I appraised Cassio silently. He didn’t temper his aggression, snapping at me with a growl and twisting in his sharp constraints. The two Donato brothers couldn’t be more different. Cassio had a reputation for hot-headedness, but his brother, Rocco, was cold and calculated. He watched like a snake, eyes tracking in readiness to strike when one least expected it.
“What did you think was going to happen when you ambushed one of our deliveries?”
The house had striped wallpaper, and part of it was peeling off the wall. Now, it was splattered with blood. Cassio let out a low whistle.
“Is that how we’re gonna play this? You knock me out, tie me up and pin a delivery gone wrong on me? You know Rocco won’t buy it. He’d rather go down in a blaze of fucking fire than take the rap for some shit that didn’t happen on our turf again.”
“Are you saying you didn’t hijack one of our shipments?”
Cassio’s wrinkled forehead furrowed further. The sound of a car backfiring carried me over to the window. I flicked open the dusty curtain and watched as a rusted pickup crawled down the street, belching black smoke. It passed the house, the driver not looking in our direction.
“Gee, you aren’t so bright, are you? Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou brain, Romeo?” Cassio sneered, coughing violently before spraying red-tinged spit on the floor again. A line of spittle hung from his chin. The unease in my stomach turned to a boil.
“Fuck you.”
“No, fuck you.” He strained against the ties, the chair legs scraping on the ground. “This is bullshit. We do what she says and get shafted. Half our territory obliterated, now this? Fuckyou, and fuck Rosetta. If I get out of here, I’m going to wring your mom’s goddamn neck. I won’t stop until I wipe every one of you pieces of shit off the earth. Let them come for me.”
He wrenched at his binds so hard his chair almost toppled over. The fury etched on his face ran deeper than skin level. Why would he mention my mom’s name? My thoughts clanged inside my skull, loose dice, and I felt like a fool waiting for the right combination.
“What are you talking about?”
“How?” he lamented to the ceiling, grinding his teeth. “How areyouthe one in line to run this city? You can’t even put it together. Try a little harder, sweetheart.”
His barb pinched, and I flared my nostrils on a rough exhale, trying to tamp down my temper. He was getting under my skin.
“What do you know about my mom?”
“I’m no snitch.” He hung his head, backpedaling now that the surge of rage dimmed. He flicked his eyes to the door, and I laughed hollowly. I might be the idiot, but he was the captured one.
“No, you’re just the dead guy, tied to a chair because he was too proud to take an out.”
“It’s not an out,” he whispered fiercely. His energy flagged, and he showed his age as he dropped his head to mumble. “It’s one shackle for another. Your mom promised us the world and disappeared into thin air. I’d rather choke than tell you anything. Her lying blood is running through your veins.”
“If you insist.”
I notched my hands around his neck, jamming my thumbs in the thick trunk until his eyes bulged. He let out a strangled choke, mouthing on air that couldn’t pass through my brutal hold. His tendon flexed in terror he couldn’t control.
“It won’t take long unless you change your mind.”
He let out a breathy whine, and I loosened my hold for a moment. But he shook his head, refusing to speak. I kept my grip until his face turned puce, regret and doubt making his pupils shrink to pricks. My fingers cramped, and I took a step back, flexing them. Cassio sucked in a desperate gasp, throat working to level his choppy breaths.
“What does it matter? We told all of this to Matteo when it happened. But he couldn’t handle his wife being more powerful than he was.”
I jerked back from his confession as if the surprise bullet that had grazed Darren hit me instead. The sting of it burned through my defenses, crumpled my doubt into a bubbling, toxic mess.
“What?” I breathed.
He was talking as if my mom was still…alive. Nothing could have swept me off my feet faster. I’d reconciled the knowledge that my mother was one of Lanton’s blonde victims. That he’d taken her apart like he did the rest of them, and somehow dumped the blame on the Donatos. But this? Her being alive and someone of consequence. I couldn’t comprehend it. My chest constricted and my throat convulsed, choking on air.
“Oh, this is good. I can die knowing I caused that look in your eye.”
Cassio threw his head back with an open-mouthed laugh, his reddened throat flashing at me like a cape to a bull.
“Explain what you mean,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
He sneered and clamped his lips tight. I pulled out a switchblade from my back pocket and relished theschiiingthe blade made as I flicked it out. Cassio didn’t balk, but I took the point to his skin anyway, carving the sharp edge against the bones of his strapped-down hand. It took me twenty more minutes to pry an answer out of him. We were both covered in blood and the heady smell of iron warped my brain. I felt more animal than man, a bloodhound following a scent of a secret.
“Your mom worked for the higher-ups, you know,them. Keeping tabs on all of us this whole time. But then she needed help to escape your dad. She crossed into our territory and promised us a chunk of Greenich Bay if we delivered. What did Rocco do? He agreed, snuck her out, and look where that got us, hey? Left us to rot. Should have killed the bitch like you thought we did this whole time.”
