“What does Nicco say?”
“Nicco’s mind is elsewhere right now.”
Of course it was. Uncle Toni was still in the hospital.
“Does my old man know they’re sniffing around?”
“Lucino told him, yeah.”
I went rigid.
“Relax. He doesn’t know about Caitlin yet.” He released a steady breath. “Uncle Michele is cautious. He doesn’t want to start anything that might cause waves. Besides, he doesn’t know who she is to you. If you told—”
“No, I’m not ready. I don’t even know if she is anything to me.”
Enzo gave me a pointed look. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“I don’t mean…” I released a heavy sigh. “I like her, E. More than like her, but she’s dealing with a lot of stuff, and she still won’t talk about what happened.”
“Does it matter?”
We exited the county morgue and headed for Enzo’s GTO.
“Of course it fucking matters. I don’t want to take advantage of her.” Just like I didn’t want to be her rebound.
When she’d kissed me earlier… fuck, it was like all my dreams come true. It was all I wanted. But then Enzo called, and it was like being doused with a bucket of ice-cold water. A harsh reminder of everything we still had to deal with—things I wasn’t sure Caitlin was ready to face. How could I even think about being with her until she came to terms with everything.
And now her co-worker—her friend—was dead.
It would kill her, knowing DiMarco had hurt him.
I climbed inside the car and buckled up. Enzo slid in a second later, running a hand through his hair. “It would be so fucking easy to go settle this right now,” he said quietly, a deadly edge to his voice. His hands gripped the steering wheel, the blood draining from his knuckles. “I’ve never liked that piece of shit… but we have to be smart. Especially if he’s in bed with the Lombardi.”
“This is a total clusterfuck,” I seethed.
Enzo glanced over at me. “We’ll figure it out. We need to get out of town before DiMarco gets word that we’re sniffing around.” He stepped on the gas.
The coroner had agreed to be discreet for a fee, but his silence wouldn’t withstand torture.
“DiMarco isn’t ballsy enough to start picking off people in positions of authority.”
“No?” My brow lifted. I had a feeling we didn’t know what he was capable of.
“Any word from Nicco?” Enzo asked as I checked my cell.
“Nothing.”
“I keep thinking about what will happen if Uncle T doesn’t pull through…”
“Same,” I confessed. “Nicco is strong.” One of the strongest guys I knew. But losing your father and becoming boss was no easy burden to shoulder.
“I used to dream about the day Nicco stepped up and we became his capos. But I didn’t ever want it to happen like this,” Enzo said.
I relaxed as we sped out of Providence and hit the highway leading back to Verona County.
“You doing okay?”
“Yeah.” I inhaled a deep breath.
“You know why we couldn’t go—”
“I know.” I snapped, the anger I’d fought so hard to contain spilling over.
We were so close to him… so fucking close, and yet, I had to push my need for vengeance away and focus on the task at hand.
All in the name of the Family.
“I think you should talk to your old man,” Enzo said. “If the worst happens and Uncle T… Nicco won’t be in any fit state to lead, not straightaway. Which means all decisions will defer to Uncle Michele. He needs to know about her, Matt. About your relationship with her. This is personal and it affects all of us.”
I scoffed at that. We didn’t have a relationship… did we?
Memories of how good it had felt kissing her invaded my mind, making my body stir to life. She’d been so bold in that moment. I’d caught a glimpse of the girl from last summer. The girl who wasn’t afraid to take what she wanted.
When I didn’t answer, he added, “You know I’m right.”
“Yeah.” I dropped my head back against the headrest.
I could already imagine how that conversation would go. My father was a reasonable man. A good man. A family man. But when he found out we had given safe haven to Caitlin, I had no doubt he would have a thing or two to say about the fallout if DiMarco found out. It wasn’t that he agreed with hurting women—he didn’t, at all—but he would put the Family ahead of emotion. Always.
And when he found out who she was to me—who I wanted her to be—I had no doubt he’d remind me of the Omertà, our code of silence, and what it meant for outsiders.
Caitlin knew who we were. No doubt she had a pretty good idea what we did and how we did it. My father wouldn’t look too kindly on a woman who now had valuable information about the Marchetti and at least one of their residences.
Shit.
Maybe I should have told him sooner.
“What?” Enzo broke the thick silence.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have brought her back to Verona.”
“Do you really believe that? Because I’m not buying it for a second.”
“My old man isn’t going to like it.”
“Then you’d better convince him that you’re serious about her.”
“What?” My brows pinched.
“If he thinks you’re… together, then he can’t exactly toss her to the wolves, can he?”
“I can’t ask her to play pretend just to pacify my old man.” Besides, it would be torture when I wanted the real thing.
“I’ll come clean, but I’m not going to ask her to pretend… DiMarco will kill her if she goes back. We had no choice but to offer her a safe haven.”
My father wasn’t a monster. He would understand, even if he didn’t like it.
“Are you going to text her or just stare at your phone the whole ride back?”
“Honestly, I don’t know what to say.” Her friend was dead. Tortured at the hands of DiMarco or his men.
“He already knew about the hospital, so there isn’t much else Shaun could have told him.”
“Somehow I don’t think she’ll see that as any kind of silver lining.”
“She deserves to know,” he said.
“And I’ll tell her, I will.” I just didn’t know how. I already had to fix things after the way I hightailed it out of there this morning. Now I had to figure out how to tell her about Shaun.
“She was just starting to warm up to me,” I said wearily. “But this… this will ruin her.”
“You don’t know that. She’s stronger than she looks, Matt.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“It’s in her eyes, cous. She’s a fighter.”
I didn’t like to think about what had made her that way, but I couldn’t deny the merit in his words. Caitlin had hinted at something similar herself.
“I still can’t believe you left Bella and Alessia with Jay last night. I bet he loved that.”
“He had it handled.”