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About 10 minutes later, Sal pulls up. I’m relieved my mom doesn’t walk me out to the car, considering the role he played in her brother Jackie’s death. I get in and he pulls out right away.
“What’s going on?” I ask before I’ve even buckled my seatbelt. “Is Alessandro okay? Of course he told me he was fine, but…”
“Don’t worry yourself, he’s okay. He’s a tough kid, not a scratch on him. Well, except for the ear.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Good. He got attacked? Who attacked him?”
“We don’t know for sure.”
“Do you think it could be my dad acting from custody?”
Sal pauses before he answers. “Anything’s possible. Alessandro wants to get you to a safe house right away.”
I stare out the window, thinking. The thing my mind keeps sticking on is the fact that when my mom spoke about Jackie being murdered, she didn’t mention Sal at all. Only Alessandro’s father. Pulling out my phone, I unblock her number and shoot her a text.
Hey mom, who was your friend in the Rossi family?
Sal glances at me, then turns on the radio. A couple minutes later, I receive the reply:
Hey honey! Glad to get a text from u :)
Salvatore Marino
I stare at the message, brain whirring.
Sal told my mother that Anthony killed her brother.
He sure left that part out of the story.
I look over at him, and he smiles easily. “Everything’s going to be okay. I know Alessandro will handle this. Might as well get comfortable, we’ve got a long drive.”
My phone rings. Alessandro’s number. I go to pick it up, but Sal snatches the phone out of my hand. “Sorry, no communication. Alessandro’s orders.”
“Alessandro is the one calling me!” I try to take the phone back, but he wrestles it away from me.
“Give me the phone!”
Sal shoves me away from him, then chucks my phone out the window. I dive for the door handle, trying to unlock it, to get out. I can’t be trapped in this car. We’re going slowly enough that if I jump out, I don’t think I’ll be badly injured. It can’t be worse than wherever he’s taking me.
Pain flashes through me as Sal slams me violently against the window. I’m seeing double as my forehead bounces off the glass.The car stops, and I struggle as he grinds my head into the dashboard, drawing a syringe from his pocket.
“That’s right, you fucking cunt,” he rasps, piercing the needle into my neck and squeezing its contents into my bloodstream. “Go to sleep for me now.”
***
Alessandro
My car screeches into the driveway of Ava’s mother’s house, abject fear pulsing through my veins. I sprint past Dominic’s car and ram into the locked front door in my attempt to open it. “Already got picked up?” What the fuck does that mean, she already got picked up?
After about five seconds of hammering on the wood, Dominic opens it. “Fuck, man, I’m so sorry. Somebody got here first.”
Chapter Sixty-Two
Alessandro
I round on Maria Gagliardi. “She got picked up? Who picked her up?”
“I don’t know,” she says defensively. “She got a call, then said she had to leave.”
