Page 50 of Omega in Hiding

Unfortunately, I’ve had no luck tracking Connor down. His cell phone number was disconnected. He never returned to hislast known address, and the childcare agency had no forwarding address for him. The trail had gone ice cold. He seemed to have simply vanished into thin air.

But yesterday Enzo saw him in the flesh.

Pure excitement rolls through me at that thought. It gives me hope I might find Connor. The problem is, I don’t know where Enzo just returned from. He was on some errand for Alessio up north, but I don’t know exactly where. If I can hide my presence long enough to hear the details Enzo might have, there’s a chance I can find Connor.

“Do you want me to make sure he never comes back?” Enzo asks, cracking his knuckles. “I could silence him permanently.”

A chill runs through me as I wait for Dario’s answer.

“I’m not sure.”

I grit my teeth, wanting to strangle both of them. How dare they toy with the idea of murdering Connor just because of me. The callous, nonchalant way they discuss his death makes me sick to my stomach.

Dario sighs. “I’m reticent to kill the kid. He’s a pain in the ass, but he did protect Baby Joesph and Paolo. He risked his own life to make sure they were safe. He deserves some grace for that.”

“True.”

“Don’t tell Alessio about spotting Connor, okay?” Dario’s tone is conspiratorial. “He’s softer than I am about this kind of thing. I wouldn’t want him to tell Paolo where Connor is.”

“I don’t feel right not telling Alessio. He is my boss.”

“We’re both your bosses, Enzo,” Dario rumbles.

“Yeah, I know. But he was my boss first. I… I just don’t want Alessio to get mad at me if he finds out I held something back from him.”

“I’ll take the flack. Don’t you worry about that.” Dario adds, “Alessio won’t be able to not tell Paolo where Connor is. Then Paolo might try to go to Connor. That’s too dangerous right now. We’re in the middle of a war with the Murphy Clan.”

“You have a point,” Enzo murmurs. “Paolo shouldn’t be sneaking off on his own in search of Connor.”

“Exactly. You just do as I tell you for now. It’s best for Paolo this way. Definitely safer.” Dario’s tone is condescending. “Sometimes you have to protect people from themselves.”

I bite my tongue to keep from screaming with frustration. I’m not a little kid. I don’t need Dario to protect me from Connor, for God’s sake. He really is so damn controlling.

“What if we bribe Connor to stay away?” Enzo suggests. “That would be one solution that lets him live, but keeps him quiet.”

Dario grunts. “You think he’d take the money?”

“I don’t know. I get the feeling the kid has a code of honor. But it might be worth a try. Who doesn’t love money? He might go for it.”

“Or it might piss him off and he’d return out of spite,” Dario says drolly. “He can’t be around Paolo. I don’t know what Paolo will do. I’ve never seen him so smitten with an omega. Connor probably knows that too. He might try to use that.”

“You think so?”

“It’s a definite possibility. Who knows what that guy is capable of? Connor was hiding shit when he was here.”

“Yeah?”

Dario grunts. “Oh, yeah. I looked deeper into that story about the shooting in Los Demonios where Connor’s sister supposedly died.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah. I just had a gut feeling about it.” Dario sighs. “Six people died that day. However, there was no young girl named Amelia among the victims.”

“Seriously?” Enzo sounds uneasy. “You mean, Connor lied about her dying?”

“Either that or he lied about her name. But I don’t know why he’d do that.”

That information surprises me. Why would Connor have faked a story about his sister dying? Unless Dario got it wrong about her name not being on the list of victims. But Dario doesn’t get many things wrong. If Amelia’s name had been among the victims, odds are, Dario would have seen it.

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