Page 64 of Mercy in Betrayal

“Oh.” I relax a fraction. “Thanks. It wasn’t easy.”

“I didn’t suppose it was. That’s why you’re amazing.”

Affection for my friend swells within my chest, and I find myself reaching over to curl my fingers quietly over her hand on the pole next to me. “I’m glad you found me at that New Year’s party, Vivi.”

“Yeah, yeah. It was pretty much meant to be, I think.”

This last segment of subway travel is blessedly brief, and in a scant number of minutes, the doors are whooshing open to let us off. I’m able to take Clementine out of his carrier and leash him for the short walk to the apartment I had shared with Cassidy and Evie up until my recent marriage. Clem seems to remember the way and trots along happily, stopping to sniff at a familiar stoop or patch of brown grass here and there.

The doorman’s eyes widen when he sees me.

“Miss Rowan! I wasn’t expecting—I mean, good evening!”

“Hello, Michael. My friend and I are here to visit my brother and Evie.”

Something passes over his face, a kind of shadow. “Of course. I’ll call up—”

I walk past him into the elevator and push the button for our floor, smiling back over my shoulder. “No need. I’ll announce myself.”

Michael inhales and resumes his post at the entrance. “Very well, miss.”

Vivi and I are quiet as we ride the elevator to the top floor. When the doors slide open, we step out and start forward, but two steps into the hall we hear them. I hold my hand up, halting Vivi. “I think…yes. Stay here. Hold the elevator, just in case.” I hand her Clementine’s leash.

Vivi nods without speaking, and I move toward the apartment.

Cassidy’s voice bellows. “We know all about how you set her up. A mugging? Really?”

Enzo replies in a low tone. I can’t make out the words, but I hear what’s unspoken, anyway.

He really did it.

Part of me knew it. As soon as Evie mused on it the other day, the pragmatic side of me knew it had to be true.

But I didn’t want to believe it.

The romantic side of me wanted to believe that everything happened exactly as it appeared to transpire—that Enzo had simply been there, in the right place at the right time to be my hero.

How perfectly foolish of me.

And now they continue to discuss me, consider me, finagle me…as though I’m a child who needs to be sorted.

Or a problem.

I throw open the door, shocked to my soul to find the three people I love most holding guns on one another.

“Enough!” The word bursts from me, loud and shrill enough to startle them all into swinging in my direction. The guns waver.

“Rowan!” Evie is the first to speak. She tucks her gun in her waistband and starts forward. “What are you doing here? How did you get here? Where is Clem—”

“Hush, Evie.” Evie stops, stunned. “All of you, just hush. Just…stop. I’ve had it! I’ve had all I can take of the secrets and the lies and the fighting.”

“Little girl, you need to march your tail into your room and let the grown-ups handle this. He has lied and manipulated and—” Cassidy starts, waving his gun at a silent Enzo.

I turn a scathing glare on my brother. “I know every last one of you is wrong, as far as I’m concerned. The whys and wherefores don’t matter.” My bottom lip trembles, and I press my hand hard against it for a second. “I would love to only be angry at Enzo. I would love to hate him.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see him flinch and have to keep myself from reaching for him. “It’s all of you, though. This whole famiglia is a poison.”

My voice breaks.

“Little bird…” Enzo’s rasp cuts through me, and I close my eyes to the pleading I see in his gaze. When I open them, they’re blessedly dry.

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