Page 43 of The Last Vendetta

Fuck. So much for not getting involved.

“Me? Why?”

“Marcus remained tight-lipped about where she might be. He wouldn’t directly admit it, but I got the impression that he didn’t know where she was and he wanted her to come home where he could control her. Where he could watch and see what she was up to.”

“And how the fuck would I play into that?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t get that attitude with me.”

“I don’t have an ‘attitude’.” This was simply my blunt and honest reaction. Why me? The thought of marrying that boring, quiet woman seemed like a death sentence.

“Listen here. If I tell you to marry her, you will.”

“Like hell.” I stood, leaving my empty coffee cup on the table. “You actually put this into plans last night with him? Marcus is on board with this?”

He sighed. “No, not yet. Not officially. We were merely discussing ideas.”

“Then I don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Don’t act like you have any control here. Do not even think about having any right to say yes or no to anything I arrange for you.”

“Because it’s just another part of business,” I mocked. “Right?”

“It is. And we would be wise to align with the Romanos. I attempted that with Luka marrying her.”

His phrasing made me pause. “Do you think somebody killed Luka because they wanted an alliance with the Romanos instead of us having one?’

“Marcus spoke about that quite a bit. But he’s a shady asshole who never gives anything away.”

That was the truth. The Romanos were wealthy and had an old influence that couldn’t be contested. But they were sneaky cheats, too.

“I left with the impression that Cecilia won’t let her father know where she is. Marcus brought her up first, almost leaning on the idea of your marrying her to root out whether I knew anything about where she was.”

I wondered if Giulia would know. Isabella had been gossiping at Luka’s funeral.

Maybe I could ask Giulia to listen for more news. She’d report to me. She did willingly of her own accord when she made the connection between how Luka and Rocco died. It was just one of the many things about her that I admired. She could have kept that fact to herself, the similarity of the poisonings, but she’d openly shared it with me.

As soon as this thought about Giulia came, I tried to ignore it. I couldn’t be going on like this, acting like that sassy, smart woman was my ally. My friend.

My partner.

But it was all too easy to see her in that light. She was intelligent. Quick. Observant. If she didn’t know where Cecilia was hiding, she would have ideas about the woman’s motivations.

Why would Cecilia kill Luka, though?

Unless Cecilia was traumatized or too sensitive after losing her husband… Why run away and hide at all?

Luka had been killed at the wedding, and the timing of it stood out to me. Why not kill him before? Or later? I didn’t understand why Luka had been killed when he was.

Maybe the killer could only reach him in that big crowd? It warranted more thought.

If someone wanted to avoid a Bernardi-Romano union, they would’ve had to kill him before they shared their vows. The only likely enemy who’d want to stop the Romanos from aligning with us would have been the Acardis.

Maybe Rocco did kill Luca. And he killed himself afterward from the guilt and to escape justice.

That didn’t seem likely, though.

Could Cecilia have done it?

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