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My sister opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. After a moment, she snaps it shut again. A blush creeps up her neck to her cheeks.
“What?” I demand. “Tina, what is going on? Do you know something?”
“It’s just…” Her voice trembles. “They weren’t the only ones who knew.”
“Who else?” I stride toward her, so fast that she flinches.
Her lip starts to tremble now, too. “I think maybe I messed up.”
“Who else knew, Tina? Tell me right now!”
Her face twists into a grimace as she starts to cry. “I’m sorry! It’s just that… I was talking to Gianni on the phone. And textingsometimes. I didn’t tell him anything about where we were, just that we were okay. He said he loved me and missed me so much he was going crazy. He asked me if I could meet him, just for an hour or so, just so he could see me and know for sure I was okay. I told him I couldn’t get away, that Daddy’s men would never let me leave. But he kept pushing harder. He asked if he could come here. At first I said no, but then...”
Tina starts to cry harder, and for a few seconds she’s sobbing too hard to talk. I clench my hands into fists, nails biting into my palms, trying to keep from shaking the words out of her. Finally, she gets hold of herself again.
“Gianni said he wanted to come here to ask Daddy if he could marry me. But he never showed up.” Tina tilts her grief-stricken face up to meet my eyes. “Do you think I did this, Sera? Is it my fault Daddy’s here?”
Oh my God. It was the Vincenzis. It was the Vincenzis all along.
Giovanni Vincenzi put himself forward as my potential suitor. When I told him I wouldn’t consider marrying him, is that when the Vincenzis put the whole plan to kill my father in motion? Or had they been plotting to end him that night all along?
Then, when it hadn’t worked — when my father went into hiding and they couldn’t get to him, they figured out another way to do so. By going through my sister.
As shocked as I am at Tina’s words, I can’t yell at her. She’s started sobbing again, so crushed by the knowledge that the boy she thought she loved has betrayed her, and that her stupid naivety almost cost my father his life.
I enfold her in my arms. “Sshhh, Tina, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” She curls into me like she used to when she was a toddler and she got in trouble with our parents. As I rock herback and forth, I struggle to make sense of everything I’ve just heard.
I’m not the one who has been betrayed by a lover. Tina is.
Antony is innocent. He meant everything he said to me. He meant it when he said he loves me. He meant his proposal.
And I threw his mother’s ring back in his face.
As God is my witness, the Vincenzis will pay for what they’ve done. I’m a Mucci, and Muccis always get even in the end. Every last one of them will rue the day they ever tried to take our family down. I’ll make sure of it.
But first — just as soon as I know that Daddy is stable and out of danger — I need to find out what’s happened to Matteo. And make things right with Antony.
23
ANTONY
“Your words mean nothing, Antony. You never loved me, so why would I believe you’d never hurt anyone I love? All you care about is yourself.”
As I drive one-handed, breaking every speed limit in Cleveland, my other hand turns over the ring in my jacket pocket. The one still warm from her finger. The one she threw at me before she stormed out.
“You’d better call off your dog Matteo, Antony. Because if any of my father’s men sees him again, he is a dead man. Believe that.”
Mere minutes ago, I was engaged to be married — for real this time — to the love of my life. Now that same woman hates me. Never wants to see me again. Wants my brother dead.
Matteo. Where the fuck is he?
I try his phone again, only for it to go straight to voice mail. Cursing, I place another call to one of my men, telling him to head to the nearest hospital to the Mucci safe house. Even if Sera wants nothing to do with me, I still need to have eyes on what’s going on there. The man I call is a genius at going through the world unperceived. He’s the most nondescript guy I’ve ever seen— so much so that every time I meet with him, I have to squint to make sure it’s actually him. He’ll be perfect for the job.
Me, I’ve got more pressing matters right now. I have to find my brother. Assuming he’s still alive.
I have to find out who is responsible for all of this.
And then, I have to end them.
