Dante could have laughed, but he didn’t. His eyes darkened, promising vengeance to anyone who dared cross him. “I swear nothing will happen to Sienna.”
“For your sake, I hope not.”
I leaned forward. “We need new leads. The trap we laid for the Snake at the charity ball didn’t work.”
“He—or she,” Dante quickly added, “was one step ahead of us.”
“They’ve been one step ahead of us this whole time,” I mutter. “But how?”
“Maybe you have a few rats,” Dante suggested. “We know that the Snake has been poaching from both of our families. Who’s to say that a few didn’t stay in our employment just to give information.”
“But no one else knew about the plan,” I pointed out. “So that doesn’t really add up.”
We all fell silent for a moment, thinking. I couldn’t see how our plans to trap the Snake would have been leaked. We hadn’t even included any of our normal security detail to help us. I’d been the bait, and Dante was the only one who had my back.
I glanced at him sharply. It couldn’t have been him. He’d been helping me this entire time, and we’d even been on the right track. Unless…unless he was purposefully leading me in what might have seemed like the right direction, except it wasn’t.
There wasn’t any way I could prove these sinking suspicions, but I knew that I couldn’t let Dante in any more than I already had. Until this was over, until we caught the Snake and put an end to it all, I couldn’t let Dante get closer. I had to protect myself and my family. It was the only way to keep us alive.
Standing, I laid a hand on the back of the chair for balance. After everything that had happened recently, I was still a bit shaky.
“I’m going to dad’s office to check things over,” I gently told my mom.
“Do you want me to come?” Dante asked, eyeing me warily. I guess he didn’t trust me to make it there on my own without passing out.
“No. Stay with my mom. Is that okay?” I glanced over at her.
She nodded slightly. “It might be nice not to be alone right now.”
Dante took her hand, giving it a soft squeeze. “We can stay as long as you need us.”
With that in order, I headed out the door. My father’s study was just a floor below their own apartments. When I left the elevator, the hall was dark. Switching on the light, I made my way towards his door. My hand paused just over the doorknob. It felt weird coming here while I knew he wouldn’t be behind that desk smoking a cigar or having a glass of whiskey.
Steeling myself, I pushed it open, slipping inside. The study was dark, cast in shadows though the lights from the city fell across the floor. I stood there in the darkness, letting it press against me like an old friend. But it wasn’t. The room itself felt…empty. Devoid of life. As if it knew its owner had passed on already.
Death wasn’t an enigma when it came to our family. My father always expected his death was right around the corner, because it very well could have been. Fights broke out between the various mafia families in the city—with the Russians, the Irish, and the Scaranos. I guess I just never thought it would actually happen so soon.
I wasn’t ready.
Stepping around the desk, I sat in his chair. The leather squeaked beneath me, protesting. Even the chair knew I didn’t belong here. Tentatively, I pulled out the drawer, leafing through the various files he’d left there. A few things had been moved around. I’m assuming that was Mateo.
Dante’s words flit through my head, unbidden. I snapped the door shut. Mateo had been taking care of the businesses and the family while we were hunting down a killer, but once I’d caught the Snake and gotten revenge, this chair would be mine. This office would be mine. I’d known Mateo my entire life, and I knew he would never try to take the seat of a Rosania. Not unless each and every one of us was dead.
Which wouldn’t be too hard to accomplish. With my mother’s brothers dead, and my father’s own siblings killed in Sicily when they’d moved back to our home country, my mother and I were the only Rosanias left.
It made sense why the Snake was going after me, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they went after my mother as well. We would need to put her in a safe place—somewhere the Snake would never find. And only Dante and I would know its location. I ignored the little voice in the back of my mind warning me not to trust Dante. That was a voice from the past. It wasn’t needed now.
But what if it was right? Sal Scarano had come to my father with this plan of marriage to try and either take us down or elevate his own heir to the position of Don over two families. Either way, he would have won something. But now, with my father gone, what was the point? We were weak right now. Without a leader. Sal could very well just toss out his first plan and simply attack us, taking over.
But would Dante allow that to happen? The way he acted towards me…I knew the Scaranos. I knew what rats they could be. Dante had been trained his entire life to take over for his father someday. Sure, he’d been kept separate, but that was the point—his whole life was the mafia. There was nothing else. No one else.
Including me.
As I reached for another drawer, exhaustion swept over me. I hesitated. Whatever is in this desk could wait until tomorrow. I knew I didn’t even have the capacity to really understand what I was reading right now anyway. With too many thoughts in my head, I scooted the chair back, leaving the desk how it was before I’d come in. With my hand on the doorknob, I looked around the room one last time.
It was easy enough to picture it filled with light, Mateo sitting in his usual chair across from my father. They’d be discussing business, maybe the local sports. But now it was dark. Empty. Cold. I shut the door behind me and didn’t look back.
TWO