Page 100 of City Of Thieves

“I’m okay, Renzo,” I say wearily. “For my one and only murder, I made it count. I don’t feel guilty, only relief.” I glance out of the window at the approaching bridge.Are we close? Will she be okay?“You still haven’t said where we’re going.”

“New Jersey.” He slams on the gas so suddenly, and I have to brace my hand against the dashboard. “North Caldwell,” he adds, a bitter edge to his tone. “Where I grew up.”

“How do you know she’ll be there?”

“Konstantin told me.”

Those three words feel as unnatural as they sound. “He wouldn’t do that. He lies to hurt me… To hurther.”

Lied.

I stare at his profile, the night sky shrouding everything but the determined set of his jaw.

“He didn’t give it away intentionally,” he says, taking a hard left. “He let his ego overtake his instinct by saying sarcastic shit like he was going to ‘pray for my soul’. At first, I thought it was another mind game, but then it triggered a memory… Something my uncle said the morning I showed up drunk at Nero’s funeral.

“What’s that?”

“‘Look at you, hiding in the back of the Lord’s House like some drunken puttana.’” He takes his eyes off the road again to catch my widened stare. “If I’m right, and Konstantin fed my uncle’s addiction to power with false promises in return for his help, then there’s only one place Sal would hide Anastasia.” I lean across the console as Renzo turns down a darkened side street, then pulls up next to the curb. “All Saints Catholic Church.”

The church is beautiful in its quiet reverence. It’s so typical of Konstantin’s sadism to desecrate something like this for his own selfish greed.

She’s in there.

I can feel it.

Renzo’s staring out his window at the church, too, but there’s a different look on his face. It’s like he’s come full circle, and he’s still deciding if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

“The last time I was here, I was a different man,” he muses. “I was hell-bent on revenge.”

“And now?”

A hint of a smirk tugs at his mouth. “Same… But this time, I’m here for what’s waiting on the other side of it.”

I hesitate as I go to open the door, a new fear overwhelming me. “What if she doesn’t recognize me, Renzo? What if she doesn’t want me?”

“Then we can all be strangers learning to love each other at the same time.”

Once again, his words knock me off balance in the most unsuspecting way.

Leaning closer, I press my lips against his. “Maybe one of us has already figured it out,” I say, feeling his hand tighten around my hair as he forces our heads together.

“Give me time, I’m learning.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

“You ready?”

I give a nod. “Ready.”

I’m reaching for the door handle when he snags my wrist and hands me a gun. “Just in case.”

I shake my head and try to give it back to him. “I don’t want to frighten her, Renzo. I don’t want violence to be her first new memory of me.”

“I don’t want her to be afraid either, but I also want you to stick around to help raise her. If Sal sees us coming, he’ll know Konstantin’s dead.” His hand wraps around mine, centering me once more. “He isn’t some petty criminal off the street,dolcezza. He’s a Made Man who knows he’s been exposed as a traitor. He has nothing to lose. He’ll come out shooting, and it won’t just be my head he’s aiming for.”

Climbing out of the car, I watch as he checks the magazine of his own gun, then slams it inside the grip and releases the slide. “Stay behind me,” he orders, as we cross the street. “And when the bullets start flying, keep your head down.”

We stick to the perimeter, keeping close to the old stone walls of the church until we find a side vestibule. Reaching into his pocket for his knife, Renzo jams it into the lock, and the door swings inwards with a groan.