I would always keep his secret if it meant protecting what we shared. But one day, I’d hoped he would tell me. I’d hoped he would share with me his secrets and pain.
The lights flickered overhead, plunging the room once more into total darkness.
“Luca?” I called, fear sitting heavy in the pit of my stomach. “Luca?”
“H-here…” It was a faint groan. “I’m here.”
His voice, although pained, settled something inside me. I knew Luca had a hand in taking me, but I didn’t want him to die. I wanted him to survive this thing and then explain to me what the hell had happened.
“Hold on,” I croaked, my throat dry and sore. “You have to hold on. Enzo will come.”
But as I said the words, all I could think was, he was walking right into a trap.
Time lost all meaning. At some point, Luca had slipped under and hadn’t resurfaced. Silent tears rolled down my cheeks. If he didn’t get medical help soon, he might never wake up.
“Isaac,” I yelled. “ISAAC!”
He appeared in the door like the reaper sent to claim my soul. But he didn’t look concerned, he looked… excited.
“Showtime,” he rasped, stalking toward me with a knife. He grabbed my hands and slid right through the third cable tie binding the tie around each wrist. Then he worked on setting my ankles free.
“Try anything and I’ll gut you like a fish,” he snarled. “Your boyfriend is here now, so it makes no difference to me whether you make it out of this alive or in a body bag.”
An icy shudder rolled through me. This wasn’t the Isaac I’d met at the bar. That guy was cool and aloof, but he wasn’t cruel. But then, I remembered I had felt something a little off about him. As if he watched me a little too closely. Honestly, I’d just thought he wanted me.
The idea seemed preposterous now, seeing as he was dragging me down a long hall with a seven-inch blade pressed to the small of my back.
He yanked me into another room, one with windows. Sunlight poured inside, tinged pinkish orange. Sunset. Jesus. I’d been here hours. Enzo would be going out of his mind.
We waited in silence. Isaac was skittish, his eyes darting to and from the window as he kept his knife at my back and his other hand on my shoulder. Then the door in front of me opened and my heart lurched into my throat.
Enzo.
His eyes were wild, anger burning in his icy depths. His jaw was clenched painfully tight and his fists pressed at his sides. He looked murderous. But when his eyes shifted to mine, his whole expression softened.
He was here.
Enzo had come for me.
“Took you long enough,” Isaac spat the words, slowly inching us back.
Enzo stepped forward and Isaac whipped the knife around my front, pressing it against my throat. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Enzo’s hands shot up as he stalled. “This isn’t about Nora. It’s about you and me, Vinnie.”
“Oooh, you’re good.” He chuckled darkly. “You’re really fucking good. How’d you find out?”
“One of our guys is a dab hand at uncovering secrets.”
“Tommy Gabini? Should have guessed. He said he was one of the best.”
“Who said?” Enzo frowned and I knew my expression matched his. They weren’t making any sense.
“Oh, come on, Lorenzo. Surely, you’ve figured it out by now. Or did the infamous Tommy Gabini fail to uncover the biggest secret of all?”
Enzo started inching closer again, but Isaac moved us deeper into the room. They were dancing around each other with me right in the middle, the sharp edge of the blade so close to my skin I could feel the coolness of it.
I swallowed hard. Enzo caught the small movement, and his eyes went to mine. Dark eyes full of regret and apology. I wanted to tell him to stop, to reassure him that he didn’t have to carry this burden alone. But I couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe for fear of my skin slicing open against the knife’s edge.
My body trembled violently.
“She’s shaking,” Isaac said. “Trembling like an animal about to meet its bloody end. Do you think he felt it too? The claws of death coming to reap his soul?”
“Vincenzo Marchetti was a traitor and a murderer.”
I was still missing something. Something Enzo had apparently figured out.
Isaac wasn’t called Isaac at all. His name was Vinnie.
Vinnie.
Vinnie.
Vincenzo…
No.
No!
It wasn’t possible… and yet…
“You’re wrong, brother. Our father was a great man who deserved so much more