Page 107 of Of Lies and Shadows

Bruno must’ve called him. Good. At least this blood-soaked revenge is something I can still control.

I meet him head-on. “I want blood,” I say, my voice low, lethal. “I want that son of a bitch in my basement before the day is out. I want to carve his fucking skin off inch by inch.”

Vito swallows hard, nodding once. “You have my word. I’ll find him.”

But I don’t stop. I step closer, my jaw tight. “You know what’s funny?” My laugh is hollow and cold. “I thought it was you.”

He flinches like I slapped him. “What?”

“I thought you were the rat. Feeding my enemies. Selling me out.” My voice cracks, but not with pain—with fury. “You’ve been by my side for years, and I still lookedat you and saw a knife waiting for my back.”

His face twists in something like grief. He staggers back a step and grips the back of a chair like it’s the only thing holding him up.

“Inadvertently…” he whispers. “Oh god. Dante…”

My stomach drops.

“What did you just say?”

He lifts his head slowly, his eyes shining with something worse than guilt.

He drags both hands down his face, then grips the back of his neck like he can’t hold the weight of it all.

“I didn’t know what Fulvio was planning. But I knew he was angry. About the reassignment. About Bruno. About you.” He swallows. “I thought it was just bitterness. I didn’t think…” He stops himself and looks at me. “I’ve been… close to him. For months now.”

It hits me like a brick to the chest. Not the truth itself, I knew. I’ve always known.

But hearing it now, after this, when Francesca is somewhere down the hall fighting for her life, and Fulvio is out there with her blood on him…

I raise my hand.

“Don’t,” I say tightly. “I’m not in the fucking headspace to hear your confession right now. Keep it for later. Write it in a letter, scream it at your priest, I don’t care.”

He goes silent. I look at him. Cold. Final.

“Just bring him to me.”

He nods like a man condemned. “You’ll have him before the day is over.”

Before either of us can speak again, the door swingsopen.

A doctor steps in, wearing pale-blue scrubs splattered with red that make my heart stop.

“Mr. Forzi?”

I step forward. My mouth won’t move. I just nod.

The doctor takes a breath, folding her hands. “She lost a lot of blood. We had to remove the spleen to stop the hemorrhaging. There were two internal lacerations and a fractured rib. She’s stable now, but she’s critical.”

My knees almost give out.

“The next twenty-four hours will be… critical,” the doctor adds. “We’ll be monitoring her closely. If there’s no further bleeding and no signs of infection, we’ll start to see improvement.”

I nod again and swallow back everything that’s trying to break loose inside me. “Can I see her?”

“Just for a minute. She’s sedated.”

Vito stays behind as I follow the doctor down the hall, my heart pounding in my ears like a war drum, every step heavier than the last.

---