Page 41 of Charity's Redemption

I stood, pulling her to her feet by her arm. “You need to go. At least until I talk to him.”

“Talk to who? What’s going on?”

“Luca. They found John dead in his apartment this morning.” I marched her to the hall, and peeked over the banister, making sure Luca wasn’t visible, then hauled her downstairs to the garage door. “You need to leave.”

“No. If I run, I look guilty. I just got off his shit list… like fifteen minutes ago.”

“He doesn’t even know you know. It’ll look like you were leaving like normal. Besides, he doesn’t even know yet.”

“How do you know, then?”

“Vito.”

I walked her to her blue Civic, then opened her car door and placed her inside the driver’s seat.

“And where do you want me to go?”

“Go home. Do errands. I’ll call you when I know more.”

“This won’t go over well, will it?”

“I’ll make sure everything will be okay.”

“I didn’t do it, Max.”

“If I thought you did, I wouldn’t give you a heads-up,bella.”

Charity pulled a weak smile across her face, making my chest ache for her. It wasn’t fair that shit kept going wrong for her. “I fucking love you,bella.” Leaning in, I kissed her goodbye, her fingers threading through my hair as she pulled me closer. It took all I had to pull her off and send her on her way.

“And I fucking love you.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

I shut her door, and opened the garage and watched her back out, then walked inside, closing it after her.

Back-and-forth conversation with a calm tone flowed from the kitchen like an invisible melody in the air.

When I stepped into the kitchen, Vito’s eyes locked with mine.

He knew I warned Charity. Is that what he’d expected? Is that why he told me? I walked over to the cappuccino machine and prepared myself for another. With Luca and Vito at my back, I braced myself against the counter and closed my eyes, just waiting.

Waiting for my coffee, waiting for the shoe to drop, waiting for Luca to lose his shit.

“We put some feelers out there to see where he might’ve gone, but so far, it’s been dead ends. He knows how to cover his tracks,” Vito said, talking about Agent Harding.

If I got my hands on that man, I’d bury him beside the junkie I killed a while back—in the middle of the woods, with no one but the earth worms to keep him company.

“Okay, keep searching. We can’t have him snooping around.”

“You think that’s what he’s doing?”

I turned around to join the conversation, my caffeine in hand. “That’s most definitely what he’s doing. Charity ruined his pristine reputation, got him kicked off the case, and sent back to DC. If I were him, I’d want revenge.” I took a sip. “What better way to do that than prove to everyone he was right and put him in the limelight.”

“Speaking of Charity.” Vito eyed me as if he expected me to interject and stop him from telling Luca.

“What about her?”

“John’s dead.”

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