by Sonya Jesus
Luca thankfully switches the subject, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m still getting my three million.” She leaves no room for negotiation as she gets right to business.
“You get three million if the job is done,” I counter. I don’t mess around when it comes to Beppe. He won’t come after me… he’ll go after Luca and Charlotte and make the people closest to them suffer. I trust Pix, but if it comes down to me or her baby, she’d give me up in a heartbeat, and I can’t let it come to that. The guilt would kill her.
She smirks and points at me with the milkshake. “Two-point-five, or I leave and go tell Tony where you are.”
“Are you threatening me?” I growl at her.
“Well, someone got there balls back.” She winks and points at Luca. “Did you take them from him?”
“Stop!” Luca intervenes.
I’m not quite sure I like Kelsie, but she’s growing on me. A little hard around the edges, but who am I to judge? My armor was made of plastic. “Why are you renegotiating. What happened?”
“Do we have a deal?”
Luca nods while I shake my head. I stop when she starts talking. “Santini’s dead, but I didn’t do it.”
Wow. My limbs go limp. He’s gone. I thought I’d feel a little bit of sadness or elation, or even happiness, but I feel nothing. Not even relief. And that kind of scares me.
As I glance out the window, waiting for the sadness or the happiness to kick in—for the shock to wear off and jolt me with reality— Luca asks, “Who killed him?”
Tony. Teagan. First come to mind.
Through half-masticated cow and bread, Kelsie answers, “Steele Dominico.”
My head snaps toward her. “What? He turned me down.”
“Apparently, he took you up on your offer.”
“I don’t understand,” Luca intervenes. “Guys like him don’t just change their mind.”
“After the battery ran out, I tossed the phone into the woods behind your house, and… well, I started following the Don around, scoping him and his men out.” She takes a gulp of her milkshake before continuing, “Imagine my surprise when he drives into Steele’s turf, stops at some kiddie jamboree school thing, and walks out the back door with a woman. Steele’s woman.”
She’s her own woman, I think to myself, but don’t bother correcting her. “What happened to her?”
“The girl’s fine, I think. Beppe lured them to one of the properties.” She eyes Luca. “Lucky it wasn’t this property.”
I ignore the silent exchange and sigh softly. Another person I almost got killed. “He went after her because Vinnie probably told him about the message.”
“He did. When I was at Voight’s, they came in while I was in the dressing room with this sweet old lady who was measuring me. The phone had pinged my location in Old Ridge. Or technically, your location. Vinnie kicked down the door thinking I was you, hiding out. Voight was the one who told me something happened and both men were working to find you. He seemed really upset that you may not be wearing his wedding dress.”
“I hate that stupid dress.”
This seems to earn me some brownie points because she nods approvingly. “Anyway, I just so happened to sneak one of the coms out of a dead man’s ear.” She stops to point at Luca with her chin. “Don’t look at me like that. He wasn’t important, just some lackey. He caught up with me, and I had to take him out.”
“Where is he?”
“In the woods behind her house.”
She rests her half-eaten burger on her knee and takes the intercom out of her ear and holds it out. “It doesn’t work because we are out of distance, but it did when I was in Old Ridge.”
That’s genius. I pluck it from her hand and put it up to mine. Just static. “What did you hear?”
“A lot. Everything probably. These guards talk a lot.”
“Are you waiting for an invitation?” Luca asks.
She takes another bite, stalling on purpose to annoy Luca. After she is satisfied, she elaborates. “When Tony got there, Vinnie was out cold. Beppe eventually showed up, and at first, they were working together, thinking the people who took the drugs were the same people who took you. Apparently, Tony thought Beppe had something to do with the shipment, but they hashed it out. Guns were involved, but no blood shed. Unfortunately.”
I giggle at the sadness in her tone. “Then, what happened?”
“Vinnie came to and told Beppe that Steele Dominico was involved.”
The message. “So, Beppe went to look for me?”
“Yep.” Kelsie nods.
“Was Tony there?”
Kelsie shrugs. “No, last I checked, he and Vinnie were at Unita with more than half of the men. I hung low and caught some of the conversation with Steele, but hightailed it out of there when the noise got loud.”
This doesn’t make sense.
“What’s wrong?” Luca asks, as I rub my fingers over my lips, thinking about the events of the night when Robert came for me, in my room, and trying to connect them to what Keslie’s conveying.
Why would Tony stay at Unita? If he thought Steele took me?
“Shh. Luca,” Kelsie hushes him. “Let the woman think.”
Think. There’s something I can’t quite put my finger on.
“Can you call Matteo?” I ask. “That’s his name, right? The guy who helped Robert?”
“I can, but I don’t want to unless I have a good reason.”
I hold my finger up and stand up, pacing around the carpet and thinking out loud, “Why would Vinnie say Steele had something to do with it when he recognized Matteo? He called him Emiliano.”
I have both of their attentions.
“Does he work for Steele?” Kelsie asks exactly what I was thinking.
“No.” Luca shakes his head, but his voice holds an uncertain tone to it. “I doubt it. Robert wouldn’t have let that happen or Calgrone.”
“As a rule of thumb,” Kelsie says after she finishes off her burger and bunches the wrapper, “men don’t think that far ahead.”
“Speak for the men in your life,” Luca interjects, and scowls as he thinks about it. “She has a point, though. Guys don’t always think in multiple steps.”
“Girls do though,” I mumble to myself.
“But what are you thinking?” Kelsie asks, her curiosity has genuinely been piqued.
“I’m thinking Vinnie specifically sent Beppe to his death, or at least, to get him out of the way.” It had to be it. “Before Robert showed up, Vinnie was telling me I was messing up Tony’s plan.”
“So?” Luca asks.
Kelsie nudges him with her sneaker. “Don’t interrupt her.”
“We already know Tony was upping the drug delivery, increasing things behind his back.” Luca tilts his head to look at me.
He didn’t know everything. Like Beppe’s broke. “Right. He bought Unita and the stupid car that looks like an airplane on the inside.”
“Sounds to me like he was ready to replace Beppe.” Kelsie takes out her phone and checks her messages.
Too ready. “You said a lackey caught up to you, Kelsie?”
“Yeah. He didn’t even know how to fight.”
“That’s what I don’t understand. Tony would have sent Vinnie.”
“He did at the wedding—”
“That’s another thing.” I point at Kelsie. “Voight doesn’t just take appointments like that.” I knew that was off. I turn to Luca. “And Unita... He looked right at you. Outside.”
“He didn’t recognize me.”
“Or maybe he did.” My head whirls with words—evidence.
The night of the pool he mentioned the bakery.
The threat to Charlotte. East Coast. Anthony Shard.
The whispers, the confessions—it was all to distract me.
‘You pretend to shut off, but you forget, I know you better than your father does. Better than anyone.’
“Oh, my God.” I grab the necklace around m
y neck and use my nail to fling the false back open. Vinnie had been alone with it in the room. The memory card’s missing.
“Tony knows. And he’s coming for me.”
Chapter Seventeen
New Plan
Luca Cabrali
After what seems like hours of talking and hashing things out, we are still not on the same page. No way in hell am I leaving her here to face Tony alone. God knows what he will do to her now that Beppe’s not in the picture. He might have been an asshole, but the old fart kept her alive. No one would touch Isabella with fear of Santini coming down on them. With his death, that has all changed now.
She organized her own death.
“Give me your gun.” Isabella’s hand is stretched out, palm up. “Or one of them.”
“Fuck no.” I tuck it in the waist of my jeans, safely away from her reach. It’s pitch dark outside, and I’m suddenly very aware of every square foot of this factory. “Have you ever shot a gun?”
“No,” she says with a flippant attitude, hand still outstretched. “How hard is it to pull a trigger? It’s not rocket science.”
All of us are over this damn conversation.
“I’m not leaving you here, Isabella. That is out of the question. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you to get your shit and let’s go.”
“Go where, Luca?” Her voice is strained. “Where do you want me to hide when he’s going to come for me? He probably has eyes on this place already. Just waiting and torturing me.” She swallows, and I watch the ball of fear move down her throat. “What if he has Pix?”
“He doesn’t.”
“You couldn’t get a hold of her.”
He’s not going to risk getting her, especially not if he has someone watching her. Plus, if he wants to kill Isabella, Charlotte doesn’t really matter. “He’s not going after her, Isabella. He’s coming for you.”
“He’s not going to kill me.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“Because!” she growls. We’ve been over this hundreds of time in the last few hours. “He could have done it already.”
“Right, you think you have a connection with the asshole.” I throw my hands up in the air and roll my neck, releasing the tension. All of us are on edge, and I’m trying not to get jealous, but it’s really damn hard not to when she’s vouching for the mobster’s kindness. I can’t tell if she’s really that naïve or if maybe she’s right. “Are you going to shoot him?”
I need to learn how to control my mouth.
She scowls and bobs her head to the side. “Not if I don’t have a gun.”
“Oh, my God.” Kelsie chuckles from her spot near the large window, overlooking the entrance to the building. “Give her the gun, Luca. She’s not going to shoot herself.”
“Why are you still here?” I ask Kelsie, as I allow Isabella to reach for it. “Shouldn’t you be on your way?”
“Because I have an idea.”
“What idea?” Isabella asks.
Somewhere between Isabella’s epiphany and trying to shove me down the stairs to get me away, Kelsie and Isabella, magic-girl-talked and now both of them are in sync and not thinking straight.
I vetoed all of it. All. Of. It. “No. No more ideas!” I warn both of them, as I drop the bag of cash for Logan Slade at Isabella’s feet. Dye pack included. “I’ll distract Tony, and you wait here for Logan to show up.”
“That’s a stupid plan,” Kelsie says as she leans against the window frame and crosses her arms.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. Really.” Kelsie’s body faces us, but her eyes are still glued to the clearing below. There’s only one entrance, so unless they can walk through walls, we won’t be ambushed. “I told you this was a bad place to stay.”
“You know where you can take your I-told-you-so?”
Isabella chimes in, “What are you going to do, Luca? Drive into Old Ridge and call Tony out?”
“Yes, actually.”
Kelsie shakes her head, the soft waves bouncing at her movement. “Beppe’s dead. Any alliance the Santinis had with the Cabralis died with him. Ghosts don’t cast favors, so there’s no reason Tony wouldn’t shoot you. Or use you.” She swivels her head toward us and points at Isabella. “Like he used her.”
“He outsmarted me.” Isabella pouts as she puts her hair up in a ponytail. “He looked right at you in front of Unita. That’s not a coincidence.”
“No, it’s not.” Kelsie clucks her tongue and licks her lips.
Isabella walks toward Kelsie and stands on the opposite side of the window; both of the ladies are protected by the concrete. It’s Friday and early enough in the morning to still be considered night, but this conversation feels like an eternity. Women certainly have a knack for dragging things out until they get their way.
“He knows Luca’s helping you. He’s been watching you this whole time. Listening, waiting for you to make your move.”
“Why wouldn’t he say anything?” I ask. “How the fuck do you hold in watching your girl trying to escape and get away from you? Why not kill me?”
“Think like a mobster, not some lovesick teenager.” Kelsie points to her head. “This isn’t about you or love.”
My rebel love speaks up, “It’s about power.”
While Isabella keeps a lookout, Kelsie explains, “Because he needed you. Tony may not have known all the logistics, but he knows enough, and if he isn’t here yet, it’s because he wants a fight. A reason to attack.”
I hate that she’s making sense. “Attack who?”
“The Cabralis, us, Slade, Steele, Bo—aren’t they all from around here?”
Eliminate the competition.
“For someone not known for his wits, he thought this out.”
“Why do you say that?” I stand back and grab one of the waters from the bag Kelsie brought yesterday, only to realize she had also bought hair dye. There’s no fucking water, so I don’t understand what good it would do.
“What’s your plan?” Isabella pipes up.
“Hell no!” I use the water bottle to point at her. “We already decided.”
“I don’t care what you say. Charlotte’s in danger. Tony said he had someone from the Beneventis watching her.”
“From the Beneventis?” Kelsie’s mouth gapes open, and she crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Who?”
“He didn’t say. Someone from The Farm.”
Kelsie slams her mouth shut and pulls out her cell phone to type a message and send it. When she’s done, she places her phone on the floor and puts her hair up in a ponytail. “Look… Truth is, Beppe’s guys didn’t put up much of a fight, and you escaped too easily.”
Both girls look at each other, and from this angle, they do really look alike. Their cheek bones and nose have a similar shape.
“Two guys for the Calgrones?” Kelsie snaps her finger in my direction. “Right? And they met no resistance? Where were all the other guys?”
“She’s right. There should have been four minimum. And Tony said something about shutting off the cameras.”
“He tricked you! And I bet, he’s going to let you escape, so he can make a move on the East Coast.”
Both women stare at each other, while I find this a bit too much for my brain. “Why would he want the East Coast?”
“Same reason why he’s making half-a-billion-dollar drug drops.”
They think alike and look alike. Most guys would love the idea, but one Isabella is enough to handle. Plus, I refuse to believe Tony Astori is smarter than me. “Tony’s too stupid to think of this.”
“Tony’s an opportunist, and she’s smart.” Kelsie points at Isabella. “He saw an opportunity to exploit her brain.” Kelsie unzips her jacket and hands it to Isabella.
“I’m not cold,” she whispers, just as taken aback by this.
“Don’t be upset. Learn from this.” Kelsie bends down on a knee and unties her shoe laces. “I’m pretty sure that whole scene at Voight during my
appointment was staged. They want us to think they are out looking for you.”
Isabella answers distantly, “It’s why Voight gave you an appointment.”
“Because it wasn’t Tony doing the thinking. Your bodyguard was in the military, right? Did he get closer this last year?”
“Yes, he had to…” Isabella snorts and shakes her head. “Because I fired my wedding planner, so I could control the money and handle things.” She looks me in the eyes. “Luca was the wedding favor vendor. And Taegan was the calligrapher.” She scoffs. “I’m such an idiot. Vinnie knew everything. He even reminded me to call the wedding favor vendor when I was at Voight’s.”
Bells laughs desperately, unnerved by the situation.
“No, you just got comfortable in your plan, Isabella … Vinnie and Tony let you think you were overcoming the obstacles.” Kelsie switches her position to undo the knot on her other shoe before standing up.
“Anthony Shard, the phone call, The Hex, the fire…” She lists them all. “He would always show up… like when Beppe forced me into the pool, and at Cielo…” She rubs at her forehead. “That’s where I heard the code word. The fruit thing for Unita. He dropped the hint about the fucking drug drop. They set me up!”
“For you, this was about love and revenge, but for him, it was all about power.” Kelsie slides her feet out of the sneakers. “We’re about the same size, right?”
Isabella takes a look inside the tongue of the shoe. “Yeah.”
“You have other clothes?”
She nods. “Luca brought me some.”
Kelsie unzips her jeans and slides them off to the floor.
“Nope. No way.” I shake my head as she comes toward me.
“I want ten million.” She stops in front of me, in black bikini briefs and white tube socks. Her legs are very defined but tucked into a pair of jeans, no one can tell the difference.
“For what exactly?” I ask for clarification, as I try to convince myself not to go down this road, but even their boob size is the same.
Almost as if on command, she sheds her shirt and crouches down to the bag, pulling out some boots and a set of clothes I got for Isabella. “To take her place.”