36. Chapter 36
Rory
I stiffened my spine and raised my chin, determined to be the wife Cal wanted me to be. I hadn’t known I had it in me, not until he showed me that I did.
Until his light joined mine and shined on all the darkest corners of my life, exposing secrets I didn’t even know I held.
I wrapped that newly discovered strength around myself, smiling in genuine happiness at Nate and Elliot. When Tomasso entered behind them, my smile shrank, but stayed in place. I knew the role he was expecting me to take in this meeting, and I would wait to see how he reacted to me being present in the first place before I stepped in.
Cal waited until the men were gathered around the small seating area before reaching towards Tomasso for a handshake.
“I’m Callahan Byrne, and this is my wife Aurora Rossi-Byrne.”
“Tomasso Bianchi.” His voice was deep and dark, heavily accented with an Italian flare. I had a vague memory of my mother’s father sounding very similar and even though the man should have scared me, I felt strangely comforted by that similarity. After shaking Cal’s hand he grabbed mine, but instead of shaking mine, he lifted it to his lips. It was quick and not entirely inappropriate, but Cal stiffened next to me. I nudged him with an elbow to the ribs.
“Mrs. Byrne, I’m very pleased to see you away from your stepfather,” he said, straightening and relinquishing my hand. “I hope you told your husband about my attempts to keep you safe. I’m counting on that as my ticket out of this room alive.” He smirked, clearly making a joke out of it, but knowing that it might truly be his only bargaining chip if things go badly for him.
I sat on the couch, the other men following. “I did tell him about that time, yes. And don’t worry, Mr. Bianchi. I have a strict no-killing-in-the-house rule. I like my carpet,” I said with a conspiratorial wink. “They won’t kill you. At least, not in here.”
His eyebrows raised before the furrowed. “And which time are you referring to?”
“On the staircase, after Senator Black’s birthday party. Elio slapped me for embarrassing him at the party, but you stepped in front of me when he tried to do it for a second time.” Cal’s fingers twitched against the back of my neck before they resumed their steady up and down stroking.
“That’s the only time you mentioned?” he asked with a worried expression, his eyes flicking to Cal and back.
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
He looked at the floor between his feet. “I tried to be around as much as I could, making up bullsh-” he cleared his throat. “Um, excuses. I tried to make up excuses to be at the mansion as often as I could. Marco asked me to intervene any time I saw you being escorted into Elio’s study.”
I frown. “But…the first time you interrupted was years ago.” I met Cal’s eyes, my confusion making my cheeks hot and my palms sweat. Had Cal known what was happening in Elio’s study?
Cal, so good at reading my emotions, shook his head. “He’s only been mine for six months, mo solas. I didn’t ask that of him,” Cal whispered in my ear. Nobody said anything, but confused, anxious glances were traded among all of us, though Tommy’s expression leaned more towards confused than anxious.
“Then, why…?” Cal shook his head again, shrugging.
Cal cleared his throat and adjusted in his seat, unconsciously moving his hand to my stomach. Tomasso noticed and met my eyes with a congratulatory look. He seemed to know that right now was not the time to bring it up. “Mr. Bianchi-”
“Tomasso, or Tommy, please. Mr. Bianchi was my grandfather.” His upper lip curled in disgust and I giggled.
“Tommy, then.” Cal took a deep breath, looking at Elliot and Nate, who both nodded at him. Cal’s jaw worked as his fingers stroked circles around my belly button. “Tommy, you’re…for hire, yes?”
Tommy’s head bopped side to side before he nodded. “In a sense, yes.”
“And if I wanted to hire you to take someone out, someone that you might already be employed by, would your loyalty to that person require you to-”
“Depends on the employer, Mr. Byrne,” Tommy answered, apparently bored with Cal’s carefully constructed question. “If you asked me to kill Mrs. Humphries, who hired me to murder her husband last year, I would tell you to get fu-lost.”
“You can say fucked, Tommy. I’m a mob wife, not a lady.” He chuckled and my brashness.
“If you asked me to take out a certain Cosa Nostra Don, I would tell you I would do it for free if you promised me freedom after.”
“Freedom from what?” Cal asked, his head cocked.
“Elio contracted me for a job several years ago. When I tried to leave after the job was done, he…held some sensitive information over my head. I’m not sure where he learned the information, but he knows and it’s something I don’t want anyone else knowing. So I’ve stayed with him all these years, protecting that information and Aurora in the process. At least, when I was able to.” His serious eyes met mine, a hint of sorrow coloring them one shade darker. “I’m sorry for the times I failed.”
I nodded my head in acknowledgement, my throat too tight, my mind too confused to form words.
“I don’t want you to kill Elio. I would like information on him. If what you can give me is sufficient, I will free you from your contract with the Italians.”
“No offense, Mr. Byrne, but you don’t exactly have the authority to do that.”
Cal grinned, a predatory quality making the smile a tad bit feral. “Not yet.” Tommy’s confusion was palpable. “Intrigued?” Cal asked. “I’ll tell you my secret if you tell me yours.”
Tommy adjusted in his seat, rolling his shoulders as he popped his neck. “The grandfather I mentioned earlier? He was an evil man. He raised my sister and I after our parents died.” He stopped and gritted his teeth, surveying our little group as his nostrils flared around an inhale. His nose wrinkled, like he was disgusted by whatever memories I could see flashing behind his eyes. “He was slowly poisoning my sister and I, hoping to gain the inheritances our parents left us when we died. My sister was only three when it started. I was twelve. The poison caused brain damage. When I was sixteen, I figured out what he was doing. I killed him and took everything of value I could find in his house. I used the money to pay off some men I’d met through my grandfather. I was afraid I’d get charged with his murder so they got us to America and set us up with a small apartment in NYC. She’s housed in an assisted living center in upstate New York. Elio found out about her. He held her above my head to keep me in line. The bastard can burn for all I care.”
Cal nodded. “All in due time, Tommy.” Cal rubbed a finger over his lips as he regarded the man, trying to decide if we could trust him.
“Tommy,” I said, in my sweetest voice. I placed a hand on my belly, reminding him of my pregnant state and making a show of being a vulnerable woman. “Has anyone approached you lately, asking you to either poison a patron at Mikhail Ivanov’s Adagio or provide a waiter with a vial?”
Tommy was shaking his head before I’d even finished. My shoulders dropped and I sagged into Cal’s side. “You look disappointed.” His voice was hesitant and questioning.
I nodded, but Cal answered for me. “Rory was poisoned at Adagio. We’re still trying to figure out who was behind it, but we know it wasn’t Elio. He ruled himself out without even meaning to. We have a few other suspects, but we haven’t been able to find anything solid yet.”
Tommy frowned, rubbing his chin with his index finger while he frowned at the wall behind us, clearly lost in thought.
“We thought you might have given it to someone, what with toxins being your specialty and Jimson Weed being-”
Tommy’s eyes flashed to Cal’s. “She was poisoned with Jimsonweed?” He looked at me. “You’re sure?”
I squished myself into Cal’s side, knowing instinctively that something big or important or something was about to happen. I nodded. “We’re sure. The hospital confirmed it through blood testing.”
“Nobody asked me to poison a patron at Adagio, and if anyone had asked me to poison Aurora, I would have killed them instead.” His voice was heavy with inflection and the air thickened with expectation.
Nate and Elliot who had remained quiet the whole time, watching with polite disinterest - though knowing them they were probably chomping at the bit to ask questions. They had stayed only because I had asked them to beforehand, and up until now had remained as distant as their curiosity would allow. They were suddenly much more invested in the conversation.
“But there was someone who recently asked me about rare toxins that were least likely to be suspected and caught before death.”
I swallowed, my body trembling with nerves and anticipation. “Wh-who was it?” I asked in a near-whisper.
Tommy’s dark eyes met mine, his mouth pressed into a flat, grim line.
“Fernanda Marino.”