Page 89

That was okay. I would take what I could get. I knew he carried around the same ledger and laptop all the time. Did he take them with him?
I didn’t see them anywhere, but I spotted something else. I saw on his desk, the files that had been stored at the yacht. The files that had contained pictures of me, Jason, and Luis.
Luis! I thought to myself. I’d forgotten to call him again.
I wondered if Dario would trust me enough to lend me his phone. But did I even need to call Luis now?
Would Dario go after Luis? I told myself to focus on what I had to do and not to worry about Luis for now. It was one innocent call. But hadn’t one innocent call gotten the doctor in trouble?
I prayed that the doctor was okay. And that my presence had stopped Dario from doing something terrible to him. He needed the doctor. He didn’t trust anyone else to take care of his pregnant wife, right?
I sat down at the desk and noticed all the pictures of Jason with Matteo in the file. I studied them. I hadn’t known Jason at all, I realized.
And then I saw one picture with Joseph in it. Joseph was Dario’s driver. Why had he never mentioned that he knew Jason? Of all the people on Dario’s team, Joseph was the only one who spoke to me kindly.
And then I saw Nico in another pic and my blood boiled. He looked like the asshole he was, slimly built with a cocky look on his face that made you want to punch him. He was thinner and less imposing than his brothers, with dark brown hair thatlooked like it needed a wash, and anxious brown eyes that seemed to dart around even in the picture.
In the picture, he was wearing casual clothing, jeans, and a T-shirt with a random college basketball team’s name across it. I hated how he looked so carefree. I hated him.
The familiar rage burned away in my belly, and I placed a hand on it to calm down.
I had accepted that Jason was gone, but I would never accept how violently he’d been taken. Nico had made a choice to hurt Jason. It didn’t matter how Dario tried to twist it. Nico had murdered him in cold blood.
Then I saw another picture, again with Joseph parked in the background, and noticed the van Nico was standing in front of. I recognized it. It had the name of the catering company that had catered my wedding to Dario on it.
Another picture showed Nico getting behind the wheel of the van and waving to someone. That someone was Matteo. And what were they transporting in the van? Money? Drugs? People?
Clearly, Nico was working with Matteo, and…I felt sick, probably with Dario. Why else would Joseph be there?
“Found what you’re looking for?” I heard a voice say behind me. My hair stood up on the back of my neck. It was Dario.
“These pictures…all this time, you acted as if you had nothing to do with your brothers. But yet, here you are with Joseph, unless you’re going to tell me that Joseph is just a guy who likes to hang out with your siblings?”
“Funny,” he said dryly. “It’s time for you to leave.”
“You left this here for me to find? Didn’t you?”
He shrugged, “You wanted answers, and I’m trying to provide them.” I hated it when he spoke in such a cold voice. It was infuriating.
“What are you? Some sort of a robot? I have feelings, Dario. My husband?—”
“Ex-husband?—-”
“—was killed. Don’t you feel any kind of way about that? Do you ever feel anything?” My voice cracked. I was getting upset again. I need to calm down…for the baby.
I took a deep breath.
“Just please, if you even care about me a little, tell me everything. The full story. Please. I want to know. Don’t you get it? If someone you loved suddenly was taken from you, wouldn’t you want to know why?”
I could tell that statement reached him because his shoulders visibly slumped, and his eyes, for a moment were kinder.
“Sit down, I’ll tell you everything I know. And then you can decide what to believe.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Dario
She looked so tiny,as she sat behind my desk, looking at me with those big eyes of hers.