There’s a pause, a moment of heavy silence. I can almost hear Nicolo’s brain working, processing the information. “Alive?” he repeats, his tone measured, almost disbelieving. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m fucking sure,” I snap. “I saw her with my own eyes. She was in Midtown, coming out of a different restaurant. It looked … like she knew I’d be there.”
Nicolo is quiet for a moment, and I know he’s thinking, calculating every possible angle. “That complicates things,” he says finally, his voice steady. “If she’s back, she has a reason. She never did anything without a reason.”
“No kidding,” Eli mutters. “And it’s a bad reason, you can bet on that.”
Nicolo takes a deep breath, and I hear the decision in his voice before he even speaks. “I’m coming back to New York,” he says, calm and commanding. “I’ll be on the jet in the next hour.”
“From Italy?” I ask, surprised. “I thought you were handling deals over there.”
“I was,” Nicolo replies. “But this takes priority. If she’s back, it means she has a plan, and I need to know what it is. We can’t let her catch us off guard.”
“She already has. She deliberately let me see her. To unsettle us. Fucking bitch,” I mutter, frustration bubbling to the surface. “She’s clearly already been watching us.”
“We can’t just drop everything we have. The Outfit’s gone too quiet. We’ve got our hands full as it is,” Eli says
Nicolo is unfazed. “I’ll make a few calls, rearrange things. The deals can wait for now. This is more important. I can’t afford to ignore this.Wecan’t afford to ignore this.”
Eli swears under his breath, clearly not happy, but he knows better than to argue. “This is fucking up everything,” he mutters. “But we need to move fast. If she’s in the city, she’s already a step ahead of us.”
“I agree,” Nicolo says smoothly. “Eli, set up a meeting with Dominico and the enforcers. You’ll need to get everyone on the same page and figure out our next move.”
Eli exhales sharply. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll make it happen. But I’m telling you, Nicolo, this is gonna stir shit up.”
“I know it’s going to stir shit up. You think I want to be drawn back into the damn Camorra? We deal with this now, or it’ll deal with us.” Nicolo’s always been like this, even when I was younger.
There’s a tense silence, and I hear the low rumble of the jet engine in the background of Nicolo’s call. He’s already moving, already acting. That’s Nicolo—never a second wasted, always ten steps ahead of everyone else. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t sense Helen coming back into the picture.
“What about me?” I ask, my voice quieter, calmer than I feel. “What do you want me to do?”
Nicolo hesitates for a moment, and I can feel his calculating brain running a mile a second. “Keep your head down, Romiro,” he says finally. “Stay out of sight for now. Let Eli and me handle this. Don’t do anything stupid.”
I bristle at his words, my pride flaring. “I’m not a kid, Nic. I can handle myself.”
“I know you can,” Nicolo says, his voice softening just a fraction. “But this is bigger than you, bigger than all of us. We can’t afford mistakes.”
I grit my teeth, swallowing back my frustration. He’s right, but it doesn’t make it easier to hear. “Fine,” I mutter. “Just keep me in the loop.”
“You’ll know when there’s something to know,” he replies, and then his tone shifts, back to that commanding coldness. “Eli, I trust you’ll do what’s necessary on your end. I’ll see you both soon.”
“Right back at you, Nicolo,” Eli says, and then there’s a click, and the line goes dead.
I toss the phone onto the passenger seat. I’m angry. Angry that she’s back, that everything I thought I’d left behind is creeping up on me again. Angry that I have to wait, have to sit on the sidelines while Nicolo and Eli make the moves.
The city rushes by outside, but I barely see it. My thoughts are a whirlwind, my mind jumping from one thing to the next—Helen’s face, her smile that always hid a thousand secrets, the way she looked right through me, like I was nothing. I tighten my grip, feeling my knuckles crack.
I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself, trying to think. I need to get back to my apartment, regroup, and figure out my next move. I know Nicolo will take care of things, but I can’t just sit back and do nothing. Not this time.
I drive through the streets, the city lights blurring into streaks of color, my mind racing somehow faster than the car. I can’t shake the feeling that Helen’s appearance is just the beginning, the first step in some twisted game she’s playing. And I have no idea what her endgame is.
I pull up outside my building, cutting the engine, and sit there for a moment, staring at the darkened windows. I need a plan. I need to figure out what she wants, who she’s working with, and why. Why now? I reach for my phone again, hesitating for a moment before dialing another number.
It rings once, twice, and then a familiar voice answers. “Yeah?”
“Dominico,” I say, my voice steady. “We need to talk.”
9
