“You did do it, you asshole.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that. I told her you killed them and she was appalled. I said I had proof and she came to see it.”
“What proof?”
“Never mind that. Whatever you have, I take. You should have backed down when you had the chance.”
“If you’ve hurt her, I will kill you, Giovanni.”
“No need for the threats. She’s headed off into the big wide world to make her fortune. You still have a chance to back down, Nico. I strongly urge you to take it.”
“Fuck you. We’re married and she’s pregnant and I bet you already know that.”
“She is pregnant, that much is true. The only hitch is that you’re not married.”
“The hell we’re not.”
“I paid the priest double what you gave him. He made sure the paperwork wasn’t quite legally binding. Whoops on his part, eh?”
“I’m going to ask this one last time. Where is she?”
“Somewhere you’ll never find her. Seeing as you’re still trying to threaten me, let me return the favor. You back down or I have her throat cut and I’ll capture it all on tape to send you so you can watch her die over and over again. She dies. Your kid dies. That what you want?”
I say nothing. I’m already busy thinking.
“Thought not,” Giovanni continues. Family is everything but power is my thing. Don’t fuck with me, Nico. You will not win. See you at yours for Thanksgiving this year, right?”
I hang up on his laughing voice. I punch numbers into the phone. It doesn’t take long to speak to the people I need to. The wedding paperwork isn’t valid. It takes my lawyer two minutes to confirm that. Matteo has no idea where she is. Nor does Cara.
I think for a moment. He won’t have sent her away. He’ll want to keep her somewhere he can keep an eye on her. Somewhere nearby so he can taunt me with the knowledge. It’s like the Red Dwarf episode we watched together. One character is hiding another one’s cigarettes. Only he puts them right by their room so he can taunt him. This is the same thing.
I just need to work out where he put her and I need to do it fast. Sooner or later, he’ll get bored of keeping her locked up and he’ll kill her just to spite me.
She’s pregnant but we’re not married. That’s a big problem. I need to find her and get married for real. Then I need to tell the commission. Once that’s done, I’m going to kill my brother for what he’s done to her. Family might be everything, like he said. Like my father said. But I’ve got a new family now and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect them.
No matter where she is. I will find her. She’s carrying my child. She’s coming back to me. No matter what it takes I will get her back.
And when I do, I’m never letting her out of my sight again.
Thirty-Three
Aurora
* * *
Ican’t believe I fell for it. I deserve what’s happening to me for being such an enormous fucking idiot.
When Giovanni got in touch with me, I had no idea it would end up with me here, locked up with no way out. The smell of burnt timber is acrid in my nostrils. The floor is covered in ash. Whenever I move around, it kicks up around me like blossom from hell.
I don’t move around much. What’s the point Mostly I sit with my back to one scorched wall, wondering if I’ll ever see Nico again.
I doubt it, not after I left him that note.
I had no choice. You understand that, don’t you? When Giovanni told me he would kill Cara unless I did what he said, I didn’t know what else to do.
If I talked to Nico, Cara would die. If I called the cops, Cara would die. I had no options but to go along with Giovanni’s plan and hope I could get out of this with my life and Cara’s.
He called me while Nico was working yesterday. Gave me Cara’s address. Told me he would know if I called her to warn her. Told me he was going to kill her unless I did exactly what he said.