Chapter 33
Clara
Quiet as a mouse, I peeked my head out of the bedroom door. There was a commotion at the other end of the apartment, and it felt far, far away.
Sarah and Chaya were here. Two of the guys from Jael’s crew had brought them in, and the men were talking with Santini while everyone else stood there listening.
From this end of the apartment, I couldn’t hear their words, but I could make out their dejected tones.
I lifted my phone, reading the text for the twentieth time, proving to myself once again that I hadn’t made this up.
Stephano: We’re on our way up.
Even if I hadn’t heard him knocking, I would have known when he got here. The three men pulled their guns at the same time before one of them led the way to the entry.
Tears burned in my eyes when Stephano and my mother walked through the door. It took everything in me to keep from running toward them the way my brain insisted I should.
Follow the plan. Don’t mess this up.
I left the bedroom, placing one foot in front of the other until I made it to their sides.
“Clara!” My mother hugged me for the second time that day, making it two more times than the number she’d given me the past few years. “I’m so glad you’re safe!”
At Stephano’s harsh glare, I forced myself to hug her back. “You, too.”
Then Daphne Vinci did what Daphne Vinci did best: She turned away from me and acted like I wasn’t there.
While she talked to Sarah and Eliza, I took a step backward, then one closer to my brother.
He ignored me like he always did, right up until the crowd shifted toward the living room.
Then he grabbed me by the back of the neck and dragged me toward the door.
He shut it quietly behind him after shoving me out. He raised a finger to his lips, telling me not to speak. Then he pushed me toward the elevator, refusing to talk to me even when we were locked inside.
We were in his car before he spoke, our seat belts buckled, and the engine turned on. “Hold on tight, this might get a bit wild.”
He wasn’t lying. Stephano sped through city streets, zipping in and out of traffic and putting space between us and Jet’s apartment. It wasn’t until we were at least a mile away that he finally slowed down. When he stopped at a traffic light, he turned his dark gaze my way.
“What?” I asked, suddenly worried I hadn’t gotten all the blood when I’d scrubbed my face and hands.
“You’ve caused quite the stir today.”
“We’ll, I’m not sorry about it.”
A smirk rode his lips. “Didn’t say you needed to be.” Stephano turned his attention to the street in front of him, quiet for a moment before he accelerated through the green light.
“Go ahead,” I told him, crossing my arms over my stomach. “Say it.”
“Say what?”
“Whatever it is you’re thinking. That I shouldn’t be with Zee. That he’s too old for me. That I’m a crazy fucking loon for falling in love with him.”
“Now, why would I say that?”
Biting my tongue, I looked away. I refused to get in a fight with him over this. My relationship with Zeno wasn’t the reason we were here.
But Stephano didn’t get the message.
“Besides the fact that thinking about my baby sister fucking a man twice her age is not something I care to dwell on, I don’t see why you care what I think.
” He rubbed a hand across his jaw. “It’s not exactly like we’re close.
Why does what I think about it matter if you love the guy?
It’s not like Zeno’s going to hurt you.”
“What do you mean?”
Stephano rolled his eyes, then shook his head. “You’d think anyone with a working brain would have realized he’s had the hots for you for years. Jesus, Clara. You really know how to fuck shit up. Only you could get away with something like this.”
“Something like what? I didn’t do anything!”
“I didn’t do anything,” he muttered under his breath. “You’ve got it so our parents barely pay attention to a damn thing you do. You could commit murder underneath their noses, and they wouldn’t bat an eye.”
“You think I want that?” I hugged myself tighter. “You think I want to be ignored? You think I want all their attention on you? I didn’t ask for them to bring me into this world, but they did. The least they could do is pretend to care.”
“Oh, I know.” He pulled his car to the curb, but he didn’t move to turn it off.
He stared out the front window, eyes on the dying sun.
“Zee’s the best thing that could have happened to you.
I’d hate to think about where you’d be if it weren’t for him.
And you love each other. That much is fucking obvious. You’re lucky you have that.”
“Lucky?”
“Not everyone gets to be with the person they love.”
My chest clenched tight, and I squeezed my eyes closed. Paulo and Nadia didn’t get to be together. After thirty-some years, they finally get a second chance, only for Paulo to get shot.
I was lucky I had Zee.
If only I was lucky enough for him to believe me.
“What are you doing?” Stephano was tapping at his phone screen. I tried to steal it from his grip, sure he was going to ruin this whole thing by calling someone to take me away. “You promised you’d help me!”
“What do you think I’m doing, brat?” He snagged both my hands in his, holding them away from himself as he finished tapping on his phone. “You really think it’s Cosimo behind all this?”
I huffed out a breath. “If you don’t believe me, why bother helping me sneak out?”
“Didn’t say I don’t believe you.” He glared over at me. “I want to know why you think it. What proof do you have?”
I hated myself in that moment. Hated that I hadn’t kept my chart from getting ruined. I fumbled around, trying to remember all the things I’d laid out.
“I overheard Cosimo talking to Zee,” I said, eyes zipping back and forth as if I was reading the notes I’d scribbled on the back of that paper.
“He kept pushing him, asking if everything was okay, if he needed anything. He wanted to set him up with someone from Italy, make him get married and settle down.”
“Cosimo tried to take Zee away from you, so you thought you’d blame him?”
Scowling, I said, “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
Stephano released my hands, holding his up between us. “Go on. Tell me what else.”
“Giada Provenza said the same thing to Mom—”
“She wants to set her up?”
I glared at the stupid man. “She wanted to know if Mom needed anything. She said it the same way Cosimo asked Zee. And Sarah said Giada stopped by when Chaya was sick and kept asking the same thing. And then I saw Raoul talking to Dad.”
“Wait. Who are these people?”
My eyes burned and I scratched at my throat. “Raoul is Cosimo’s only son, and Giada is his wife.”
“Cosimo has three sons.”
“No, he doesn’t.” I turned in my seat to face my brother. “I made Zee make me a family tree of the Syndicate. Ida and Paulo’s dad, Benito, had an affair. Both Piero and Mario Provenza are actually Benito’s sons. But Cosimo doesn’t know. Or at least, he didn’t.”
Stephano narrowed his eyes at me, and I raced to go on.
“I think Cosimo found out. I think he’s a threat to not only his own family, but to the entire Syndicate. And I don’t think this is the first time.”
“Explain.”
“Benito was murdered with three of his lieutenants by some guys who didn’t like the D’Angelos running the neighborhood.
They were kids, Stephano. Tell me how a bunch of teens and twenty-year-olds can take out the head of the D’Angelo Syndicate and his top three lieutenants without help.
But it wasn’t just them. They murdered Benito’s wife, who was Ida’s sister.
They murdered our grandfather, and Zeno’s father, and many other Syndicate men and women.
And if Paulo would have been home a half hour earlier than he was, they would have murdered him too. ”
“And then what?”
“Then Cosimo would have taken over the Syndicate. Look”—I shifted in my chair—“after Paulo and his friends took out the guys who were supposedly behind all of this, they had a meeting with the survivors. Zeno was there, and he said if it weren’t for his mother standing up and saying Paulo was the rightful heir, Cosimo and a couple of the other lieutenants would have put Cosimo in charge.
“And have you noticed the way Cosimo’s acted the past couple years?
He’s always hated Fahrid Amhad, Eli David, and Santiago Medina.
Three of Paulo’s lieutenants who had no connections with Cosimo’s family.
Farhid and Santiago are dead, and Eli’s been sent away to Israel.
Cosimo was always pushing for Raoul and Piero to become lieutenants, but Paulo chose Arik and Jet instead.
And don’t even get me started on how much he hates Queenie and Jael.
My God, the scowls he throws their way any time they’re in the room! ”
“Clara—”
“I think Cosimo wanted the power of the Syndicate to lie within his family. He tried to take it by getting rid of Benito, and after not getting his sons into positions of power, instead watching these other men take over—”
“Clara—”
“—he decided he’d had enough. Top that off with Nadia and Mic coming home in direct opposition to his orders, I think he finally broke.”
“Fucking hell, brat! Would you shut the fuck up?” Stephano’s loud voice shocked me out of my rant. My eyes grew wide as my throat closed up. “You had me at Raoul and Giada! When the hell did you have time to put this all together?”
“Between classes,” I whispered. “It really wasn’t that hard.”
“Wasn’t really hard,” he muttered. “Did you tell anyone any of this?”
“I tried,” I said, shaking my head. “You saw how that went. Queenie ended up in a hospital bed and the rest of us got kicked out.”
Stephano ran a hand down his face and tilted his head back against his seat. “Fuck.” When he finally turned to look at me, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
But it certainly wasn’t for him to hold up his phone so I could see his screen.
“What is that?”
Stephano smirked. “Dad’s location.”
Now it was my turn to say, “Explain.”
“Years ago, I set up an app that allows me to see where our parents’ phones are at any given minute.
Helped me know where they were so I could decide where I wanted to go.
I still use it, and right now, it’s telling me Dad’s phone is inside this little warehouse owned by none other than Cosimo Provenza. ”
“How do you know it’s Cosimo’s?”
His smirk fell, and he pressed his lips flat before turning his attention back to the city street. “Let’s just say, I’ve been there once or twice.”
“So what are you going to do?”
He lifted one eyebrow, then dragged his gaze down my body like he was sizing me up. “We are going to go get him back.”