shake my head. “And how the fuck would you know?”
“Our apartments share a wall.”
I stare at him. There’s too much to unpack in one brain dump. I’d love to know why the fuck my millionaire brother lives in a shitty walk-up on Main Street, but I’d like to know how, and why, Penny is still in town more.
Didn’t Rory say she left her neighbor a goodbye note?
Before I can respond, Gabe pops his knuckles at his side and continues walking. “You must have really liked her to give her the watch Mama gave you when you opened Lucky Cat.”
I’m too distracted. Can barely hear him over the pounding in my ears. “I didn’t give it to her; she won it.”
“Did she win Mama’s necklace, too?”
