Page 69 of Fierce Secrets

"Not anymore." Gray's jaw ticked, and he glanced at me beside him, the edge of his mouth curving slightly. "Cosimo Malatesta was found dead in a dumpster outside Leo's building. They're blaming us."

"Jesus," Sofia whispered, sinking into a leather armchair opposite us. "This is about to get ugly, isn't it?"

"Probably."

"This reeks of a frame job," Sofia stated. "It's too obvious. If Leo were to kill someone, why dump them at his own business building?" She shot me an apologetic look, but I was beyond that. I knew the kind of man Leo was, and I'd come to terms with it to some degree. Whether or not I was going to choose to accept it fully was another story.

"Agreed." Gray clasped his hands before him. "It's sloppy, but the Malatestas..." He shook his head. "Half the family wants a meeting, to handle this diplomatically. The other half is chomping at the bit for war."

"But why target Meredith?" Sofia leaned forward. "She's not involved in any of this. I'm assuming that's why we're here, right? They're the ones who are going after her?"

Gray's expression darkened. "Yes, we've now learned it's them making the threat on her. Our intel says someone witnessed Leo being protective over Meredith at a club. They're wanting to use her as leverage."

"Oh god." Sofia cringed. "Our night out. Fuck, I'm sorry, Mer."

The memory of Leo pulling that handsy guy off me, the way he'd watched over me all night – it hadn't just been protective, it had been possessive. And now that protection had painted a target on my back.

Wonderful.

"This villa is secure, we'll be safe here while Leo and his people get to the bottom of this mess," Gray assured us, but something in his voice seemed off. "One of our best safe-houses, away from the city."

I pursed my lips, unable to shake the feeling that we were missing something important. The timing of everything – Sullivan's blackmail, the Malatesta death, the threats – it felt too coordinated to be coincidence.

"I think…" Sof looked pointedly at me, and I knew what she was thinking.

We both knew the identity of the blackmailer, and with this shift, Gray needed to know. He needed to know the one wanting money wasn't a huge threat, at least, we didn't think he was. Although we could be wrong.

"Gray, I know the blackmailer. I didn't at first, but then I remembered," I said, and he turned to me like I'd just slapped him.

"Why didn't you say something? When did you remember?" he asked, his voice harsher than I imagined he'd planned. Considering everything going on, I didn't blame him. It was something I should've shared as soon as we'd been in the car with Roman in all honesty.

"When I went to your new place and saw my medical records," I stated, and he softened.

"Those files, I'm sorry, Mer."

"It's fine, just another part of my life I probably needed to remember or relearn in order to move past. But It's Andrew Sullivan, Dad's old partner with AA Finances." I waved off his pained expression. The files were the least of our concerns right now.

"Really? That guy?" His tone was incredulous.

"He's bankrupt, lost his wife and business, pretty much homeless too now," Sof added. "I looked him up when Mer told me. We didn't want to tell anyone in case he was handled… aggressively. He's just a desperate lowlife from the look of things. Death probably isn't what he deserves, and we know that's probably the Donati way of handling it." She used Leo's family name rather than saying him directly, although from what she'd said, Leo was the one heading the branch of the Donati family in Ironstone.

"Right, that's understandable, but still, it's information I could've used as soon as you knew. I'll get onto it. That man was always good with computers, so makes sense if Dad had his security feeds set up to go to an offline server he could access as well. He'd know to cover his tracks too if he saw the video and wanted to protect himself, it was a time when even our own guys were still learning tech. Sullivan was always ahead of the gamethere." Gray was up and pacing now, his phone in hand. "How it looks might not be what it truly is, I know that better than most, but I'll find out the truth and we'll get this whole matter sorted. I'll make sure it's handled the right way too," he added, giving me a knowing look. It was his way of saying Leo would find out, but Gray would make sure he didn't go bury the desperate man. They'd handle it in a civil way if possible, which I was grateful for.

He headed down the hall as he made a call, and I sighed and curled into the arm of the couch as Sof watched me.

"Well, guess we're stuck here until they get this sorted. Wonder if they have any board games?" she mused as she glanced around.

She was right, until we had the all clear, our lives were on hold for a while.

Was I ever going to catch a break?

Sofia's laughterechoed down the hall as she rushed to the bathroom, leaving Gray and me alone with our scattered playing cards. The silence felt heavy between us.

"I'm sorry," Gray said suddenly, staring at the cards in his hands. "For hiding everything from you. I know what you must think of me now, because of what I did. The blood on my hands."

We'd been using Sof and games to mask the issue between us, a distraction while we could. But now she was gone, and it was time to face what was eating at us both.

I pursed my lips, studying my brother's profile. The last rays of the sunset streaming through the window caught the silver threading through his hair – when had that appeared?

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