AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know.” He paused a beat. “You have a brother.”
“My aunt told me he’s about my age.”
“Yes. He’s taken over the De Luca syndicate from your father.”
I knew this thanks to the FBI files, but of course I couldn’t say that, so I nodded my head and kept my mouth shut.
Vince continued, “He’s not a bad kid. He’s rebuilt the syndicate in ways your father never could. Years of neglect are hard to unravel, but he’s done a great job. He has a good head on his shoulders.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Have you ever considered visiting him?”
Have I ever considered dying?
“No.”
“He wouldn’t hurt you.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“For one, it’d be stupid to harm an FBI agent. Too much heat.”
I froze once again, shocked by his knowledge. My identity had been wiped, like it was each time I entered a new legend.
The only way he could know that was if there was a mole in my division.
I laughed a little, forcing out bits of noise I hoped sounded amused. “You’re funny.”
“Yes, I am, but I’m not right now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’d think a legend would be better at lying, but I suppose you’ve only had small legends up until now.”
Oh, god.
How much did he know?
I didn’t answer.
I couldn’t.
I felt stripped to the core by a man who looked so fragile right now but could tear me apart and feed me to the whales in the Hudson River.
He drained the last of his drink and didn’t pour himself another one. “I’m an old man. My time has long come. It’s not in my interest to harm you when you’ve yet to harm my family, and I know you wouldn’t.”
He couldn’t possibly know that.
I’d only just come to this decision.
I needed an extraction now. I needed to fumble out an excuse to leave, call Wilks on the emergency burner phone, and beg for an extraction team to save me.
“Sometimes,” he continued, “the people furthest from a situation see it clearest. I’ve been watching you since you came to L’Oscurità, and I’ve been watching my nephew. Have you heard of Jupiter and Ganymede?”
He didn’t wait for my answer.
“In Roman mythology, Jupiter captures Ganymede and makes him his lover. I know my nephew. I know he seems difficult to love, even like, but he isn’t. And you may not want to admit it, but there’s something there between you two. You feel like he’s captured a piece of you, and you can’t shake it off. You’ve tried because of your last name, because of your duty to the FBI, but no matter what, you can’t shake it off. Do you want to know why?”
