Page 132 of My Dark Ever After

The more I thought about it, the more I remembered the aching despair on his face when he had talked about the foreigner he had fallen in love with. The sincerity and protectiveness he’d exhibited when hetold me I was basically a coward for giving Raffa up just because I did not like the nature of the truth I had begged him to reveal.

How could someone who had been born and raised in the warmth of the Romano family end up this way?

I knew Aldo Romano was not like Angela, Carlotta, Stacci, and Delfina. I knew he had been a tyrant who ignored his daughters, manipulated his son, and loved his wife but expected her to warm his bed, raise his children, and look the other way from his transgressions, but he had raised Raffa as much as Leo. How could they have ended up so different?

Even more, how could sweet, charming, and shrewd Gemma have fallen in love with such a psychopath?

She had been drawn to bad boys in the past, but there was a difference between her pot-smoking older college boyfriend and a murdering mafioso. Even the Albanian gangster would have been better than this.

Could Leo have killed her? Someone who was made of sunshine and wickedness and such fun her smile alone could make you laugh?

Could he have been looking me in the eye all this time knowing he had killed her and somehow covered it up?

Raffa might have told me I always wanted to believe the best of people. That I had a tendency, as I had with him, to romanticize the villain.

But as the dark hours passed into the pale tendrils of dawn, I became more and more convinced that I was missing something.

The pattern did not fit.

I needed to knowwhy.

It had to be more than rivalry and the desire to becapo dei capiover Raffa. I had read once that the biggest motives for murder were greed and love.

Didn’t Leo already have enough money and power as COO to the Romano Group and underboss to Raffa’s criminal syndicate?

The bedroom door creaked open.

I was up, gun in hand and trained on the dark mouth of the doorframe in less than a heartbeat, one hand on Zacheo’s shoulder.

“It’s just me,” Carlotta said softly in Italian. “I am sorry to scare you. I couldn’t sleep, and I wanted to check on him.”

My aching muscles softened. “Of course. Why don’t you come sleep here with him? It will bring you both comfort, and I have given up on sleep myself anyway.”

She hesitated, but I could tell she wanted to hold her son. “Are you sure?”

In answer, I got out of bed and walked toward her, kissing her on the cheek as I made to move into the hall.

Her hand caught mine before I could.

Those eyes, almost as pale a brown as Raffa’s, glowed in the low light. “Thank you, Guinevere. I cannot thank you enough. Not just for saving Zacheo, but also for bringing joy to Raffa. He has sacrificed everything for this family. I am happy he has someone willing to sacrifice for him too.”

I squeezed her hand but could not find a way to fit words to the emotions tangling up my throat.

She smiled, released me, and hurried across the wooden floor to the bed.

I closed the door on them and headed down the hall to the stairs.

The lower level was dark, but I caught sight of a sentry near the front door, and Martina sat in the kitchen, staring into a glass of amber liquor.

“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked without looking up.

“No.”

“I can’t stop thinking about Leo,” she admitted, turning haunted eyes to me as I sat across from her. “I am going back through everything we have ever done together. When you first arrived, I had heard a rumor that the Pietra clan was being blackmailed by the Venetian into helping his cause. I told Raffa I had to speak to him about it, but Leo told meit was idle gossip. That the Pietra family had nothing more to lose they could be blackmailed with.”

“He knew who I was the whole time I’ve been here,” I agreed. “Donatella told me he dated Gemma when she was living in Albania before she died.” My fingers found the warm metal of the cross around my neck. “He gave this to the man on the bell tower to try to convince me to go away with him.”

“So he could use you against Raffa,” Martina concluded with a heavy sigh before downing the rest of the booze. “Merda. Even if the boys find him, we will have to completely overhaul all our systems. Who knows how much he has infiltrated and redirected for his own gain.”