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“Yeah, but that’s how they see him. It’s all about the dollars.”
“And the cops?”
“They’ll be after me, too. Ones on their payroll or ones truly out for justice.”
“Either way…”
“It’s not looking too good for me.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “Text Unc and tell him to meet us at Sonny’s house.”
“Why is Sonny not at his new place?”
“He keeps going back to the house. He keeps saying he’s missing something. Papers. Must be whatever you were reading at the house. He didn’t want you or Ava to know. He wanted you to hate him instead of her. Thought it would be easier if you blamed him for making her leave and not yourselves.”
I pressed send on the text and changed the subject. I couldn’t deal with that and everything else. “What about the triplet? Her sisters? Do you think they might know what she had on Gallo? And if they have it, what then?”
He nodded. “I’m sure they do. The night I was there, Mo was acting funny. He told me only one of them showed up for work and the other one left. The one with the mole hadn’t showed up in a while. Then he dodged me as much as he could. If I can find whatever they have, I’ll bring it to Messina. The Russians want that proof as much as he does. If it gets to them first, the Russians will demand either payment or retribution. This guy was worth something, or they wouldn’t be pushing this hard. Gallo swears he didn’t touch the man, even though he told the guy’s wife he did.”
“Because of me,” I said. “Mo was dodging you because of me. He told me he would kill Minnie if I told you. He had one of the workers take me home when you showed up that night.”
His jaw clenched and he squeezed the wheel.
We could fight about that later.
“If I was there that night, I probably saw her, the one triplet. But I only met one worker—out back, during my break. Shawna.”
“That’s one of them,” he said. “Shawna, Lorna, and Norma. Norma’s missing.”
I remembered Mo’s words that night. “Women,” he said, like the word itself put him out. Then his eyes narrowed on the figure next to me. “Shawna? Or Lorna?”
Mo couldn’t tell those two apart because they didn’t have a beauty mark over their lips. I was standing right next to the woman who might be our way out of this.
“Lucila.”
My eyes snapped up and met Lilo’s for a brief second before he turned them back to the road. We were on Sonny’s street. He turned the headlights off and then pulled further down the block. Molly’s place was lit up, but Sonny’s wasn’t. In complete darkness again, just like that night.
“Baby.” Lilo turned to me. “You listening to me?”
I nodded, but I had zoned out for a second.
He handed me the keys to his car. “I can’t be in two places at once. You’re going to stay at Molly’s while I check things out at Sonny’s. You need to stay with Minnie,” he said, cutting me off before my protest was out.
I’d opened my mouth to argue.
“Tuck the keys in your pocket. Get the fuck out if shit goes wrong.”
Then he leaned in and kissed me. He kissed me until I couldn’t breathe and had to break it. Before I could even catch my breath, he was out of the car, already making his way over to my side. He kept me close as we took long strides down the street. His eyes were alert, constantly scanning.
“Did Gallo send Mo to beat up Sonny that night?” I whispered.
“Maybe. Or maybe Sonny really owed him money.”
I stopped walking, and he did, too.
“What if I never see him again?” I whispered. My eyes were suddenly tight with unshed tears. “He never even told us—I mean, we hated him for so long. I know he did wrong, too, but he was a victim of her, just like we were.”
Lilo sighed, and it was heavy. I knew he had no words—what could he say? He softly ran his knuckle down my face before he urged me to keep moving. But I stopped again.
“We need to call someone, Lilo,” I said. The situation had snuck up on me, and I wasn’t thinking straight. Suddenly, my brain was firing off warnings. “What if the house is full of men? Waiting? What if they have Sonny tied up? Or something…? Using him as bait to lure you into an ambush?”
