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Like who had attacked his family. Who had lived and who had died. And whether the Massimos were planning retaliation against the Rossis and Brennans.
“Are you insane? You don’t even know where he is!”
I turned a cold, one might say evil smile on my best friend in the world. “Oh, I think I know exactly where he is. And I just happen to have a standing invitation to join him there tomorrow. Guess I’ll just be arriving early.”
I shut the door and brought my palm down on the top of the car. I didn’t want them spending any more time here than they had to. I had a job to do, and I wouldn’t be able to do it if I was worrying about Sloane and Penny.
When Sloane took off, the tires skidding and the car fishtailing down the street, I turned and went back toward the bar, my mind racing. I wanted to find Anthony and make sure he was okay, but I also wanted to know what the hell was going on, and what the Massimos were going to do about it.
So I guessed finding Anthony was going to kill multiple birds. So to speak.
I just hoped it didn’t end up killing me.
11
ANTHONY
The gas tank was full, thank God, and I paused for long enough to send a prayer of thanks heavenward for that one. I almost never monitored the amount of fuel in my tanks, and it was pure dumb luck that I had enough now to do anything more than start the ship.
I was going to have to do a whole lot more than that. I needed to not only start it but also get as far as I could safely go from shore. I’d blown through the market on my way here and had bags and bags full of food and water, the better to stock the place, and I’d arrived on my ship with one goal: Get out into the open water and hunker down until things got calm again.
Until my uncle had done whatever he was going to do in retaliation for what had just happened.
I ran through it again as I went downstairs to the galley and started to unpack the food. The attack had happened in a neighborhood where we’d thought we were safe, and where my uncle had felt secure enough to build his own personal house. It had taken out several people in the family—lesser cousins—and a few of our soldiers. One of the biggest businessmen in the family. No one I was close to, and I’d breathed a sigh about that, then felt awful for having discounted the people who did die.
My uncle, when he called, didn’t know what was going on or why. And that right there made me nervous. He’d told me to get onto my ship and get out to sea, and that had made me even more nervous. My uncle didn’t believe in running from problems.
He believed in killing them.
I didn’t think I was at fault for what had happened, but I couldn’t stop my brain from mulling over the possibility that he was blaming me anyhow. I’d been in charge of getting close to Joseph Rossi and brokering a deal, and I’d failed at that. In the process of failing at that, I’d gotten far too close to Brooks Peterson. I couldn’t remember what I’d said to her that first night and couldn’t shake the feeling that I might have said too much. She was involved with the Rossis and this attack happened days after she stumbled back into my life. She’d known where I was going to be—or at least she’d thought she did—and the attack had happened within half an hour of me inviting her to the bar.
It fit too neatly for me to ignore. A member of the Rossi clan comes calling and gets friendly, flashing her body and fluttering her eyelashes and doing her damnedest to remind me of what we’d once had. For what, though? Why? If the Rossis had wanted to attack us, did they have to use Brooks as an entry?
I didn’t think so. I’d thought at first that she must have been behind the whole thing, but the longer I considered it, the more I wondered.
I didn’t think my uncle would see it that way, though. I’d cozied up to a Rossi no matter how you cut it, and our family had been attacked. My uncle might have virtually demanded I do what I did, but he might also ignore that part if he needed a scapegoat.
He might pin the whole thing on me.
Which meant that getting out of town—and off land entirely—was my best shot at staying alive. This ship’s paperwork was registered under an alias and I’d bought it myself, with money I inherited from my father.
If I was out on the water, I didn’t think my uncle would be able to track me down.
Though I didn’t like being out on the water when so much was happening in the city. If Brooks was the mole and had somehow turned us over, I might be the only one who realized it.
If Brooks wasn’t the mole, but had been in the wrong place at the wrong time... she might also be in a world of trouble. I didn’t know for sure that the Rossis were behind the attack, but if my uncle thought they were, and he thought Brooks might have been gathering information through her relationship with me...
“She’ll be the first one he hits,” I murmured, the pieces on the board suddenly rearranging themselves into a picture that terrified me.
This. This was why I hated being a part of this world. There were a million different things that might happen, and I would never be able to guess at the truth because I only had half the facts. I didn’t know who I could trust or who might be my enemy.
I didn’t know who might be my friend, but wearing an enemy’s clothes simply because that was the family she came from.
Now that I was slowing down, I realized I didn’twantto think Brooks had done anything wrong. I’d never known her to be straightforward, exactly, but I’d also never seen her stab anyone she loved in the back.
Which, I guessed, begged the question of whether she loved me enough to take care of me. I would have thought so, once. These days, I had no way of knowing.
Suddenly, I heard my name. Not once, but twice, and then a third time.
