Page 35

35

RAFFAELE

W aiting for Pascal’s precise instructions is killing me. He’s letting me dangle, likely to make me suffer, and it’s working, but I’m not one to sit around and do nothing while someone holds a gun to my head.

The woman I love is in danger and I’m powerless to help her immediately. After the explosion that nearly killed me and Vito, I have to be more careful. Pascal likely expects me to sit around and wait for the phone call telling me where to go and when to be there, but I won’t.

There’s still a problem I can actively work to solve and that’s the Irish.

“Are you sure about this?” Vito looks at me over the edge of his sunglasses. “If we do this, there’s a small chance Adelina could be dragged into it.”

“Doubtful. If we do this right, then only those who need to know will know about Pascal’s involvement. Everyone else?” I sigh and drag the last file onto the USB stick. “Everyone else will see what we want them to see.”

“Do you have any regrets?” Vito asks as I remove the drive and place it on his palm.

“About that?”

He shrugs and pockets the drive. “Anything. Everything.”

“No. I—” Hesitation makes me pause. “I will admit if I hadn’t been so enamored by Adelina, maybe I would have seen something sooner. But it’s a weird coin flip, don’t you think? Without her, Pascal and the Irish wouldn’t have gotten so close to me. And without her, I wouldn’t be who I am now.”

“I like this new you,” Vito says. “I mean, I don’t like the thought of your walking into a trap all by yourself, but seeing you happier is good.”

“Remember what I said about finding someone to settle down with?” I smirk and grip his shoulder. “You deserve a life too. You’re more than just my underboss.”

“In this line of work? How do I even meet someone?”

“Fuck knows. Have you tried walking into a hidden scheme and falling for the daughter of the mastermind?”

“I’ll give it a try.” Vito smirks, then his smile fades. “Promise me you will be careful.”

“I can’t promise that,” I say. “But if the worst happens, then I know I died doing everything I could to save her.”

“That hardly comforts me.”

“Just focus on this.” I glance at his pocket. “I need you to gouge the heart of those Irish fucks. Make them regret even looking in our direction.”

“I will.” Vito nods and tightens his jaw. “We’ll see each other next week, right?”

“A hundred percent.”

My heart rests heavily in my chest as I stand at the window and watch Vito leave. He has all the information about the Irish and their toxic dumping, scraped together with everything we could squeeze out of the doctor and that slimy politician. It’s a lot, and it’s messy, but any reporter worth their salt will orgasm at how fucking juicy this story is.

Going public is the only way to find justice, not just for people who have lost loved ones, but for anyone else who might even be remotely sick from the water.

Once I get Adelina back, we’re moving.

Pascal calls an hour later, barks out an address at me, and then hangs up.

Showtime.

The warehouse Pascal orders me to rests against the river. Several cars litter the parking lot without a man in sight. I arrive alone as he requested and send a single text to Vito wishing him luck. Then I head inside.

The air stinks of dust and lingering chemical preservatives from when this was part of a larger fishing operation. It’s abandoned now, and my footsteps on the stone floor echo like the distant beats of a drum.

Maybe I’ll die here.

Maybe Pascal will force me to live out the end of my days in some dark, dank cell while he crushes everything he built. Not that it matters.

All I need is to get close to him. Once I get my hands around his neck, I’ll force Adelina’s location out of him and then I will kill him.

I walk deeper into the warehouse, fighting to hide my limp from the wound on my thigh, and just past an overturned stack of shelving, I find Pascal.

He stands alone underneath a light that darkens the shadows around him, visibly unarmed. I’m not stupid enough to believe that he is, or that he’s here alone, but I’ll play his little game for a moment.

“Pascal.” Announcing myself feels moot when my footsteps act like a countdown to my demise, but I’m surprisingly calm. Finally facing him after all this time and everything he’s done, I anticipated being overcome with rage, but my heart maintains a steady beat for some reason.

For now.

“Raffaele.” He smirks coldly at me. “You’re late.”

“Hardly.” I don’t even look at my watch. “You must be losing the knack for time in your old age.”

“I’ll still outlive you.” His eyes narrow. “Did you come alone?”

“Is it overconfidence or stupidity that makes you ask that?” I stop a few feet away from him, scanning as much of the dark surroundings as I can in my peripheral. Making out anything in the shadows is tough, so I remain on high alert.

Pascal’s eyes narrow to slits. “Always so cocky,” he snaps at me. “An arrogant waste of space right until the end.”

“Is that how you will justify this?” I ask casually. “You can’t understand why I’m standing here, willing to do anything I need to in order to get my wife back.”

“Oh, I understand it.” He snorts. “You’re blinded.”

“No. I’m focused. Not that you would ever understand, given how you were more than happy to let your actions poison your own wife. Did you tell Adelina? Did you tell her how you killed her mother?”

Pascal shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “She understood.”

“Did she?” Irritation begins to warm my blood. “Did she understand how her mother’s cancer treatment was hindered by the toxic shit she kept drinking? Did she understand how her father’s greed has led to hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths from poisoning, all written off as drugs because he was paying the right people? How her father isn’t some grand Italian Mafia king, but an Irish rat in disguise?”

“How dare you,” Pascal growls. “How dare you insult my heritage!”

“Your heritage shriveled up the second you took a dime from those Irish scumbags. It died the second you put the life of your loved ones, and every family you were supposed to protect, at risk for some quick cash.”

“Coming from the butcher who killed his way to the top?” Pascal scoffs, tossing his head. “You have no right to judge me, you coward.”

“Yes, I killed a lot of people. I wiped entire families off the map. But I killed men who stole from me. I killed families involved in the slave trade. I killed those who made their money off the backs of exploiting young boys and girls. And I killed those who betrayed me after I showed them kindness and brought them up with me. But you know what I never did?” I take a step forward. “I never stuck my thumb in slave auctions and nearly let someone I love be assaulted and sold off.”

“She never would have been sold!” Pascal yells suddenly. “It was just a way to lure you there so we could kill you!”

“You traumatized your own daughter, and for what? Two pathetic assassins who were so focused on getting their dicks wet that they forgot their main mission? Because if that’s who you hired to kill me? I’m fucking offended.”

“So offended that you fled the country,” Pascal sneers. “The great Raffaele turning tail and running.”

“Not that you’d understand, but I had business and people to take care of. I do that, you see. Unlike you. You poison the people. You murdered Carlos for getting too close, putting Adelina through even more hell.”

“I did what I had to do.” Pascal spits at my feet. “I did everything I could to stop my family name from falling into obscurity. And once you’re in the ground, I’ll be taking your place.” Pascal pulls his pistol from his belt as several of his men melt from the shadows.

“I’m not the villain here. I saved my family name. Sure, I had to make sacrifices, but we run in a cutthroat world where weakness gets you killed. I made sacrifices and in time, Adelina will understand.”

“Will she? You killed her mother. You killed her fiancé. And now you want to kill her husband,” I sneer. “You’re killing the only people who ever loved her because you certainly don’t.”

Pascal pauses his steps. “You love my daughter?”

I want her to be the first person to know it and hear these words, but I’m no longer confident I’ll get to tell her. “I do. I love her more than life itself. I love her like the flowers love the sun and the ocean loves the moon. I love her like she’s the very nectar of life because to me, she is. She is my life, and I’m going to kill you, Pascal. For hurting her. For stealing her happiness. For even daring to take her away from me.”

“She’ll only remember you as the monster she was forced to marry,” he growls, and then he smirks coldly. “Tell me, if you’re so infatuated with her, I have one question.”

My muscles grow tense as I take in Pascal and the handful of guards approaching. “Ask it.”

“Are you willing to die for the woman you love?”

“No,” I say, catching Pascal by surprise. “I’m not, actually.”