Page 25 of Tortured Hearts (Marchesi Empire #2)

“Fine,” Henry wheezes, another spray of blood dribbling down his chin. “I knew those two idiots were going to show up at the warehouse.”

I clench my jaw at the confession. He’s talking about the men I assumed were leftover Rogue enforcers looking for a payout and sent crawling out of there with empty hands and a busted kneecap.

I remember seeing Henry’s face as I walked into the Providence Police Department as if it were yesterday. The mock surprise. The displaced blame.

“You were the one who called in the shots to Ledger.”

“Why do you think I made such a big deal about working the Bentleys? I needed an alibi.”

“Leaving me with none.” My grip on the cleaver tightens. It’s all I can do not to drive it into his skull. “Which strengthened my father’s backdoor plan.”

Henry tries to blink. By now, his nose and eyes have become one giant, misshapen blob. “What backdoor plan?”

“Don’t play dumb, Saddler. I’d say it doesn’t suit you, but we both know better.”

“Gianni,” I hear Anton say behind me.

“I’m not playing anything,” he rasps, his speech slurring. “What’re you?—?”

“Plus, I’m bored,” I say, giving his chest a thwack with the flat side of the cleaver. “Our game has lost my interest, which doesn’t bode well for you. So before you and my handheld friend here get acquainted, I’m going to tell you how royally fucked my father?—”

“Gianni!” Anton shouts in a sharp, authoritative tone that has me glancing over my shoulder. “I need to talk to you, now. ”

“Can’t it wait?” I gesture the cleaver toward Henry. “I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

“ Assolutamente no. Dobbiamo parlare adesso , Giovanni .”

Hearing him switch to full Italian catches my attention, but telling me, “Absolutely not, we have to talk now,” while using my full name straightens my spine.

Leaving Henry hanging, I follow him to the far corner and fold my arms over my chest, cleaver in hand. “All right, what’s so urgent?”

“I don’t think Marcello clued him in on his plan.”

“Then what reason would he have given Henry to push for my WITSEC assignment?”

“Probably to get you discredited and thrown out, which makes me wonder why Marcello would involve him deeper in this when there were too many variables at risk. Why send Henry to ‘rattle’ Becca? Why not keep him isolated and contain his mouth?” He shakes his head. “Your father isn’t that careless.”

I can’t argue with that, and to be honest, I’m irritated he’s the one to bring it up. “You think he could’ve let Henry in that basement on purpose?”

His nod is curt and to the point. “If he’s going to frame you for running Providence, he’d have to sever the ties linking him back to it.”

“Starting with Henry.” Son of a bitch. “He set us both up.” My knuckles turn white around the handle. “He knew having Henry’s blood on my hands strengthens his false claim.”

“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 is Dagger ?”

“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 to frame 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 first altercation with 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.”