Page 66 of Claimed By the Enemy

Riccardo sets down his glass with deliberate care. “Tell me, nephew, what do you really know about her family and what they’re truly capable of?”

Something in his tone makes the hair on my neck stand up. I grab him by the lapels of his robe before I realize I’m moving. “Where is she?”

“Dom.” Riccardo’s voice is calm despite my hands on his clothes. “Let go of me.”

“Not until you tell me what you know.”

“I know that you’re letting emotion cloud your judgment. Just like your father did.”

“My father?”

“Antonio was a good man. Too good. He trusted people he should have been watching. Made alliances with families he should have been investigating.”

“What families?”

“Let go of me, and we’ll discuss it properly.”

I release him, stepping back but keeping my fists clenched. “Talk.”

“Your father was investigating irregularities in his business partnerships shortly before he died. Discrepancies in accounts, missing inventory, money that should have been there but wasn’t.”

“Someone was stealing from him?”

“Someone was using his legitimate business to hide illegitimate activities. Someone he trusted completely.”

“Who?”

“I think you already know.”

Marco Bellini. Sophie’s father.

“But Marco’s dead too.”

“Yes. Which raises interesting questions about who might be continuing his work.”

“You think Uncle Enzo-”

“I think you should be very careful about who you trust, Domenico. And I think finding your wife might not be the blessing you’re hoping for.”

***

Giuseppe Caruso’s brownstone looks exactly the same as it did the day I was attacked outside it. Same elegant facade and sense of secrets hidden behind expensive architecture.

This time, I don’t wait to be invited in.

“Domenico.” Caruso appears in his hallway as I push past his housekeeper. “Back so soon?”

“You’re going to tell me the truth. All of it. Right now.”

“About what?”

“About what really happened the night my parents died. About who killed them and why.”

Caruso dismisses his housekeeper with a gesture, then leads me to his study. “This is about your missing wife.”

“How did you-”

“Word travels fast in our circles. Sophie Bellini disappeared yesterday from a downtown motel. Very dramatic.”