Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 52592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
I go to stand up from the table, feeling the need to put some physical space between us, and thinking that I have already said enough, probably too much, to get her to stop pursuing answers that carry heavy consequences along with them.
“Wait,” she says, reaching an arm across the table to stop me before I get to my feet. “What about my other questions? What role do you play in the mafia now?”
“I play the same role that I have always played. I’m an assassin, the best assassin that there is. When there is a sensitive job that needs to be done discreetly, I'm called on to do it.”
“But for whom? Whose side are you on?”
“Side? There are no sides in the mafia,” I say. “There are only the alliances that help you stay alive and those that don’t. I answer to myself, no one else. You’d be wise not to trust anyone, no matter whose side you think they’re on.” I want to tell her to include her own father in that warning, but for now, I hold my tongue.
“What about my last question?”
“I think I’ve answered enough questions for now.”
Elle frowns at my response and presses further. “You brought me out here. You opened up to me about your past and some of the trauma you’ve endured. Surely, you can answer one more thing. You’re not the only one with trust issues and complicated relationships with those around you, Nico. And I assume that the reason you brought me here and told me anything at all is because you think it will appease my curiosity enough to prevent me from continuing to insert myself in your life and privacy. If you want me to trust any of this, then you’re going to need to give me an answer about what you were doing in the alleyway that night.”
Complicated relationships indeed. Out of all the interactions I’ve had in my life with countless people, my long-standing, almost masochistic relationship with Elle from afar has been the most complicated of all. It’s almost as if she can’t heal unless I fill in the blanks of that night for her. Some blanks are meant to stay empty. Unfortunately, though, Elle isn’t going to stop until she gets some sort of closure.
“I was tending to business,” I say with intentional ambiguity.
“Business sitting beside a dumpster in a dark alley?” Elle’s wit and snark don’t go unnoticed.
To be honest, it entices me to see her spunk. I saw it that night, too, when she tried to chase me, even though she was just a kid. I should have known then that she was going to wind up causing me problems for years to come that night. But now, she’s no longer a child. She’s a stunning, sassy, and exceptionally strong woman. And even though I may still be nearly a decade older than her, she’s every bit old enough to tempt me more than I’d like to be tempted.
“I was following someone,” I add, dribbling tiny bits of information one drop at a time, hoping it will be enough to end this line of questioning. “Not you and your mother.”
“You were following the man who shot her?” she asks. Elle’s profiling skills are showing themselves as she tries to turn the tables and interrogate me instead of letting me direct the flow of information that I want to disclose.
The truth is that I have my theories and my suspicions about who killed Elle’s mother, but I don’t know for sure. All I know is that it was a highly covered-up crime. Even after the crime, someone buried it faster than anyone could blink.. It’s normal for the mafia to kick hit jobs under the rug, and even commonplace for the killing of innocent bystanders or witnesses to be erased before anyone can see and uncover the truth behind them. But they covered up the murder of Elle’s mother faster than I had ever seen before. And it wasn’t just covered up by the big players in the mafia families, but by the cops, too. The whole thing reeks of corruption, and corruption is something that I cannot stand.
There was corruption in the Bratva, too, and to this day I wonder if that didn’t play a part in my brother’s death. Others in the leadership had boys of their own around our same age, and I’ve always wondered if one of them, who might have been hoping to take my brother out and replace his position with one of their own boys, compromised the hit. If that was their goal, I didn’t let them have the chance since I surprised them all by taking up my brother’s mantle. Since then, I’ve had an intolerance for corruption of any kind, whether it’s within the cops, the mafia, or corporate Vegas.