Page 74 of Weaponized

“We think we know where the video is being stored, and it does look like it was Gianni who was recording it,” Matteo tells me.

“Maybe he really was looking out for Luca,” Anthony offers weakly. I feel my blood pressure rise. “Maybe he caught some other things on that video that we don’t know about, and it’s why he’s acting this way.”

“Maybe,” my dad says. He sounds so much like Matteo in that moment. “But show Luke what you found while we wait for more on the video from Gráinne’s apartment.”

My eyes widen when Anthony sighs and nods. “So, we watched the exterior surveillance video of our house while you were,uh, resting. We found a couple interactions between Lucky—uh, between Gráinne and Gianni.” He taps a few buttons. “This one is that first night she came to the house. The night you got into it with Gianni because you said he grabbed her.”

“Yeah, he said she came onto him and he shrugged her off,” Matteo spits. “I wanted to see that.”

“Just watch,” Anthony sighs. And I do. The black and white video has no sound, but I watch Rowan approach with Gráinne in tow. He talks to Gianni for less than a minute before he tries to guide his sister by Gianni, who is openly ogling her. I watch as Gianni grabs her wrist and Rowan’s posture stiffens. He must say something, because Gianni sneers during his response. Bastard squeezes her before letting go. Gráinne follows her brother into the yard, rubbing her wrist the whole way.

I want to punch someone. I stand up. “Luca, sit. There’s more.” My dad’s instructions stop me. I run a hand through my hair and return to my spot by Anthony.

“Yeah, um. This one is pretty bad, but again, we don’t know his reasons,” Anthony tells me anxiously.

“Bad? Bad how? Did he grab her again?” My leg starts to bob.

“Uh, yeah. This was from today. About forty-five minutes or so before Gianni came inside.” He pulls up the screen.

“She was here? Today?” I can’t believe the words. She came to see me? She came to the house? My heart is in my throat. Anthony hits play.

Gráinne walks up our driveway looking polished, put together. Always beautiful, my angel. The video switches to closer up when she gets to my front porch.She was on my front porch. Today. Right here. On the other side of the door.

She runs into Gianni. Motherfucker grabs her by the face. Hard.

“What the fuck?” I burst out.

“It gets worse,” Anthony admits sheepishly.

I’m going to kill Gianni. How could he touch her like—on video, she swipes his arm off her and then, Jesus fucking Christ, he steps back and takes a swing at her. Once. Twice. Three times Gráinne dodges his fist. His fist! All the air has backed up in my lungs. I can’t breathe. She brings her palm up to strike his nose. Blood goes everywhere. He rushes at her.Again!This time, she sidesteps him and knees him in the crotch, stomps on his foot, and then, when he’s doubled over, she knocks his legs out from under him. Gianni goes down like a pile of bricks on my front porch. Hits his head on our door. Hard.

I watch as Gráinne stomps back to her car. Shoulders back, posture stiff. She’s not shaking or afraid. She’s clearly pissed. Gianni sits on our front porch, holding his face. Christ. I’d seen my girl playing around in our boxing ring. I had no clue what she was truly capable of. She had shown me pieces of herself and I never put it all together. Foreign languages. Kicking ass. I’m beginning to get an entirely new perspective of this beautiful woman I still love. I just don’t know what it all means. Pieces are still missing.

Anthony stops the video. “He does that for almost an hour before he comes around the back. He probably has a concussion, which could be why he seems so out of it for a little while there. She really rang his bell.”

“She tried to talk to you but couldn’t reach you,” my dad muses.

“What?” I have no idea what that means. Is that supposed to be a joke?

He just shakes his head, and has the audacity to look amused. But, it’s Matteo who speaks, and like me, he finds no humor in this situation. “Theo Nicopolis, he told us. Nicopolis wishes he could fight like Gráinne.”

Gianni lied. Flat-out lied. I believed every word. None of this makes sense. I—

“We have access to the video,” my father announces, looking at his phone. “I’ll send you a link,” he tells Anthony. To my brother and me, he explains, “These are the surveillance cameras we use. Gianni somehow got them from his dad. I’m looking into that. They are motion and sound activated. There should be one continuous feed from each room, starting and stopping whenever sound or motion triggered them.”

I stand up again and Pop and Matt both say, “Sit down.”

Anthony pulls something up on his laptop. “There are different rooms. I mean, yeah, like your dad said. Shit. There is probably a couple hundred hours of video here. Uh, I’ll have to click on each section to see what room it recorded.”

I say nothing. I’ve lost words. I watch helplessly as he clicks play and we see Gráinne, in a robe, stroll into her bathroom.

“Stop that feed,” my dad barks. God, Rowan was right. This is sick.

Anthony complies just as Gráinne reaches to untie her robe. Next, he goes to another feed. Her bedroom. I suck in a breath as I watch myself come hustling in with Gráinne thrown over my shoulder.She’s laughing and I’m smiling like a lovesick fool. I throw her on the bed.

“I don’t think we want this one either.” My dad sighs and looks at me with something close to pity.

I snap my eyes back to the screen. We were so happy. She is so beautiful. I miss her so fucking much. I can’t believe how badly I fucked this all up. It sits like lead in my stomach.

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