“They will kill my wife, please, have mercy.” He pisses himself, and all I see is a patch of wet covering his pants and spreading over the floor.
I don’t care about piss or shit. I want answers.
I move into his face and point the gun at Gabriella.
“I will kill you wife if you don’t talk.” I sound just like the ruthless king I am. I’ve never killed a woman. As a rule, I don’t off women. He doesn’t know that, though. What he does know is that I’m crazy enough to make good on my word. “Talk to me, now.”
“In three months, Tobias Rivera will be accepting new members on the Camorra Syndicate.”
Fucking Tobias Rivera. He became the new leader of the Camorra Syndicate weeks after Micah Santa Maria’s death. The two were in competition for the role.
In those few words, Bernardo has told me everything I need to know in regard to why he was in Campania. Anyone applying for new membership to the Camorra Syndicate is going to need a fuck ton of money.
The only resource he could get his fucking hands on to garner him that fuck ton of money is Petróleo, and he knows just how to get that.
“You still want to try to kill me and my baby girl?” I bare my teeth. I don’t even care I just called Mia mine. She fucking is, and I’m sick of tiptoeing around shit.
“I don’t want to.” He shakes his head. “But he does.”
He?
“El Diablo. He was there?”
He nods, slowly. “Yes.”
“So, when you said you didn’t know who he was before, you were lying.”
“No. I didn’t know. Everything was done through Micah. But I know now.”
“Tell me who he is.”
I’m met with moments of silence.
“Bernardo, fucking tell me who he is, now.”
More silence.
I move the gun away from Gabriella and point it back at him. This time, I pull the ring Eric found from my pocket.
I shove it in his face and bare my knuckles so he can see mine, too.
“Bernardo! He wears one of these rings. The men in my family wear this. This is new. He’s working with someone who thinks they deserve to wear one of these. Who is he? Is he related to me?”
“He’ll kill my wife if I talk.” He glances at Gabriella with remorse.
I make the mistake of looking at her, too, and the fucker uses that moment to his advantage. He reaches for something in his pocket. At first, I think it’s a weapon, but it’s not. It’s a pill he pops in his mouth.
“No!” Gabriella screams.
Mere seconds pass, barely, before he flops onto the floor, his hand still stuck in the coffee table, bleeding.
Cristiano rushes over to hold Gabriella back as she tries to reach Bernardo, and Eric moves closer to me.
Desperation gets the better of me, and I drop my gun then grab Bernardo’s shirt, trying to revive him.
Whatever pill he took must have contained some potent poison.
“Bernardo, please tell me who he is!” I shout.
“Eduardo… he knew who El Diablo was. Look through his things for evidence,” he replies in a weak voice, and my body goes numb. What the hell is he saying to me?
“Eduardo knew El Diablo?”
“Yes. He knew, and by the same token, you know him, too.” He gives me a knowing look, which lets me know straightaway El Diablo is definitely a relative.
Bernardo grabs my hand tightly. “He knew about your half-brother, too. That ring… was for him.”
The blood leaves my body at the same time the light of the living recedes from Bernardo’s eyes, and he stops breathing.