Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72325 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72325 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“Precisely,” Connors affirmed.
“So why’d he hire Baxter instead of sending us?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible he thought you might not take the order well.” There was a hint of irony in the older man’s voice. Which meant he was recovering from his ordeal.
Rocco helped him up, he kept a tight grip around his wrist. “One last thing. Has Roselli said anything about that hit to other crews?”
Shit, I hadn’t thought of that. There could be goons heading her way right this moment. Hopefully Slater was doing his fucking job and keeping her safe.
Connors gave an icy smile. “I thought you were a smart man, DeLuca. This is your real punishment for planning to rob that bank in North Haven without your boss’s consent. Don Roselli is well aware of your connection with that girl. Taking her life will shore up his inheritance and it will hurt you. It’s a win-win for the Don.”
“Shit,” Rocco said, and I had to agree. He strode off, but not just to pace. He went to a little bar on the far wall and poured a glass of scotch. “Thanks,” he said when he delivered it to Connors.
For a moment, I was struck by how batshit crazy this all was. In what other job did you nearly choke someone to death and then bring him a drink afterwards?
But this was how the game was placed. I knew it. Rock knew it. Connors knew it.
We were both lost in thought on the drive home. The implications were enormous. Con Roselli funded his entire operation with the money made by his late father—money that wasn’t supposed to be his.
Rock, however, was thinking of Maggie. “She is Italian after all,” he said when we were twenty minutes away.
“Huh?”
“I always thought she looked Italian, and she said she wasn’t,” Rock said. “Can you imagine not even knowing something so basic about yourself?”
I sighed. “Looks like there was a lot she didn’t know. Things that her fucking mother should’ve told her.”
“She might have been trying to keep her safe. Emilio, too. We don’t know the whole story.
“I feel like my head is going to fucking explode,” I told Rocco.
“We’ve got bigger fish to fry right now,” he responded, rubbing his jaw. “Breaking the news to Maggie. She’s not going to believe it. Any of it.”
“Can you blame her?” I wondered, throwing a quick sideways glance over at him. “Fuck, man. This is like telling her she won the lottery ten times in a row. What are the odds of that happening?”
Rock snorted. “Yeah, a lottery that also comes with a price on your head. It’s a good thing we’re the only ones who know about the hit. It means she’s safe.”
He said it confidently, but I think that deep down, he knew better.
“For now, maybe,” I said. “But if we don’t carry out the job, Roselli will hire more men.”
“I’ve got a place we can stash her away,” he said, making me wonder. When we’d been younger, we’d had a safe house, a place we could go to when shit hit the fan. But now that we were part of the Don’s organization, it wasn’t necessary. Usually.
I didn’t ask any questions as I stared at the road ahead of us. My mind was still fucking reeling. In a matter of weeks, Maggie had gone from being the cute girl at our favorite bar to someone important to us.
And that could wind up getting us all killed.
20
ROCCO
“Don’t speak ill of the dead, child.” An old granny at one of my short-lived stays with a foster family had said that. She’d been an ornery old bitch, but she had a point. The dead were somehow blameless. It was the living that caused all the problems. Few of them were decent, and even fewer gave a crap about anyone else.
I’d thought that Emilio was one of the good ones. After we ran away from our final group home, we’d lived on the streets. Begged in the park. Robbed rich kids in their prep school uniforms. Emilio had taken us in. He had put a roof over our heads. The man filled our stomachs with food and gave us purpose. He’s saved us. He’d saved me. By teaching me about my heritage. And about the kind of man I wanted to be.
But you know who else had a crappy childhood? Maggie. And he’d left her and her mother to fend for themselves.
I couldn’t get past that part of it.
During our time at Connors’ house, it crossed my mind to ask him to show me that will. I just couldn’t believe what I’d been hearing. I couldn’t wrap my mind around Emilio’s selfishness.
In the end, I didn’t do it. There was no reason for me to see that piece of paper. Roselli’s actions alone had proved its existence.