Page 58 of Tortured Hearts

“He knew what you’d return to find, and exactly how you’d react. While I have no regrets about turning that bastard into lunchmeat, you played right into his hands.”

And let him use Becca to provoke me, again.

“Gianni?”

“Yeah,” I say, straightening my spine. “So, we checked off one box for him. What now?”

Anton stares over my shoulder at Henry. “We could keep him alive for a bit.”

I turn to where Henry hangs bleeding like roadkill off the highway. “With what … a generator?”

“He puts up a good front, but he knows he’s one wrong word away from being decapitated. We should push for information about Marcello’s Rogue contact while he’s still breathing. It may be our only chance.”

I grit my teeth. In any other situation, I’d ride solo on this, but the window of time is closing by the minute, and I don’t have the luxury of discretion. “Reese told Becca he goes by the name Dagger.”

He lifts a thick, gray eyebrow. “As in Rose and Dagger?”

“The jokes write themselves, don’t they?”

“All Reese has isDagger?”

“Yes.”

He sighs. “Then I guess throw it out there and see if it rattles something loose.”

“Hey,” Henry calls out weakly. “I’m still over here, you know.” His voice fades in and out, like someone’s spinning his volume knob like a prize wheel.

Returning Anton’s subtle nod, I stroll back over to Henry with a new agenda, my mind shifting to a man whose demise I couldn’t give two shits about. “Let’s talk about the Providence crimes that got me arrested. Did you kill Ledger?”

He flashes a bloody smile. “I was there the night you two met at the docks. I knew your obsession with that doctor would boil over, and you’d go all caveman on him. Your ego left you open so many times it wasn’t hard toframe you.”

It’s the fact he’s right that infuriates me the most.

“What about the office fire? Did you have a hand in that?”

“Only damage control. I was at the docks with you, remember?” He attempts a shrug that goes nowhere. “Besides, I wouldn’t have done something so ridiculously impulsive. Revenge isn’t worth destroying Marcello’s business.”

Now we’re getting somewhere. I knew my father wasn’t behind Becca’s office fire so much as he took advantage of it. The follow-through of that blaze was too amateur …too Rogue.

“Are you referring to Dagger?”

He must realize his self-congratulatory train has run off the rails, because he immediately clamps his lips together, his eyes widening.

I step closer. “Who’s in Providence doing my father’s dirty work, Henry?”

“You’re so smart, you figure it out.”

He winces as I slam the cleaver against the wall. “I want a name.”

His head wobbles as a wave of unconsciousness threatens to take him under. “Are you sure you got the right man? I mean, you got it wrong once already.”

Something in my gut warns me not to answer, but I don’t listen. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Today wasn’t my firstaltercationwith your precious doctor.” His attempt at a laugh ends in a wet cough that sends blood spilling over his lip. “That happened in a parking garage.”

Chapter Eighteen

GIANNI