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Aunt Berta sniffled, a soft cry escaping. “I’m so sorry!”
Liza tightened her grip around her aunt’s shoulders, tugging her closer. “It’s okay, Aunt Berta. It’s all going to be okay.” She locked gazes with Tony, whose jaw was clenched tight in anger and despair.
She suspected he had a lot more he wanted to say, but he didn’t want to upset their aunt any more than they already had.
Liza glanced at the marker again, still struggling to understand. “Where did you get that, Tony?” she asked, nodded at the paper.
“Someone delivered it to the Moretti Brothers offices about a half hour ago,” Tony replied.
“Who delivered it?” Liza asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? Russo had one of his lackeys bring it to us.”
Liza slowly shook her head, refusing to believe that. She and Matt had made love no more than seven hours earlier. It had been slow and passionate and perfect. He hadn’t been a man set on revenge. He’d been gentle and warm and…goddammit…perfect.
Luca ran his hand through his hair, anger winning as the dominant emotion. “Looks like the fruit didn’t fall far from the tree. Matt’s decided to continue the path of destruction put in place by his grandfather and father with this fucking sucker punch.”
“Come on, Luca,” Tony said, rising.
“Where are you going?” Liza asked.
“To see Russo,” Tony replied. “I’m not waiting around for the asshole’s next move.”
“No.” Liza stood as well, picking up the piece of paper. “I’ll go.”
Luca and Tony scoffed in unison. “No way.”
Liza raised her hand before they could continue. “I know Matt. We have a…working relationship.” She hoped no one noticed her pause before working. She’d almost skipped that word entirely. Now probably wasn’t the best time to mention she’d been shacking up with Matt for the past couple of weeks. She hadn’t slept alone in a bed since Hawaii.
“Liza, there’s no way?—”
“I can talk to him,” she interjected. “Reason with him. Try to figure out what his end game is. If you go, it’ll be less talk, more fists. That won’t help anyone.”
“I’m not going to hit him,” Tony insisted. “At least not immediately.”
She rolled her eyes. “Please let me handle this.”
Tony sighed, then exchanged a glance with Luca, who shrugged.
“You can come with us,” Tony conceded.
“I’m doing all the talking,” she added, though she knew Tony wouldn’t be able to stop himself from stepping into the fray. Tony Moretti was an intimidating force, and when something arose that threatened his loved ones…God help them.
That marker had made Aunt Berta cry, it had caused Uncle Renzo years of stress, and it had the potential to bankrupt Moretti Brothers. At the end of the day, all of that was ultimately Uncle Renzo’s fault, but Liza wasn’t certain Tony was seeing it that way at the moment.
There was no way she’d be able to hold Tony back if it turned out Matt was indeed calling in the debt.
Blood would be shed.
“Please, Tony,” she persisted, desperate to find some way out of this mess, some way back to the pure happiness she’d felt not thirty minutes ago.
“We’ll go together.” Tony hadn’t agreed to let her do the talking, but it was as good a deal as she was going to get.
As they left Aunt Berta’s, Liza prayed the entire way to the Russo Enterprises building that this had been some big misunderstanding. That Matt, the man she’d fallen hopelessly in love with, wasn’t trying to destroy her family.
Chapter Seventeen
“You can’t go in there!”
