“I will find her, Leo, and I will torture you to death, if it’s the last thing I get to do on this earth.”
“Keep that attitude and you’ll never know where I’m keeping her, and better yet, Tino Bellomo will know exactly how you screwed him over and come kill you himself. Then your wife will be mine to fuck every night while you rot in hell.”
More swearing. It took all my willpower not to laugh. “If you lay a hand on—”
“What makes you think I haven’t laid a hand on Nicky already, or a cock?”
“You’re dead,” he seethed. “Where the fuck is she?”
“Where the fuck is mine? You give me my wife, I give you yours. That’s the deal I have with your capo. To think that after all you’ve done, you’d be jumping on my generous offer that covers your fucking treason with no questions asked, but no. The Lanzas’ fucking arrogant asses think they can fuckmeover. Have you forgotten who I am, you sons of bitches? Bring me my wife and my brother before midnight, and you’ll have Nicky back…with a sweet kiss.”
His curses flared again. I rolled my eyes and hung up.
While I waited, I opened Ravenna’s phone I was saving its battery and scrolled Ravenna’s photos for what must be the hundredth time. She only had three of them. One with both her parents in what seemed to be their house. One when she was in high school, holding a little boy, who must have been her brother. Another with only her father in a wheelchair, but they were smiling.
Would I ever see her again? Would life allow us a photo worth saving?
Enzio was the one calling now. I pressed the green button. “Nice trick.”
“We’re on the plane, Leo. Your package will arrive on time. I trust ours will, too?”
Lina was with Enzio now. I could talk to her. I could listen to her voice after an entire year of missing it. But I shouldn’t. I didn’t trust my mind or what I’d feel if I did. “Put her on the phone.” Cazzo.
There was a pause. “It’s… Leo, it’s me.”
My body shook with rage, my fist almost crumbling the phone.
“I know I hurt you, and maybe I deserve whatever pain you want to cause me,” she said. “But Nicky doesn’t deserve any more pain…and neither does my son…your baby brother…” She burst into tears.
For countless hours, I’d imagined the things I’d have said if I’d ever spoken to her again. The hurt I’d have showed, the kind that was only induced by love. The apologies I’d have demanded only so I could have forgiven her, only so I could have made her love me again. But here I was, listening to her pathetic words, feeling nothing but fury and sadness, feeling like an idiot, wishing I’d never laid eyes on the girl I’d once thought was my lifesaver.
I wanted to say so much, but all the words tasted bland and meaningless on my tongue. “Put Enzio back on the phone.”
“Leo—”
“Enzio!” I couldn’t stand that voice of hers anymore. I didn’t want to listen to it ever again.
“Like I said, we’ll be there on time,” he said.
“Send a picture with them on the island, and then we’ll talk.”
CHAPTER 28
Leo
The yelling and cursing that flew in the air as I arrived on the island fell on my ears like background noise. My entire focus was on her. Surrounded by guns and the faces that betrayed me, I saw her. I saw Lina for the first time in over a year.
She was sitting inside the house, in the same spot I’d spilled my father’s blood. Enzio and Dom were flanking her, their soldiers and guards cramming the place, pointing their guns at me, breathing down my neck. She looked exactly the same but ever so different. She was wearing an off-white cashmere suit, her long, brown hair tucked safely in a low braided bun, very light makeup on her face. Exactly howheliked it.
Her eyes swept over me, wide and sunken. Shocked by what they’d done to me or scared of what I’d do to her because of it? She gulped, and then her jaws parted with a quivering exhale. “I’m here, Leo.” Her efforts to keep her voice steady weren’t enough.
Eyes pinned to her face, I sat across from her and grabbed another chair to keep my leg levitated, every move of mine bringing the men to an edge. They’d taken my gun, but I could smell their fear and reveled in the joy their helplessness brought as I knew they couldn’t kill me. Not yet.
“I’ve done everything you asked for,” she said. “Where’s my sister?”
I stretched my leg so that my shoe was practically in Enzio’s face. “Did you know Mamma used to have the same exact suit you’re wearing? Even the hair, he always made her do her hair up.”
“He’s the father of my child, Leo. You have to understand that nothing you’re going to say or do will ever change that or how I feel about him.”