Page 24 of Twisted Fate

I glance up toward the loft. “When was the last time you actually slept in your bed?”

Dante makes a dark, ugly sound. “When was the last time I slept at all?” he asks. “Every time I close my eyes I see blood and brains. Every time I close my eyes, the gun is in my hand and I’m the shooter.”

Guilt bites me. This is my fault. I told Dante to follow Enzo Bianchi at the casino the night Papa was shot. I gave him that task. And he left Bianchi playing slots to come and meet us for dinner. So he blames himself for Papa’s death. He believes that if he had stayed on Bianchi, he could have stopped him.

I grab my brother by the neck and hold him still as I press my forehead to his. “This is not your fucking fault,” I say, aware of the irony of my words given that I was just silently blaming myself. “We can all play the ‘what if’ game. What if I’d sent Cassio to follow him instead of you? What if I’d followed Bianchi myself that night? What if Papa had chosen a different restaurant for dinner? What if, what if, what if. Truth is, there’s no going back, only forward. I need you, Dante. Leo needs you. We need you to get your shit together and step up because there are only two things that matter now. The family. And vengeance, cold and sharp. You fucking hear me?”

There’s a long pause, the only sound the rasp of my brother’s breathing.

“I fucking hear you,” Dante whispers.

“Good. Now get in the shower and get dressed. We’re meeting Leo in thirty.”

My brother heads upstairs and I hear the shower turn on. While he’s up there, Luca joins me and together we dispose of the empty bottles, and the full ones. We tidy the place. Open the blinds. Wipe down the coffee table.

I’m no fool. I know this is no solution. My brother can easily replace the bottles I tossed.

But maybe he won’t. Maybe.

Luca, Dante, and I arrive at Rosie’s Diner, an off-strip greasy spoon that makes killer pancakes. Leo is already seated at a table near the back, away from the windows. There are three other men with him. Two more of his men stand guard outside.

I take a seat across from Leo. Luca sits on one side of me, Dante on the other.

“Where’s Cass?” I ask.

“Sent him back to Chicago. He’ll be home next week,” Leo says.

“Coffee,” I say when the waitress comes over. Leo and the others are already tucking into their food.

“What?” Leo asks when I don’t add to my order. “Just coffee? You’re not hungry?”

“I ate,” I say, thinking of the way Alina closed her eyes and savored that first bite of chocolate croissant. There’d been a tiny drop of chocolate at the corner of her mouth. I’d wanted to lean in and lick it away. The tip of her tongue had darted out and done it before I could. Disappointing.

“I didn’t eat. Wasn’t invited,” Luca says, cutting me an amused glance. He orders his meal and Dante orders coffee. Leo studies our brother a moment and amends Dante’s order to include a full breakfast—eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, potatoes, fruit.

“Not sure I can stomach that,” Dante says with a wince as the waitress leaves.

“Try,” Leo says. He takes a bite of toast, then asks me, “Anything?”

I know he’s asking about Bianchi.

“Soon,” I say, and he nods. Leo isn’t the type to micromanage. He assigns a task and trusts that the person he chose to carry it out will do the job. He knows I’ll find Bianchi. And he knows I’ll kill him only after I pull everything he knows out of him, along with his blood, bones, organs…whatever it takes to get answers.

“You remember I told you Bianchi was at our casino, following a blonde?” I say, the memory of Alina’s long blonde hair wrapped in my fist sliding through my thoughts.

Leo studies me. “Yeah.”

“I have her. Tucked in all nice and warm.”

Leo sets his knife and fork down carefully, aligning them precisely, his attention appearing to be focused on the task. But I know my brother. His attention is focused solely on me.

“Name?”

I hesitate. For some reason, I don’t want to share that information with my brother. Which makes no sense. “Alina Madsen.”

“Madsen,” he muses. “Any relation to Markus?”

“His sister.”

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