The old bastard is rotting in hell now.
And my life is in my wife’s hands.
“Go over what happened again.” He stares at me, face drawn and angry, like making me say it again will show him something he missed before. But I’ll play along, because despite everything, I do love him and wish things could be different.
I take a long drink. “I couldn’t sleep. I left our room and went looking for some quiet. I walked into the library and found your father on the floor, dead already. That’s when Karah showed up. She must’ve followed me, and she was standing there staring at him, and I guess she freaked. She ran away and kept running. That’s when I woke you up and told you what happened.”
Casso nods to himself. “Gavino says he saw her that night. He says he watched her walk past the tent and toward the far fence.”
“That’s why he followed up with the security guard and checked the footage.”
“She must’ve had one of her fits. She must’ve saw Papa’s body and flipped out.”
“And Rinaldo picked her up on the road. I used your father’s connections to bribe the rental company into giving me the GPS data for the van he rented and I tracked him down in Vegas. That’s when I found them at the wedding chapel, and a good thing, too. He was inches away from forcing her to marry him, and who knows what would’ve happened next.” I gently roll my injured shoulder. It aches like hell, but I’ll live—for a little while longer anyway.
Casso grunts as he stands there rubbing his face with both hands. “Did he really think that would work?”
“Rinaldo was a psychopath and I’m guessing the stress of being on the run completely broke him. In his mind, it was probably a good plan.”
“Do you think he did it?” Casso frowns at me and blinks a few times. “Is it possible that he broke into the house during the party and killed my father?” He steps closer and I can feel the anger radiating off his skin. “I need to know who did it, Nico. Whoever killed my father is out to hurt my family and I can’t have that. Papa was a bastard, but he was still my father.”
I could lie to him. I could tell him that yes, Rinaldo probably did it—it wouldn’t be hard and it wouldn’t matter, since Rinaldo’s already dead. He might even believe me.
But I only shake my head and shrug. “Like I said, I didn’t see who killed him. I wasn’t there, so there’s no way of knowing.”
Casso’s face falls and he begins to pace again.
“I need to shore up the family. Nobody outside of our immediate circle knows Papa is dead yet, but it’ll get out soon. Once it does, I need to make sure everyone is loyal to me. There will be problems, some of the men will push back against my leadership, and some of the other families will try to hit us while we’re supposedly weak, but we can get through this. It’s not the first time a Don’s been killed.” He stops pacing and looks at me for a long moment. “Are you still my brother?”
I nod once and my heart breaks. “I’m loyal to death, Casso.”
And I mean it.
Despite the lies, I mean it.
He’s my brother.
“Good. Go check on your wife. We have a lot of work to do.” I push off the pool table and he puts a hand on my arm before I can leave. “There’s one more thing I keep thinking about. Your shirt was covered in whiskey when you woke me up. You stank like you were doused in the stuff.”
A spike of anxiety runs through my chest. Casso’s staring at me with narrowed eyes like he’s trying to read my mind, studying my face for any hint of deception, and I’m sure, I’m absolutely fucking positive he knows, only he’s not ready to accept it.
I smile at him and shrug.
“Drunk guy spilled on me. The fucking chief of police’s son.”
He squeezes my arm tight. “I hate that asshole.” He releases me and I walk away.
I pause in the hallway, catching my breath, heart racing.
I don’t know how they haven’t figured it out yet, but the night was so chaotic and nobody has had a chance to sit down and really think yet. Everyone was drunk and there are so many gaps—in memory, in stories, in the security tapes—that so far I’ve been able to slip through the cracks. Either that or Casso knows and he doesn’t want to admit it.
But Karah’s back now, and if she decides I need to pay for what I did then I’ll rot and burn for it.
She’s my wife. I care more about her than I’ve ever cared about someone in my life, and if she can’t forgive me for what I did, if she can’t live with it, then I’ll accept the consequences. I saved her and brought her home because I couldn’t bear the idea of her suffering for my revenge.