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Maybe you don’t really know Dario at all. Maybe he’s not the villain you think he is.
I felt conflicted at that thought. Was I about to make a mistake?
It was hard trying to figure out how to get at the truth I wanted, but I’d finally figured out step one to accomplish my mission. He’d made the mistake of trusting me with his phone again.
As soon as I got a moment alone, I called Luis and asked for a list of all known associates of the Di Ceccos. He had asked why, and I couldn’t come up with a good enough reason.
He sighed and said, “Just be careful.”
He promised to call me back in ten minutes, and when he did, he provided me with more information than I thought I needed.
It was surprisingly easy to get Dario to do as I asked. I’d expected some pushback when I requested to host something fun, like dinner or a gala. Instead, he jumped at the idea.
Perhaps, he was getting tired of being around me for twenty-four hours a day.
A week later, I was at a fancy hotel in the middle of the city, waiting to welcome our guests. Under different circumstances, I would have been afraid of saying the wrong thing and embarrassing myself, or worse.
I would have spent the evening hiding from everyone and hovering around the buffet table, but tonight was different. I’d memorized names and faces. Surely, some of them would attend the dinner, and I could get at the information I needed.
The alcohol at the party would get people talking, and Dario’s tight reins would start to loosen. All it took was one little crack in a dam to make it all fall apart.
Today, I planned to make a huge crack.
Two hours later, I was exhausted. Being pregnant and socializing was unexpectedly difficult. I found it hard to focus on what anyone was saying, and the need to go to the bathroom a million times cutting several important conversations short.
After my first lie, the others just rolled off my tongue. I guess I was getting used to being a liar.
It came second nature to me, apparently. That wasn’t anything to be proud of, but for now, it would serve its purpose.
I found out that there were lots of crooked cops earning their cut from Matteo and Nico’s coffers. Not a single person indicated that Dario had any cops on his payroll.
I found out that Dario didn’t sell drugs, and that he didn’t have anything to do with the jobs that Matteo and Nico ran.
I was surprised. I had expected that Dario would be just as unscrupulous as his brothers. Had he been telling the truth when he said he didn’t really know anything about Jason or his dealings with Nico and Matteo?
The night after the dinner, Ivan came up to me and requested that I pack a small bag because it was time to relocate again.
I frowned. “Relocate?”
“Yes, I’m afraid there’s been an attempt on Dario’s life.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Dario
My chest burned,and it was difficult to breathe.
More than anything, I was pissed because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get the smell of smoke out of my favorite suit.
First, my island house, and now Donny’s new restaurant. I was annoyed.
Dodging a Molotov cocktail during the brief meeting I scheduled before Mya’s dinner party was a very unexpected event. It had been an amateur move, and an unwelcome surprise.
I had heard the motorcycles approaching, but it wasn’t until I saw them stopping dangerously close to the windows that lined one side of the restaurant that I looked up.
I was just in time to see the drivers of two of the motorcycles toss their bottles at the window. The first bottle broke the glass, rolled within a foot of me, and then straight into curtains.
It promptly set that part of the restaurant ablaze. The second bottle veered completely off course, landing far short and setting the shrubs in front of the restaurant on fire.