Page 75 of The Devil Can Be Kind

“There have been several attacks during the night.” Marco began, also settling down into his chair. “Attacks we believe were orchestrated by your family.”

“What happened?” I asked hesitantly, not entirely convinced he would answer me.

My father never had.

Marco ran his hand across his chin, pulling at the skin. “They hit two of our narcotics labs. The laboratories were in the basements of businesses I had in New York. One was a dive bar, the other a motel. They annihilated everyone on site.”

Marco pressed a button on the black remote that was laying on the desk beside him. A television news broadcast filled theroom, and I swung around to watch the news headline as it trailed across the screen behind me.

“Twenty-one people confirmed dead in a deadly mass shooting in downtown New York. The incident, now being termed the ‘Deadly Dive Bar Shooting’ coincided with an equally deadly motel shootout in the early hours of this morning. Twelve are thought to be dead and sixteen more seriously injured after gunfire was heard on the property. A police investigation is currently underway.”

Body bags being heaved into ambulances flashed across the screen and people were seen on their knees in various states of despair. Flowers being laid in respect of the dead.

The newscaster’s voice cut off abruptly and the study fell back into a harsh silence.

Tears leaked from my eyes, and I quickly swiped them away with my sleeve.

“Your family’s representatives took responsibility for both attacks this morning.” It was Benny who spoke this time, his gravelly voice somewhat calming.

I shook my head, words escaping me.

This went much further than raiding drugs and money… This was the indiscriminate killing of over thirty innocent people.How could they do this?I felt sick knowing that the same blood that went through those murderous veins, pumped through my own.

I swallowed thickly, feeling my coffee from earlier trying to resurface.

“As grisly as the attacks are, the good thing about this situation is we now know your father’s hand. It is clear the Mannino’s think we are limited to our territory in New York and is oblivious to our stronghold here in Chicago,” Benny said.

“It is of some consolation,” Marco agreed mutedly.

I met his gaze as it brushed against my skin. “Ada, you should know I have every intention of striking back.”

His expression was lethal but somewhere in the swirling darkness of his irises I thought I saw regret.

I looked down at my hands, clutched tightly on my lap.

I didn’t want my father or anyone in my family to get hurt…but doing nothing would mean permitting the slaying of innocent people. And these attacks were only the beginning.

“I need your help.”

That caught my attention.

I shook my head, meeting his gaze. “They never told me anything.”

“Perhaps you may have overheard something? Any business trips he frequently made?” Benny questioned gently.

It would mean betraying my family if I relinquished what little information I had.

At the same time, hadn’t they already betrayed me?

“I know they own a casino on the Las Vegas strip called Paradise Place.”

It was a bit of information I had learned while snooping in my father’s study one day. He had mistakenly left the door unlocked, the paperwork with deeds to the casino sitting openly on his desk. It was the very casino I had kept asking him for a job at.

“That confirms our intel.” Marco said, looking at Benny who nodded slightly.

I cast my mind back to Las Vegas, to Boulder, to anything that could be useful to Marco. Sifting through my memories now made me feel nothing short of shame. Back then, I had thought that all families within the Cosa Nostra were just as depraved as each other, with no one’s hands being clean. But now, I couldn’t help feeling like my family were at the top of that ever-shifting list with more than just their hands coated in innocent blood.

Perhaps that was why I decided to surrender the last piece of information I had.

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