Page 44 of Broken Mafia Bride (His to Break #2)

RAFFAELE

A few hours earlier

I watch Giulia walking away, my heart pounding in my chest. I can’t help but be worried about her.

I know that she’s strong and capable of handling herself, but this thing is much bigger than both of us.

We’re up against a shadow, and there’s no handbook about fighting something you don’t understand.

“Two calls in one day, I’m touched,” Matteo says as soon as he picks up, prompting me to huff a quiet laugh.

“This is important.”

“As if I thought you were calling to tell me about what you had for lunch,” he drawls.

I suddenly wonder how nobody has broken Matteo’s nose so far, but then I remember that it’s almost impossible to land a punch on the annoying bastard. And his facial bones are as dense as rocks.

Ignoring his sarcasm, I barrel on. “I want you to look into Lucio Sanna.”

“Oof, trouble in paradise? Won’t let you marry his granddaughter?” he teases.

If only that were the problem. At this point, I wish Lucio’s only offense was not letting me be with Giulia, rather than him being a murderous, evil piece of shit.

I have no idea how Giulia must be feeling, but as for me, I’m burning to find the old bastard and put my fist through his conniving face.

“We think he has Noemi.”

That shuts him up pretty fast. When he speaks again, his voice is hard as granite. “What do you mean, you think he has Noemi? She’s his great-granddaughter. Why would he have her?”

“Re Ombra isn’t who we think he is. Not at all,” I tell him.

“I’m starting to think he’s the mastermind behind every fucked-up thing that’s been happening on this island.

I don’t know what his angle is, but Giulia found a photo album with hundreds of pictures of her and the kid. He’s been stalking them for years.”

“Plus, the cover-up shtick involving that Martina woman,” he adds.

“The reason we have been running into so many dead ends is that we’ve been searching in the wrong places.

We’ve been going about this from the wrong angle,” I explain.

“Instead of looking into where Noemi might be, look into who Lucio really is, what he’s been up to on this island this whole time, and where he’s most likely to hide something. ”

“Roger that,” he says. “I should have something for you soon.”

My stomach tightens with a bad feeling. “Treat it as urgent, Matteo. Something tells me we’ve run out of time… and luck.”

“What the fuck is happening on that island?”

“That’s what I want to find out too.” I hang up.

The truth is that a part of me became suspicious of Lucio a while back. With the endless power he seems to wield in Sardegna, it should have taken him a few days at most to find Noemi, or at least get some useful information. It just felt like he wasn’t putting as much effort into finding her.

After Matteo told me about Martina being on the plane and the cover-up around her movement, a part of me immediately suspected him, but I told myself that there was no reason for him to be involved in this. Now, I see that I was wrong.

Which brings me to another issue.

Who else knows about it? Who else is involved? I want to believe that Pepe would never go along with kidnapping a child, but I also know that the mafia world isn’t all black and white. Morals lose against loyalty and are weighed against profit.

I have to speak to him.

Pepe’s house is just across the road from Casa Bianca. I have no doubt that Re Ombra gave him the property. The question is, is he trying to keep Pepe close because he genuinely likes having family around, or is it as part of his sick plan to control everything and everyone around him?

Caterina is just leaving the house when I arrive, and she lets me in with a smile.

“Raffaele!” She smiles happily. “You know, we haven’t really gotten a chance to talk since you came to Sardegna.”

I blink at her, wondering what we have to talk about.

Her smile only widens, and she lets out a breezy laugh. “Don’t look so frightened. I like Giulia a lot; she’s like the sister I never had. And I know you feel for her.”

I don’t hesitate. “I love her.”

She nods knowingly. “I know. And I know you’re good for her. When she came to Sardegna, she was a mess. I thought it was solely because of her daughter, but I now realize a lot of it had to do with you too. She’s been a lot lighter; her smiles aren’t as stiff.”

Then she steps forward and clutches my shoulder tightly, voice dropping. “When you find your daughter, take them both and get out of here.”

A shiver works its way through me, and I freeze. “Why? What’s going on?”

Caterina steps away, her smile back in place. “Pepe is in the garage, tinkering with one of his cars.”

Without another word, she walks past me, her warning ringing in my head. Rolling my shoulders to relieve the tension, I go around the side of the house, following the sound of a revving engine.

My cousin is halfway under a car, whistling an unfamiliar tune. Stepping forward, I kick his feet to call his attention. He stills, and a second later, he’s sliding out from under the car, a gun pointed at me.

“It’s me, asshole.” I raise an eyebrow, and he drops the weapon.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, rising to his feet and trying to dust off his cargo pants.

“We need to talk,” I tell him, dragging a folding chair out of the corner and settling into it.

He leans against the side of the car and crosses his arms over his chest. “Then talk.”

“How long have you worked for Lucio?” I ask carefully.

He looks momentarily surprised by the question. “Twenty years. But before then, I was the eyes on the ground for his right-hand man. I joined Lucio’s ranks after his second died in a warehouse explosion. Why?”

I shrug, acting nonchalant. “Just curious.”

“Hmmm.” He looks suspicious now, and I rethink my strategy. I need to get him to talk without revealing too much of what I know or my suspicions. I don’t know how loyal he is to Lucio, and if I don’t play my cards right and this gets back to him, it’s game over for us.

“You’re loyal to him.” It’s a statement more than a question. “How well do you know him? He’s Giulia’s grandfather, and I just think there’s a lot we don’t know about him.”

“I know about as much as you,” he replies evasively. “Believe it or not, we don’t sit around gossiping about our personal lives. Giulia will have more luck than me there.”

“She’s idolized him, and I’m just afraid that she’s eventually going to find out that he’s not the perfect man she’s built him up as in her head,” I tell him. “It’ll break her heart.”

He hesitates, and for a second, I think he’s going to tell me what I want to know. “People don’t always turn out to be what we think they are.”

Damn this bastard and his cryptic replies. Frustration causes my teeth to clench so hard that I almost chip them. I’m going about this the wrong way. Instead of going around the corners, I need to force him into a corner.

I watch him surreptitiously, trying to read him. “You’re over fifteen years older than Caterina, aren’t you?”

He stiffens. “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m just wondering how that worked,” I point out. “She was, what, fifteen when you were thirty-one?”

“I didn’t even look at her until she was eighteen,” he bites out.

But there’s something in his eyes that tells me that’s not entirely true. It’s none of my fucking business, and Caterina is obviously in love with him—and he with her—but I need information. And for that, I need to push him to the wall and let him slip.

“Really?” I smirk. “No forbidden kisses in the closet that made you go for confession?”

In the blink of an eye, he’s on me, grabbing the front of my shirt and slamming me into the wall, eyes blazing with fury.

“I’m not some sick pedo! I respected her—I still do.

I never wanted to touch her. I never took advantage of her.

I don’t care what you or fucking Lucio say. I loved Cat. I love her.”

The pieces click together. “I know you do.”

Pepe’s eyes narrow. “I don’t understand.”

I brush his hands off me and push him off. “We think Lucio has Noemi.”

He sighs. “I know.”

Fury rushes through me, and I step up to him, my fist flying before I can stop it. It connects with the side of his jaw, and he staggers backward, blood streaming down his chin.

“How long have you known, you bastard?”

“I’ve been trying to find her,” he says instead.

“I was going to find her and hand her to Giulia with a plane ticket out of here. But I couldn’t say anything to either of you.

Lucio has a sword to my throat, Raff. If I step out of line, he’ll have me taken away for preying on Caterina.

I love her, okay? Say whatever you want, call me selfish, but she’s my priority. I’m sorry.”

My fury dies down, because I’d have done the same thing if I were in his shoes.

I drag my hands through my hair, then fist the roots. “Damn it. Tell me everything you know.”

“I don’t know much more than you.”

A snort escapes my mouth. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”

“I don’t care if you believe me or not, Re Ombra plays his cards pretty close to his chest. He doesn’t fill me in on every move he makes.”

“Bullshit,” I snarl. “I don’t believe that you don’t know a thing or two about what’s going on in this island. There’s no way you think I’m stupid enough to believe that Lucio Sanna is running around kidnapping little girls and slitting women’s wrists all by himself.”

His jaw clenches. “Why should I trust you?”

“I don’t care about what’s going on in Sardegna or Casa Bianca.

I don’t care about the past. I only care about finding Noemi and getting the hell out of here before this place swallows us up.

” I step closer until our chests are an inch apart.

“We might not be on the same side, cousin, but I know for a fact that you’re sure as hell not on Lucio’s side. Help me. Help us, please.”

After a long moment of silence, he finally sighs. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything you can tell me.”

“As I said, I’ve been trying to find Noemi. I don’t know where Lucio is keeping her,” he admits. “He has several warehouses, safehouses, and apartments on the island. I’ve only been able to search a few of them without raising suspicion. I’ll let you know which ones I haven’t checked yet.”

“I already have someone narrowing down Lucio’s properties for possible locations he could be keeping her,” I inform him.

He nods. “Working together, we should be able to locate her faster.”

“Thank you,” I tell him earnestly, clapping him on the shoulders.

“Caterina likes you two.” His words halt me. “She’s rooting for you two. So for her sake, you two better be careful and not die.”

“Sure thing,” I say. I shake my head with a low chuckle and move to continue on my way.

“One more thing,” he says.

I stop walking and glance back at him over my shoulder.

“You said the past didn’t matter.”

He lets it hang.

“You might change your mind after hearing what really happened to Giulia’s mother and sister.”