CHAPTER THIRTEEN #2
"You do if you want to make your flight back to the States. The doctor says you need to stay longer. But I told him you had to be home soon. He agreed to clear you if you spend a few days resting and being monitored. If you don’t, you won’t be leaving."
That shut me up.
"If you get out of this bed and start running around Italy, you're going to make your condition worse. Then you'll end up spending even more time in this hospital. Which means your return home will be delayed."
I hated that he had a point.
"So, which will it be?" he asked. "A few days of rest now? Or another couple of weeks in Italy?"
I released a long sigh and relaxed against the bed. I couldn't miss my flight. I had to get home. More importantly, I had to get to Juliet. Another sigh escaped me.
"Where are my glasses?"
"The ones you had on were cracked. I tossed them."
Oh, right. My shooting glasses had gotten cracked when I’d headbutted Pasquale.
"Where's my duffel?"
He crossed the room, opened one of the cabinets, and pulled out my duffel bag.
Holding it up, he asked, "Are your glasses in here?"
"Yeah. In a glass case."
He unzipped the bag and dug around inside. A moment later, he pulled out the case.
"Yeah, that’s them."
He brought me the case, which I immediately opened and retrieved my glasses. After putting them on, the room fully came into focus. My gaze swung to Terzo, who looked worse than I did.
Judging by the stubble on his face and the circles beneath his eyes, he hadn't gotten much sleep.
“You worry about others too much,” I told him.
“You sound like Eve. She told me to go home and get some sleep. When I told her I’d stay, she threatened to burn the hospital down to flush me out.”
“That would’ve killed me,” I pointed out.
“You’re not her little brother. I am. She wasn’t concerned about you.”
I chuckled at that.
“Remind me to never become her little brother. She’s vicious.”
“That, she is,” he agreed, smiling like being vicious was a good thing.
“By the way, did my cousin’s house burn down completely?”
Terzo returned to his seat and lay back. “Not completely. The fire department showed up after some neighbors reported seeing flames. By the time they got there, most of the estate was already gone. They recovered bodies from the property."
"What about Pasquale?"
"They found his body."
Good. I looked away, staring out the window. That was the one thing I needed to accomplish before returning to the States. The family here might suspect what really happened. They weren't stupid. They’d know it was me.
But they wouldn't do anything about it. They'd spent years avoiding trouble. The last thing they’d want was to be dragged into a war over Pasquale. Especially after they learned what he'd been involved in. And I would make sure they knew.
"It's being ruled a homicide," Terzo continued.
"The guard who set the fire is the prime suspect. The news is saying that after he lit the place up, he escaped. I killed him, of course. But they don’t know that.
I had the cleaners dispose of him properly.
We left enough evidence behind for the authorities to connect him to the fire. "
“Good,” I muttered, still staring out the window.
"I went through the guard’s belongings before handing them over to the cleaners. Did you know the Corradinis planted him there?"
“I found that out the night of the fire.”
"Apparently, he'd been reporting Pasquale's movements to them for months. Giving updates, watching things escalate between you and your cousin, and keeping the Corradinis filled in."
That explained a lot.
"The Corradinis wanted leverage over Pasquale.
They also wanted insight into the casino situation.
The night of the fire, the guard sent messages to his Corradini contact, letting them know you were at the estate.
They told him to make sure neither you, Pasquale, nor the other guards made it out alive. "
Those bastards.
"I need to handle the Corradinis,” I muttered through clenched teeth.
"You don't need to do shit. I already filled Enzo in on everything."
"And?"
"And Enzo plans to handle the Corradinis."
“This has nothing to do with the DeLucas.”
“Fuck that. They targeted the Cattaneo-DeLuca Casino and Resort. This has everything to do with us. Enzo already has Eve plotting their demise. And she promised not to involve the Cattaneos here in Italy."
I blinked. "What?"
Terzo nodded. "He's giving her something to do so she'll stop trying to get him to practice cooking with her."
For a second, I wasn't sure I'd heard him correctly.
"He'd rather have her plotting murder than cooking?"
"We'd all rather have her plotting murder than cooking,” Terzo told me. “She’s better at murder.”
A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. The movement immediately reminded me that I'd been shot. Only Enzo DeLuca would trust his fiancée with a murder plot before trusting her in a kitchen.
At least he could plot murder with the woman he loved. That had to feel good. My thoughts drifted to Juliet. To the woman waiting for me on the other side of an ocean. Well, maybe not waiting. But I hoped she was.
Soon, I’d be able to focus my efforts on finding her and on avenging Marcel. For the first time in months, I wasn't worried about Pasquale. He could no longer meddle in my affairs. I wasn't worried about the casino.
Anthony, Davide, Julisa, and the others would keep things running smoothly. And Sienna would be there to help out the translators. The Corradinis would be dealt with by the DeLucas, so I didn’t have to worry about them.
As far as the authorities were concerned, a dead guard was responsible for what happened at Pasquale’s estate. Everything was finally falling into place. I could go home without wondering if I should have stayed and managed things myself.
It was sometimes hard for me to let others handle things. I proved that with the way I’d handled the Pasquale situation. But I was learning that it was okay to let others help, to let others in. It was okay to trust others with important things.
Maybe I should try trusting Juliet and not assuming she was up to no good just because she needed time away to focus on work. Trusting wasn’t easy for me. But I could try. I wanted to try. For her. I looked over at Terzo.
"I'll rest up here. Heal. Get better. Then I'll return home... To the States. It's time for me to leave Italy."
"Don't worry. I'll make sure everything gets shipped to you,” he told me. "And after I handle this Oro shit, I'll come to the States, and you can help me kill the Irish Mafia's Chicago Don. Deal?"
“Deal,” I agreed.
I would definitely help him with the Irish Mafia.
Terzo wasn’t just my ally. He was my friend.
He was my brother. I would always have his back.
But it was time for me to leave one brother behind and return to the two I’d grown up with.
And hopefully to my Juliet. I smiled as I stared out the window.
Juliet With Curves, ready or not, I’m coming for you.
And soon, I'd know if what we had was real or if I’d placed my trust in the wrong cyber-criminal.