Page 47 of Tormented Diamonds

“Who did you say was in the car?” I press, my sanity hanging on by a thread.

“Leo and Becca. The report stated the accident happened on some side street near Route 3.”

I knew she’d conned Leo into taking her to Hackensack, but I assumed Reese was with them. If not, then where the hell is he?

“That’s it? No one else was in the car?”

“No.” She stares at me, her gaze narrowing. The longer she’s silent, the more I regret not sending her back to Newark. “Why? What else is going on, Gianni?”

“Nothing,” I mutter, spinning around. “I have to go.”

“Wait…”

I turn to find her chewing her lip and twisting her fingers together like a pretzel. But it’s the nervous way she’s staring at the floor that trips an alarm in my head. “What?”

“Leo didn’t makeit.”

Now I get her twitchy mood swing. Sera always had a soft spot for Leo, a leftover from my father’s regime she’d dated in high school. After I took control, she begged me to spare him from my sweep of permanent terminations. Since he’d been the only one of her ex’s I hadn’t wanted to shove through a meat grinder, I figured his loyalty was a solid bet.

His death is a loss, but not one I’ll lose sleep over. Leo did his job and died with honor. I’ll make sure he gets a properLaCosa Nostraburial.

But my sister isn’t as hardened.

“I’m sorry. I know you cared for him.”

She lifts her chin, revealing red, watery eyes. “This wasn’t a random accident, was it?”

My chest falls on a heavy exhale. I don’t want to lie to her, but until I know what I’m dealing with and who’s involved, a murky generalization is the best she’s going to get. “You’re a Marchesi. Nothing’s ever an accident.” Once again, I turn to leave only a few feet before hearing my name.

“You’re not cursed, Gianni.”

I pause, every muscle in my body stiffening.Goddamn her for knowing how to twist the knife and hit an artery.“I’m not doing this with you, Sera.”

Only two people know the truth—the two who were there the moment fire blackened my heart. Sera stands ten toes down on the belief I didn’t curse the Marchesi name that day, but she’s wrong. They’re all wrong.

Fire has never been an obsession. It’s a deal with the Devil.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she insists. “But they’re similar, unrelated incidents, not a pattern.”

“Yeah?” I toss a glare over my shoulder so cutting it sends her stumbling backward. “Call me when you send two people you love to their graves.”

I don’t knock, and I don’t ask for anyone’s fucking permission. I barrel through the hospital room door like a bull draped in red. A skittish nurse with stringy brown hair staggers away from Becca’s bed, while the underwear model I assume is her doctor stares at me like he’s not three seconds away from getting thrown out a six-story window.

“And you are…?” he prompts.

“Gianni…”

The sound of her voice sharpens my anger into something I don’t recognize. Something raw and untamed that demands blood while healing the wound. I take a step forward, then another. One more brings me face to face with the woman I’d burn this hospital to the ground for, along with everyone in it.

Once again, she’s lying in a hospital bed, covered in bruises and wires. But, unlike last time, those pale blue eyes are open and on me. Her matted blonde hair is slicked back from her face, her forehead peppered with stitches … but she’s alive.

And alert.

And talking.

“Everyone out.”

The doctor arches an eyebrow. “Excuse me.”