Page 37

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

L ate, in bed, I’m in the master berth. One of the few moments before anyone has gone up on watch and I’m in here with all of my three men.

Alessio says, “Level with me. Did you kill my father?”

The corner of Bruno’s mouth twists. “We have to know the truth now, Lucia.”

“You’re right.” I tell them. “I’ve been putting it of too long and I let it come close to tearing us apart. And that’s on me. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Carlo says. “you do what you do for your reasons, and you’re you.”

“We love you for that.” Bruno chimes in. “But we need to know.”

I notice Alessio, quiet like he’s in a corner.

So I take a breath and start. “You all remember that the Don tried to have me framed up for the raid on Adrianna Bagniola’s party, right?”

“The party was the first night you were here, right? The party for her engagement to Donatello Romano.”

“That’s right.”

Alessio gives me a sideways look as he says, “So you really had nothing at all to do with the raid. Not you, not your family. Nobody.”

“Alessio, the Don did it himself.”

“What?” he jumps up. “That’s ridiculous.”

I tell him, “The Don hired the goons, he planned it. It was all him. He set that raid up.”

Bruno says, “Why?”

“Because he was having a thing with Adrianna.”

Alessio shakes his head. “You’re shitting me.”

I tell him, “I don’t know how much of a thing it was for her, or even how consensual it was, but it was a thing and he wanted to stop her getting married. He wanted her all to himself.”

Carlo mutters, “Shit.”

I tell them, “So, you do all know that he was slipping it to Mrs. Jago, right?”

Bruno says, “We all kind of suspected.”

I open my hands. “Come on. Seriously? Why the hell else would anybody ever put up with that woman’s cooking? Madonna . If she served her food up to a man on death row, he’d beg to get his sentence brought forward.”

Carlo says, “It was not good. Nobody missed her at meal times.”

I ask them, “Did you miss her for anything else? Did she come tuck you in after she’d seen to your dad?”

Alessio pulls a face, “Come on. Fuck off.” Did she? I was joking, but now I wonder. I keep my face straight and don’t look at the others. Alessio responded too quickly to that. I can feel Carlo and Bruno both keeping reaction from their faces, too.

I say, “Alright.” No matter. I press on. “So when Jago got wind of the Don arranging for Adrianna Bagniola to be kidnapped, she put two and two together and she brought her little revolver down to the dining room.”

Alessio says, quietly, “But she said that you killed him.”

I say, “Your father must have thought I would be a soft target for him to pin the raid on.”

Carlo smiles, “I don’t know why anyone would think that about you.”

I tell them, “Well, when it didn’t work, he got into a rage. Had Jago bring me into his study and he tried to fuck me.”

“What?” Alessio’s laugh is dry and thin. “My dad? He tried to seduce you? Well, the old dog.”

“No, Alessio. He didn’t try to seduce me. He attacked me and he tried to rape me.”

His mouth tightens and his head turns, “No…”

“He bent me over his desk and he held me down.”

Bruno’s voice is gentle. “You fought him off?”

I nod, not wanting to hand around too many of the details. “That was when he threw me out of the house and had me banished.”

Carlo says, “He told us that it was because of the raid.”

“But what does this have to do with Mrs. Jago shooting Dad?” Alessio asks, “Are you telling me now that she didn’t do that?”

“Oh, no. She shot him.” I hold Alessio’s gaze. This is going to be hard.“But she didn’t kill him. She gave him what they call a life-changing injury, but it didn’t finish him off. He could have died in the ambulance. He might have died in hospital. Or, it’s possible he could have survived. I have no idea. If he lived, he would probably have been severely debilitated.”

“So,” there’s a harsh sarcasm in Alessio’s tone, “are you saying it was a mercy killing?”

“No, Alessio. Not unless you mean I finished him off as a mercy to myself, so I wouldn’t have to go on knowing that somewhere, the low-life asshole who tried to force his mangy cock into me was still breathing clean air and enjoying his food.”

Carlo says, “And that’s when you took over the family.”

“I’m just telling you what happened. No more secrets. Only you can decide what you want to do about it.”