Page 64 of The Last Vendetta

Her chest ceased rising.

“Cecilia!” Again, I jerked on her arm. “Who stabbed you?”

“Renzo.”

I whipped around to see Giulia. She still stood behind me, on the lookout. Glancing around the room, her small pistol in hand, she remained cautious.

She’d taken her weapon out of her pocket to have my back, and knowing that she was smart and quick enough to know this might still be a dangerous scene, I snapped back to attention.

I wouldn’t be getting any other answers from this dead woman.

Cecilia Romano, and her bastard baby, lay dead on the floor. Bled out, lifeless, and never again able to shed any light or provide any clues on all this grisly drama that surrounded us.

“Fuck.” I stood and stared down at the woman I might have had to marry. No guilt filled me. She hadn’t been mine to protect. I hadn’t failed her.

The only remorse that could hit me was that of not getting here sooner. To see who’d attacked her and wanted to end her life and that of her unborn baby’s. To know who she’d had an affair with.

Anything. I felt thwarted, too late in learning anything that could help me.

If I hadn’t stalled, maybe we would’ve gotten here quicker. If I hadn’t stopped to kiss Giulia and proclaim my commitment to a future with her, if we hadn’t attracted the attention of the Greeks on the road…

All of it.

“Renzo, we should go,” she said.

I nodded, unable to look away from Cecilia and know that she couldn’t help.

I was so close to knowing what happened. I could feel it. The truth was at the tips of my fingers, and I’d lost it.

“Yeah.” I exhaled, looking over Cecilia’s body for any other clues. We couldn’t report this. Doing so would reveal that we were here, looking for answers. I should’ve felt bad to walk away, but that was all I could do. Giulia was right to be worried. I was grateful that she’d held on to common sense that we couldn’t linger. The killer could be near, or spying on us this minute.

That jolted me into action.

I couldn’t stand around here where Giulia could be in danger. We both had to get out of here, but more than that, I had to protect this woman I wanted to make mine.

“Come on.” I took her hand as I retreated. We both kept our eyes peeled and our ears open as we hurried back out the way we’d come.

Sooner or later, someone would come and find this scene. Giulia and I had left no trace of being here. I doubted the surveillance cameras could have caught us walking in. The killer had likely disabled them with swift cuts through the wires.

We weren’t the only ones to walk in here and leave just as quickly.

Another death had been added to the count.

On one hand, we were lucky not to run into them as they killed Cecilia. On the other hand, I hated that we were still in the dark.

“It’s got to be the same person who killed Luka,” Giulia said as we got into the car.

I sped away, nodding while we both checked our surroundings. “I agree.” When she didn’t speak up again, I glanced at her. “Why’d she say that at the end?”

She shook her head. “I… I have no clue.”

“She wanted her bastard baby to live to piss you off?”

Shrugging, she paused in looking around to make eye contact with me for a brief, startled moment. “I don’t know what that means. I never befriended her. I never knew her. And I certainly don’t know anything about her baby.”

Me neither. But I intended to find out. This child had to be tied to this mess.

“We will figure it out.”

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