“Wh-Wh-What?” he asks through trembling lips.
Smirking, I let him shake for another couple of moments, my eyes skirting over his body, wondering if this big badass cop is going to piss himself or not. I kind of want to make him wait a while to see if he will.
“Was it all worth it?” I ask. “I assume the bulk of your money is still sitting somewhere? So, you got all of this money, you didn’t vanish to live on a beach somewhere in luxury, so was it all worth it?”
His eyes flick behind me toward Erin, then back to me. I watch as he gulps, then shakes his head once. “For five years it was pretty fucking sweet,” he admits.
“And now?”
“You’ll be caught and I’ll see you in hell.”
I pull the trigger without a second thought. Blood, brains, and hair fly everywhere. I can’t take my eyes off of his body. He stays standing for another few seconds before his body crumples to the floor.
Nobody makes a sound in the room. Not even Erin, who I expected to scream like a banshee. Turning around slowly, I lift my gaze to meet Gavino’s. He snorts.
“Now that we know who got the feds involved. A man we let into our lives, a man we took out of our lives,” I say.
There’s a knock on the door and we all freeze. Arlo stands and kicks Brando’s body away from the entrance to the room, opening the door just enough to stick his head out. I hear his voice, but I’m too far away and he’s talking too softly for me or anyone else to hear what he’s saying.
“Luca is here, with your guard friend from prison,” Arlo announces.
“The fucking plot thickens,” Gavino grunts.
“What the actual fuck?” I snap just as the two men walk into the room.
Arlo closes, and locks, the door behind them, standing in front of it and crossing his arms over his chest. Luca looks down at the dead body. He lets out a snort just as the guard does the same. For five years I saw this man, and for five years, I never knew his name.
“Stefano,” he says as if he can read my questioning mind. “This man, the one you’ve already figured out betrayed you, was also the one who commissioned the surveillance of your wife. Roman only wanted surveillance on you, your wife was just for him.”
“Why?” I ask.
Stefano flicks his gaze over to Pippa, then to me. “No clue, maybe the woman can answer?”
Erin lets out a snort. “Why is everyone so obsessed with her? I just don’t get it,” she snaps. “Roman was only obsessed with me and Mia. Getting information on Pippa was just something he wanted us to have so that we could fuck with Massimo. Brando claimed it was to keep as evidence.”
“It wasn’t,” I snarl.
She jerks her head over to me. “No fucking shit,” she shouts. “Brando loved Roman’s wife. Maybe he thought if he got the money, she’d go with him. Maybe he had me keep her under surveillance for him because he got off on having the power? I don’t know.”
“What happened to the wife?”
“Roman killed her, then killed himself. When he realized that his money was gone, his wife was fucking someone else, and that there would be no way for him to start over, not at his age, not with fucking over the famiglia the way he did.
“The feds weren’t offering witness protection the way he thought they would. He lived under the radar for as long as he could, but eventually he killed his cheating whore of a wife, his kids, then himself,” Erin explains, sounding oddly lucid.
“And Brando?”
“Brando had his money, but didn’t have his wife. He tried to play the good man to you, maybe he thought that he could keep it up. He knew he didn’t have enough money to leave and nowhere he could disappear to where you all wouldn’t find him.”
“And you?” I ask.
Her lips twitch into a small smile. “I just wanted to be taken care of. I loved Roman. Always. I enjoyed my time here as a call girl, but in the end, I know that the wife of a Made Man is always well cared for and I want that. Massimo was my shot, and now that’s gone, what’s the point?”
“In the end, you’ll all die,” Gavino murmurs.
“Yeah,” she sighs. “At least I’ll be with him,” she breathes.
Gavino snorts. “I should sell you, just so you won’t get the satisfaction of sweet death.”
Pippa takes a step forward, tilting her head back to look up into Gavino’s eyes. “If you do, I’ll always think she’s there, watching me,” Pippa whispers.
“Yeah,” he murmurs. “For you, cara, she dies. You want the honors? All of this involves you more than anyone. A sick fucked up web of lies and betrayal.”
Gavino shifts the handle of the knife into her hand. Pippa takes it, curling her fingers around it and I watch as she tests its weight. She turns to look back at me from over her shoulder. Her eyes filled with questions that I can’t answer.
Should she do it?
Would she regret it?
Will it change everything about her in a split second?
PIPPA
Massimo dips his chin, his eyes focused on mine—intently.
“If it will haunt you, then no.”
His words are so matter of fact, so simple that I freeze in my spot, answering my unspoken questions. Wondering if this will haunt me. That simple word—karma—that haunts me.
I wonder if it’s going to come back for me, if more bad shit is going to be thrown at me, the moment I take this bitch’s life.
“Karma,” I whisper.
Massimo slides his fingers down my arm, wrapping his hand around the knife’s handle. I slip my fingers from his. I can’t do it. I want to do it. I can practically taste the desire to end her on my tongue, but that little thing, that little word—karma, hangs in the air, taunting me.
It doesn’t bother
