Chapter 16 #2
“I haven’t betrayed you. I was protecting the family.”
“By stabbing me?”
“Yeah. I knew you’d run to ground. Which meant you’d have help from the family. Not hanging your ass out in the wind and doing it all by yourself. We’re a team, remember? Friends to the fucking end?”
My heart hurt for Mario, and surprisingly, Ringo. They both sounded so…wounded.
Damn my soft heart.
I motioned to Ellie to follow me. I took her almost back to the hallway before turning around.
“I’m sure the photos are locked up. I think I heard Mario this way.” I deliberately talked loud enough they’d hear us approach.
Ellie picked up on my plan quickly. She sing-songed her mocking cadence of my husband’s name.
The door to the study opened, spilling light into the darkened outer room. Mario stood in the span, his body casting a long shadow that stretched to my toes.
“Cara, you should be sleeping.”
“Who can sleep in this place? The testosterone is so thick I broke my last vibrator.” Ellie grinned at Mario flashing her teeth at him in challenge.
Ringo blocked the light to Mario’s right. “You lost your vibrator in Venice.”
Ignoring Ringo’s rumbled barb at my sister, I asked, “May we look at the photos again?”
As the men stepped aside, Ellie shot a quick, “Dickhead,” at Ringo.
“If that’s all you want me for, I’m happy to—”
“Cease!” Mario turned one of the soft chairs toward me indicating I should sit where he’d arranged.
He was the proud, controlling type. Arranging people and events to his liking. I’d missed that somehow. Even Ringo listened to him and obeyed.
I should be careful around him. Yet, I couldn’t resist reaching toward him. I laid my fingers on the bare skin of his wrist. He’d rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt, as if he were keeping the cuffs out of the viscera and filth he’d have to dig through with his bare hands in order to…
Protect the family.
I understood his place now. And mine. “Husband.” I pressed two fingers against his skin so he’d know I was being careful with him, but also touching him. Because I could.
His eyes softened. “Amore mio.”
Then the veil of secrets dropped over his expression, blanking it and making it much colder. “We’ve looked at the photos.”
“Were you looking for a woman?”
“What?” Ringo asked.
“A woman. In the accident footage from the traffic camera.” I pointed to the folders on the desk.
“It was two men,” Mario insisted.
Ellie picked up on my thoughts. “Prove it.”
Mario dug out the single photo showing the passenger of the car Johnny was driving, and the enlarged version.
“Look.”
I tilted the picture sideways. While I wasn’t certain, there was something about the gloves that appeared disproportional to the rest of the figure. “Ellie?”
She snatched it out of my hands and barely looked at it. “It’s her.”
“Her, who?” Ringo leaned too close and Ellie avoided him by sliding to the far end of the couch.
“Johnny’s girlfriend. Or, lover, or maybe just partner in crime.
I saw her at the club he liked to take me to.
I suspected there was something wrong, and followed him…
I also saw her coming from his house. The next m-morning—” She swallowed and continued, “The witch wore my fucking hoodie. That hoodie. It’s my favorite because it’s warm.
I stole it from a football player I dated last fall. I must have left it at Johnny’s.”
Ringo snatched the paper from her hands and glared at it.
“You dated a football player?”
Ellie stuck her tongue out at him instead of replying.
Mario had to motion twice to get him to hand it to him.
“What does this woman look like?” Mario asked quietly.
“Do you have a photo of Dianora?” I interjected, trying to speed this up. I was tired, and if we could prove that she’d been in Chicago when her brother was killed, then… I assumed that would help my husband.
But the expression on both his and Ringo’s face wasn’t happy.
Ringo tapped on his phone and held it in front of Ellie.
She sucked in a breath. “That’s her. The wicked queen.”
Mario’s eyes drifted from staring at the wall to me, then to Ellie. “You met her in Chicago?”
“Practically tossed her ass into next Sunday at the club where she was smearing her tits all over my boyfriend.” She frowned and muttered, “Ex-boyfriend.”
Ringo smiled. But Mario didn’t.
His eyes locked on me. “Allie?”
I didn’t understand what he was asking of me, but whatever it was, he’d exposed a major vulnerability. His body language spoke volumes. I stood, approaching close and gently pulling his face to mine.
His lips brushed my wrist and lingered there. “Protect the home,” he whispered against my skin. His eyes locked with mine.
“Tomorrow, Loppa and Firenze will take you to a boat. You will cross to Sardinia. Understand?”
I searched his eyes. “No. Why are you sending me away?”
“Don Manca was kidnapped as he was leaving my father’s home this evening. He’s being held for ransom.”
“Damn. This is like a movie.” While Ellie marveled at the situation, I worried about his grandfather’s health. Yet there was more than Mario was telling me.
“How much?” I asked. I’d pay it with my share of the inheritance.
Mario’s eyes were black in the low light. “Not money, me.”
“No,” I told him.