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Moreno’s fingers wrapped themselves around the armrests of the chair. “The Strongs aren’t in New York. I’ve got eyes on them.”
That caused a knot to begin in my stomach. A man like Moreno wouldn’t put a man on the Strong brothers unless he was worried about them. And if he was worried, that gave me something to be scared of.
“They know that Carla is here in the city. I’ve seen both of them. Just today.”
I didn’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t for Moreno to roll his eyes. “The Strongs are harmless. I want Carla away from Caleb.” He gave me a sort of smirk that I wouldn’t expect from a father. “I’m sure you do as well.”
That knot in my stomach was on fire as I realized what Moreno was saying. He thought that this was jealousy. The fucker was determined not to listen.
“This isn’t about my relationship with Carla.” My frustration was growing, and as much as I wanted to control it, I was worried it was spiraling out of my control. “Carla believes that Caleb and his brother were there that night.”
Moreno blew a sigh of frustration. His eyes were blazing as he looked at me. “Carla was drunk and high that night. Caleb was the last person she was with. Her memories can’t be trusted.”
“Carla remembers smelling his cologne,” I pressed.
“As I said…”
The frustration came to a boil, and I grabbed a picture frame off of my father’s bookcase and threw it at the wall.
No one moved.
“Eli,” my father warned.
My chest was going up and down as I tried to gain control over my emotions. Moreno’s hand was at his waist, and my father’s eyes were trained on him. “You need to calm down,” he warned again.
This time he was looking at Moreno, and I suspected he was warning the other man. “This is a family issue,” Moreno told me. His dark eyes did not leave me, and I knew he was worried that I was a threat. And maybe I was.
When it came to Carla, I was unlike myself.
“I understand that you care about Carla, but you need to stay out of this.” It seemed that my father had decided to be the voice of reason in this situation, which pissed me off. “This is why I called Moreno here. You and Carla have become too close.”
A sardonic laugh escaped me. “That’s rich considering that you are the one that wanted us to be close.” He’d threatened me to do it, and when that came out, it destroyed the relationship that I’d started to create with Carla.
“I wanted you to watch her and keep her safe.”
“Not screw her,” Moreno said. There was anger in his voice. “Carla has been through a great deal. She does not need some hot-blooded young man sniffing after her. That’s why when your father called me, I knew it was time to take control of the situation. I’d hoped that Carla would get all of this out of her system but turns out that I was wrong.”
There was a bit of disgust in his voice, and if I didn’t know that it would lead to a blood bath, I would have wrapped my hands around the man’s neck and squeezed the life out of him. Just to wipe the smug look off his face.
But I couldn’t do that. Like Carla, I was stuck under my father’s thumb. We were children at the mercy of madmen.
“This is for the best.” My father was trying to reason with me, and for the first time in my life, when I looked at him, I was disgusted. Matteo and I were just pawns to him in the larger business that he was determined to run.
“Carla is right,” I said, determined to get the last word. “And I’m going to prove it.”
I yanked the door open, knowing that I needed to get out of the room before I lost my cool again.
“Eli? Sweetheart? What’s wrong?” The sound of my mother’s heels as she rushed after me barely penetrated the anger of my mind. “Eli!”
My legs were a lot longer than hers, and I was out of the door before she could catch up with me. I knew I wasn’t being fair to her, but I couldn’t stay in the house with my father and Moreno. The two of them were so far up one another’s ass that they couldn’t see what was right in front of them.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my phone. I believed that Carla was right. But there were too many pieces of this puzzle that were missing, and I needed to figure them out.
But before I could dial, I felt something sharp slide into my neck. Immediately, my hand slapped over the skin. “What the fuck?”
My vision blurred, and I felt myself wobbling on my feet. I turned just in time to see someone in a ski mask holding a needle in their hands. “Sorry, man. It’s not personal.”
That was the last thing I heard before my vision went dark.
