Page 109 of Sin & Secrets

“If they did, the shipment didn’t arrive back in Brooklyn.”

I lean forward. “You mean the Cartel intercepted the package and took it elsewhere?”

“I’m saying no one arrived in Brooklyn within a seventy-two-hour window of the interception with a load that big. Not at the civilian docks.”

“But we know the Cartel has the tobacco right now. They’ve been underselling us for weeks,” Teo adds. “So how the hell did they get it?”

Dante procures his own document and slides it over to me. “There was only one other vessel capable of carrying the shipment, and docked privately within that window.”

There, in black and white, is the name of my private yacht.

I stare at it for a moment. Wondering why I ever allowed myself to think anyone else was responsible for this mess. Because, of course, it was. Of course, he would do something like this.

“I’m going to kill him.”

I look up at Teo. Never in my life have I ever seen him look so furious.

“We can’t,” I let authority lace my tone. “If we go after him, the negotiations were for nothing.”

“Ifyougo after him.”

“Vitale,” Marco places a hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t your fight.”

Teo shakes it off. “The hell it isn’t. My family’s killers are on that damn list. My sister’s murderer.”

“Stand down, Teo,” I snap at him. “Chiavari, Dante. Gather this evidence up to present to the Guild. Take Vitale with you.”

“Like hell,” Teo all but growls at me. “I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not. You’re too emotional. I can’t trust you to have my back in there.”

Teo sneers. “I’mtoo emotional? You’ve locked yourself up here for days, Rocco. You’ve barely eaten, barely slept since she left. Don’t you dare come for me, you fucking hypocrite.”

I offer him a long, cool look.

“Martino,” I bark without breaking his stare. “You’re with me.”

The driveinto New York is as tense as it is frustrating. Martino keeps glancing in the rearview as if he might say something.

But it doesn’t matter whether he approves of this solo mission.

I need to speak with him alone. Need to hear the truth from his own mouth. Because if I have to kill him, there can’t be any question about who did it. I need to shoulder that burden alone.

When we finally arrive, Martino tries to get out of the car. But I shake my head. “Keep it running.”

Perhaps it’s the dressing down I gave Teo earlier or the sheer ferocity in my eyes, but he doesn’t object.

The familiar path to the elevator and the long wait up to the penthouse only serve as fuel for my already explosive fury.

I don’t bother declaring my presence. As soon as I reach the apartment, I kick down the doors and storm straight into the room.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise,” Giuliano Moretti all but purrs. “Two visitors in one day, lucky, lucky me.”

“What the hell are you…”

My words catch in my throat at the sight of another figure emerging from the balcony.

Amidst the dense vegetation of my father’s solarium, her cheeks now oddly hollow, and her face streaked with tears is…

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