Page 24 of Vito

It's like someone sucker-punched me in the gut, and I struggle to catch my breath. "Why? Why would he call you?"

"I don't know. I don't. Fucking. Know."

Why would Aiken call someone he's supposed to have a neutral relationship with? Why wouldn't he have called 911, Gus, or Ambrose? Or any of the Chamber leaders?

"What did he say?" I choke out.

Do I want to know my brother's last dying words?

Vito's eyes work over my face, likely asking himself that same question. He finally answers, "He said three words: 'Vito… Call Ed.'"

I'm reeling as the sucker-punch feeling hits me again.

Aiken… my brother, who I basically disowned, even though he was innocent of our parents' wrongdoings… His dying words were about me.

But why?

Vito's face is tight and pensive. "As far as anyone else knows, Aiken's last words to me were only 'call Ed'. No one knows thathe purposefully called me. I made it sound like he hit me in his call log, just as likely as he could've hit anyone else."

I get it. The fact that Aiken purposefully called Vito could put a target of suspicion on his back. "And you two weren't friends?"

"No."

I frown, trying to put the pieces together.

"He couldn't have meant for you to call me about the succession plan." I explain the triggered email response that Aiken had programmed to send me.

"So there's another reason he wanted us to connect."

I bite my lip, staring out the windshield into the black night. "Maybe he was worried I wouldn't come back."

That would've been a real worry for Aiken. The last time I had talked to him five years ago, he wanted me to come and run some bar with him—which now I know is Gilly's—and I basically told him to go fuck himself. That was when I said my only contact with him would be the annualI'm alivetext. At the time, I felt Aiken was pushing and asking too much of me.

Yet, here I am, right where he wanted me… except without him by my side.

"Maybe he thought you'd be able to convince me somehow?" I suggest.

"Or that I could hunt you down to bring you back. Aiken is familiar with my skill set." Vito reminds me that he's a career criminal. "And that idea does have elements of appeal." He grins, lifting the heaviness that is pressing in on me.

"Bitch, please." I roll my eyes, and he bursts out laughing.

He shakes his head, looking a bit in wonder. "You make me laugh, Eden. And joke." He fists the steering wheel with one hand and shifts gears with his other as he takes off. "Two things I rarely do outside of my family."

I'm not sure how to take that. Or the revelation that Aiken called Vito…specifically and purposefully.

Was it because he felt he could trust Vito? Did Vito know something he didn't even realize he knew? Did I?

My head pounds with too many questions and not enough answers.

"How did he die?" I ask as we drive along the dark stretch by the water. Ohith had refused to give me any details when he'd discovered Aiken had been murdered. Vito stays silent. "Please. I need to know."

He sighs, staring ahead. "Multiple stab wounds, several deep slashes. The back of his head took a beating from being hit into the wall. The place was a mess—broken tables and chairs, bottles. From that and Aiken's busted knuckles, he fought hard and didn't go easy."

My hands shake—the chink in my armor—and I fist them. "The surveillance cameras were taken out?"

"Yes, as were the CCTVs in the area. The place was locked up when Raf and I got there. The CSI team concluded their report yesterday; any fiber and print evidence they collected was inconclusive—being it was a bar…"

That would be a shitshow in itself.

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