Page 10 of The Italian Reckoning (A New York Criminal Empire #3)

ROCKY

“ I thought I told you to shut this shit down?” My father storms into the gym with paper scrunched up in one hand and a look of thunder on his face. For a man who usually needs a cane to walk, he moves pretty fast without it.

I grunt, screwing up my eyes as all my focus goes into making sure I can get the bar back onto the supports before my father makes me lose complete concentration.

Metal clangs against metal while my shoulders and arms burn from the wait.

Matteo gives me a few seconds to catch my breath, then as I’m sitting up, he tosses the paper onto my sweaty lap.

“What’s this?”

“What do you think it is?” Matteo snaps, pointing at the paper as if he has some kind of ability that will make it unfurl from the ball he’s created. “I told you to take care of this mess and now look!”

Wiping the sweat from my brow with my towel, the paper opens to reveal an arrest warrant request for Gio. My racing heart skips a beat. “For Gio?”

No. There’s no way he had anything to do with Belle’s death. “Who?—”

“Sarah Gogs, that’s who.” My father begins to pace back and forth in front of me, flexing his fingers against his jaw as if trying to ease some unseen pain. “She was told to wrap this case up last week after she arrested you. She was ordered to. And you assured me that it would be taken care of!”

“I thought it was! I called her captain and he assured me the case would be closed within a few days. I had no reason not to believe him.”

“You’re making me look like I’ve lost control.” Matteo’s eyes flash with annoyance. “Rocky, you’re supposed to be on my side. When I tell you to take care of something, I expect you to do it.”

“And I have.”

“Then why the hell is she applying for arrest warrants?” Matteo snatches the paper out of my hand.

“This has gone on long enough. Belle died. We’re moving on.

I don’t have time to waste giving a shit about this or some bratty cop that doesn’t know her place.

She’s too stupid to understand how things really work around here. ”

An unexpected pulse of irritation warms my blood as I stand up from the exercise bench. “Dad, it’s not like that. She just has some pretty strong morals. Besides, it’s not like we pay every single cop in that precinct.”

“No, we pay the ones that stick their noses where they don’t belong and that’s what she’s doing. I trusted you to take care of this, Rocky.”

“And I am?—”

“Bullshit.” He stops pacing and narrows his eyes. “She’s had her chance. I want her gone.”

“I can speak to the captain about a transfer, maybe send her back to Montana?”

“No.” He straightens up and his lips become a thin line. “What kind of message does that send? That you can step onto my territory and cause a bunch of shit, then get shipped back home? No. I want her gone.”

For a man who cares so little about Belle’s death, he cares an awful lot about making sure Sarah suffers. His anger feels misplaced, but considering how hard he works to forget that Noah even existed, I shouldn’t be surprised.

“You want her dead .” The words taste sour on my tongue, and something about the thought of harm coming to Sarah makes my gut twist like writhing snakes. If I think of cocky, angry Sarah who glares daggers every time she speaks, then sure, maybe we could do without her.

But that’s not all she is.

I haven’t been able to get her happy, drunk smile or laugh out of my head since that night in the parking lot. That’s the Sarah my father wants dead and I don’t think I can do it.

“Do you need me to spell it out for you? You’d think the bitch would have learned her lesson after dealing with Cormac.” Matteo snorts. “Or what happened at the gala, at least.”

“She saved my life, remember?” I say, absentmindedly folding my sweaty towel into a square. “Doesn’t that earn her a relocation?”

“She saved you from a situation you never should have been in with those fucking Russians.” My father turns his back and strides away. “A cop sniffing around is bad for business. I want her gone.”

The flowers lining the path up to Gio’s front door lack the vibrant color they had back in March when I was here last. Despite the May sun beating down with alarming intensity, dried leaves and brown petals litter the once finely kept garden.

It’s a sorry sight and a pulse of sadness warms my chest. Gio hasn’t been returning my calls, but I’ve tried not to push.

I can’t fathom the pain he and his wife must be going through, but the arrest warrant is a development that requires me to talk to him in person.

I’ve barely knocked on the door when it’s wrenched open and Gio stands before me, panting. His eyes are wide and wild, and a threadbare shirt hangs off his thin shoulders. “Oh,” he remarks flatly. “It’s you.”

“Expecting someone?”

Gio shrugs one shoulder. “What do you want?”

“I’m here to see you, Gio. See how you’re doing.”

“Well, my niece is still fucking dead, Rocky. How the fuck do you think I’m doing?” He glares at me, then slumps back into his home, leaving the door open for me to follow.

Stepping inside is like stepping into a time capsule.

The curtains are still drawn, the doors are still closed, and the house is shrouded in the same darkness that covered it all those weeks ago.

Only this time, there’s a sharp stink of stale food and waste in the air.

Closing the door, I find Gio in the living room where a cloud of smoke clings to the ceiling and several hundred cigarette butts spill out of an ashtray next to Gio’s chair.

Shit. I should have come sooner.

“Gio—”

“The next words out of your mouth had better be I’ve found Belle’s killer ,” he mutters, lighting up another cigarette. The flare from the flame amplifies his sunken eye sockets and my heart squeezes like a fist has punched through my chest. He looks terrible.

I’ve been a terrible friend.

“I’m sorry.” Perching on the chair across from him, I bounce one leg and clasp my hands in my lap. “I don’t have that answer yet.”

“Then why the fuck are you even here?”

“You’re my friend. I’m worried about you and Mia.”

“Mia went to her mother's.” Gio drags long and hard on his cigarette. “Couldn’t stand being so close to Belle’s room.”

My heart goes out to him. In my attempts to find the killer and chase Sarah, Gio’s been left all alone in his grief. So why the hell does Sarah want an arrest warrant out on him?

“Gio, is there something you want to tell me?”

His empty eyes flick up to me. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Honesty is best, right? “The cops applied for an arrest warrant for you. My father stopped it as soon as it reached a judge, but why would they do that?”

Gio doesn’t look surprised. “Suppose it’s ’cause I won’t talk to them. Some woman keeps calling.”

It has to be Sarah.

“But I don’t answer. And when I do, I tell her to fuck off.”

So Sarah wants to get Gio down to the station to force him to talk to her. It sounds like she’s meeting the same dead end I am.

“I tell her that,” Gio continues, “because you told me you would find her killer, but it’s been over a month now, you fuck. Where is the bastard?”

“Look… I don’t have anything yet. I know that Belle was snatched from a club and my good standing with the Russians allowed me to get the CCTV, but there was nothing clear. Whoever took her knew exactly where to avoid the cameras.”

“So it was a Russian?” His eyes spark with life.

“I can’t say for sure.”

That spark dies. “Oh.”

“Given what we know, it looks like it was some random thug or brute who saw an opportunity and took it. I’ve been trailing and checking with all the taxi and bus drivers around where she was found because there was no evidence that the killer drove.

I’m hoping someone saw something or picked the killer up. ”

“That’s a lot of hope ,” Gio mutters bitterly.

“I know. But if this was a random asshole, then you know as well as I do that they’re not held down by any kind of family rules or loyalty.

It makes it harder.” I wish I had better news for him.

I wish I could take his hand and bring him to the killer and let him work out every drop of hurt and grief that clouds his face.

I wish my friend was still deepening his laughter lines rather than frowning through a cloudy room, smoking himself into a stupor. At least he’s not drinking.

“Maybe I should talk to that cop, then.” Gio coughs raspily. “Ain’t they the ones who would be able to track down some maniac?”

“We own the police, Gio. There’s nothing they can do that I can’t.”

“Then fucking do something!” he yells abruptly.

“Find out who he is! Do something so I can go to my wife and tell her that it’s okay because we put the bastard in the ground!

Let me visit Belle’s grave with the news that her killer will burn in hell for the rest of eternity!

Why are you just sitting around doing nothing? ”

To Gio, it likely looks that way, and there’s no use telling him how long it’s taking me to track down more bus drivers, taxi drivers, and club goers than I care to count. Since my father allows me no help, I’ve been doing this solo, but that doesn’t mean I’m putting in any less effort.

“Gio—”

“No! I want that fucker! I want his head on a spike, you hear me? I want to go to sleep hearing his screams of pain instead of Mia’s sobs! I want… I want her back. I want Belle back. I never should have let her leave, I never…”

Gio breaks down into choking, waspish sobs as the grief overwhelms him, and my heart shatters in my chest. Rising, I sit next to him and pull him into my arms. He resists at first, but within a few seconds he crumples in my hold and wails.

I hold him tightly and stare at a sliver of light peeking through the curtains while fighting the sting of tears behind my eyes. Listening to his pain is hard, but it’s nothing compared to what he’s feeling, so I remain right by his side and hold him through it.

He’s right.

He deserves answers. He deserves justice.

And if my father won’t give me any kind of leeway, then maybe I need to change how I go about this.

I hold Gio until he falls silent, then I help him drag his exhausted body through the house to his bed. He doesn’t say a word. He simply lies down and rolls onto his side facing away from me.

“If you need me, Gio, just call,” I say softly. “I’ll come visit again soon.”

The hot sun is like stepping back into a completely different world and a shiver curls down my spine despite the heat. I’m moving too slowly on this case by myself.

I need help.

Reaching the end of the path, vibrations against my hip pull my attention down and a coded text message blinks onto my screen.

[ DAD ] Birds on the hunt. You took too long.

Fuck .

My father wasn’t kidding about Sarah. He’s already got an assassin on her!

I need to find her, and fast.