Page 121 of Broken Mafia Bride

I go through the study again, even going as far as to poke at the flower pots positioned near the window. Nothing.

“Damn it!” I bite out under my breath, sliding to the floor in frustration. “Where are you hiding your secrets, old man?”

Just then, my phone buzzes. I pull it out of my pocket and swipe to answer. “I’m kinda in the middle of something,” I tell Raffaele.

“There’s something you need to know,” he says, voice low and heavy.

I open my mouth to ask what?—

But something catches my eye at the base of Lucio’s desk.

I freeze. Crawl forward. Fingers shaking as I pick it up.

The moment I see it, everything inside me splinters.

Oh god.

“Giulia? Are you there?” Raffaele’s voice cuts through the static in my head.

A single tear slips down my cheek, but my voice comes out calm.

“Yeah,” I whisper. “I’m here.”

38

RAFFAELE

Afew 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.”