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I rose to my feet and continued cleansing her of the aftermath of Raffa’s machinations, both of us lost in our own thoughts.

Bianca surrounded by danger freed the monster I was hiding from her. The monster that had always been lurking beneath the surface.

There were many things to discuss. I killed eight men for her. She wondered if I was all talk as a form of manipulation to keepher in line, but now she knew. I let her see the killer inside me. To see the man who wouldn’t hesitate to kill for her.

After she was clean and Bianca’s body had warmed enough, we got out of the shower. I dried her hair and dressed her in my shirt and her pajama bottoms. She was still listless, but she kept repeating that it was not my fault.

I settled her on the bed and it was not long after that she fell into a deep, exhausted sleep. She didn’t stir when a knock sounded on the door.

“Boss.” It was Sticks. “Tommy is downstairs.”

I looked down at a sleeping Bianca. I didn’t want to leave her, but I needed answers.

The bodies had been removed from the house, but the tracks of blood were everywhere.

Tommy was in the kitchen, helping himself to a beer.

Like it was just another day for the Rossi crime family, except today, I killed our own.

When he saw me, he immediately lowered the bottle and pointed in the direction of the driveway. “Rossi soldiers are camped at the mouth of the driveway. Sticks wouldn’t let them through.”

“My orders. Only those who came with me earlier are permitted.”

“They want to show support for you, Sandro,” Tommy said. “I briefed them on what happened. Raffa had no excuse going after Bianca the way he did.” He cast me a furtive gaze. “I heard Bianca tossed Griselda out on her ass.”

“She deserved it.”

“Divina and the other women concurred.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if Griselda tried to make it sound like she was the victim.

“In case Griselda didn’t get the memo, let me make it clear: I don’t want her anywhere near my wife. All club business will now go through you or Divina. I don’t even want her shadow within my sights.”

Tommy was about to say something, but thought better of it when he saw whatever he saw on my face. Yes, I was still furious.

“Now, I want to get back to Bianca, so let’s get to the point,” I said. “Where were you?”

“I couldn’t face you.” He dropped his gaze to the tiles before returning it to mine. “I confronted Griselda to make sure she kept her mouth shut about you drawing a gun on Raffa. I shouldn’t have brought it up at Raffa’s house.”

He waited for me to say something, but I continued glaring at him. “Look, I know if I went along to the meeting, I couldn’t keep it from you and I knew how much you wanted the deal with the Toronto Albanians.”

My mouth curled mockingly. “Well, guess what? That deal didn’t happen and thank fuck because I got back here in time before those assholes violated my wife.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “If I had known Raffa was gonna do that…I swear, Sandro…I had no idea.”

I believed him, but I was too pissed to let it go. “We’ve been friends a long time, Tommy. We’ve had each other’s back. You should have given me a heads-up the second that happened.”

“I know.” He dropped his gaze. “Raffa went ballistic. I should have known he would retaliate.”

“You should have called me immediately when it happened. Showed up at the meet at least and come clean.”

He exhaled heavily. “Gian was there, I heard.”

“Well, Gian had more guts to show up.”

“You’re all about Gian now?”

I stalked toward him and he backed away until he realized how stupid it was. If I really wanted to put the hurt on him, there was nowhere for him to hide.