I get my chance nearly four days later.

It’s an excruciating wait.

I keep sending Elio’s phone calls to voicemail, even though they’re hardly coming in fast and thick. It seems that whatever Dino told him about what Gia and I are doing is still holding up as far as cover, because if Elio knew Gia had been kidnapped…

Yeah.

He’d be doing a little more.

Luckily, it’s giving me time. Time that I need in order to track down Marco and figure out how I can get him alone, without the blonde woman he’s living with.

The woman who, I can only assume, is his witness protection handler.

They do everything together. For all intents and purposes, it looks to me like they’re a happy couple. However, there are some places where the illusion seems to fall apart.

Every now and then, he looks at her with longing. Naked, unabashed, clear longing.

And every now and then, she looks at him with so much pain, it makes my heart clench in response.

She does, however, go for a run. Every other day. For exactly one hour and thirty minutes.

Like clockwork.

When she leaves the little cottage that he’s hiding in, I don’t hesitate. I saunter up to the door, ready to pick the lock.

It opens.

I freeze, waiting for the click of a gun. Instead, I just see Marco.

My heart skips in my chest.

Seeing him like this, whole and hearty and definitely not dead, makes me feel a rollercoaster of emotions. I’m happy he’s alive. Thrilled, because the brother that raised me is in front of me.

Angry, because he did something to get himself here. Something that I don’t necessarily want to know about.

Furious, because he’s going to sell us out.

And sad, because while I’m going through all of this, he’s just… watching me.

Marco, as always, doesn’t have emotions. His face shows nothing as he stares at me before he shrugs.

“Might as well come in,” he grumbles. “She’ll be back soon.”

“An hour and,” I check my watch. “Thirteen minutes.”

“Twelve, if she decides to sprint up the hill. Seventeen if she stops for a coffee around the corner. Either way, we’re burning it up, so get in here.”

Cautiously, I follow my brother into the little cottage.

Inside, it’s exactly what I thought it would look like. Clean, neat as a pin. Simple. It could easily be a romantic honeymoon cottage for two lovebirds, exactly like the scene that Marco and whoever she is are playing at.

The fact that it’s so flawless makes my teeth hurt, and I grind them together in my skull.

Marco sits down at the kitchen table, and gestures for me to follow.

I do, eying him suspiciously.

“I would get you tea, but I don’t think you like tea,” he rumbles.