Page 90 of The Last Dance You Saved
My brows went up. What the hell was he talking about? The jewelry? I hadn’t told him I had it, so how did he know?
“As far as I know, Lorenzo, I haven’t claimed anything that was yours. If either of us has a reason to be upset, it’s me, for multiple reasons, starting with how you had me followed.”
That strange stillness that always surrounded him evaporated in a fairly loud chuckle. It wasn’t the dark and broody one I loved from Rafe, and it wasn’t the tense one Lorenzo had given me when we first met. It was almost light. “Marquess and Steele figured it out? Interesting.”
He drank some of his champagne, waved at mine. “Lighten up, cousin, it’s a wedding.” When I still didn’t drink, he turned serious. “He’s poisoned you against me, I see. No one trusts anyone these days.”
I scoffed. “Because you’re the trusting sort?”
He shrugged. “You’re right. I’m not.”
After a beat, I asked, “So what is it you think I took?”
Puzo slowly waved a hand at the dance floor and the buildings beyond it. “I wanted the ranch, the entire community Rafe tossed aside without a second glance. Now, he won’t walk away from it because you reminded him of what he had waiting for him.”
“He’d kill you and himself before he’d let you have the ranch. That has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the two of you.”
He pondered my words before saying, “Perhaps.” After another few seconds, he added on, “He never believed me, but the reason my cousin’s men could never turn on me like the feds hoped wasn’t because they were terrified of what I’d do to them. It was simply because I hadn’t been involved. I didn’t know what Ike and Theresa were up to and would have put a stop to it if I’d found out.
“Since I took over the reins of the family business, I’ve done everything in my power to legitimize us. Ike’s side of the family was pissed that our grandfather left me in control. They thought I was weak because I wouldn’t do things the way our family before us had. Unfortunately, Rafe got in the middle of a war he didn’t realize was being waged.” I made a sound of disbelief, and he continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Rafe’s cocky ass, and I’d be happy to see him take a fall, but not at the risk of losing everything my family has built.”
“I think he has a scar along his rib cage that proves otherwise,” I said dryly.
“Yes,” he said quietly, weighing every word before he spoke again. “An Italian family always gets revenge for crimes against their own.”
Was he basically admitting he’d put a hit out on Rafe? I drew in a sharp breath, and Lorenzo heard it.
“You misunderstand. Ike may be in jail, but he has brothers and sisters. They’re not here tonight because of our own disagreements, but plenty of my family hates Rafe Marquess for having put Ike behind bars. At the time, they demanded I get revenge, but I wanted nothing to do with murder. Instead, I came here, to Rivers, trying to understand the man who’d gone toe to toe with us. And I found things I’d never expected. Untarnished land. A community where the Marquess and Harrington names held respect not based on fear but based on years of good deeds. For the first time in my life, I was jealous of someone. I wanted what he’d had and tossed away.
“Our family has had lives in our hands that we crushed, businesses we decimated and then recreated. We have dirty city streets and dark alleys. Seeing what Rafe threw away made me determined to make it mine. What better way to get revenge for my family? I wanted the men in this town, the businesses, to look at me with gratitude and respect that was given because of the helping hand I’d extended rather than the slap I’d delivered. And I would have had it if you hadn’t shown up.”
Fallon and Maisey had made their way over to my side of the dance floor, and with a darted glance in Lorenzo’s direction, Fallon spun toward me and tugged on my hands. “Come dance with us, Sadie.”
We all knew what she was doing, pulling me away from my cousin because of Rafe’s hatred for him. If I hadn’t promised my last dance, all my dances, to her father, I would have easily gone with her. Instead, I hesitated.
She pouted. “Come on, show us how it’s done in Tennessee.”
I laughed and then turned to hand my untouched champagne glass back to my cousin. “Thanks for trying to set the record straight. Still doesn’t explain why you had me followed, and it still doesn’t make me trust you, but”—I shrugged— “thanks for trying.”
Then, I joined the two teens, and we shook our hips and raised our hands and celebrated like maybe only farm kids truly knew how to do. Because the work was done for the day, and it would start all over the next, but in these few minutes between night and morning, freedom and joy existed. A few hours untethered to endless tasks.
That was how I felt—untethered and in between. As if I had one foot out of my old life and one foot heading toward the new without it having arrived yet. I was in the great in-between place where demons lurked and lives could still be shifted.
I glanced in Lorenzo’s direction, but he wasn’t watching me. He was smiling at Marielle, who was slow dancing with Nicky, love drifting around them. I wasn’t sure what to make of my cousin, of any of it, but Rafe’s scars were very real and the Puzo family was the reason he had them. Just that was enough to ensure I stayed as far away from my cousin as I could.
Chapter Thirty
Rafe
I FOUND YOU
Performed by Nate Smith
By the time Barry and Ihad gotten to LA and made it to the LAPD headquarters, the SWAT team had gone into the hotel where Adam had been staying and come up empty. Frustration eked into every pore, not only because we’d missed him but because I’d left the people I loved behind for nothing.
I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon pacing the halls of the police station while they sent officers scurrying in all directions, trying to locate him. Even though he’d been staying near the airport, Adam hadn’t purchased an airline ticket in his name. He also hadn’t bought a train ticket, bus fare, or rented a car, and yet his Mercedes had been left behind in the hotel parking lot.
The police assumed he’d somehow headed for the border. If he had the money he’d stolen from the ranch tucked into an anonymous offshore account, he could live for years in some non-extradition country. I was certain what he’d stolen in the last five years had only been the tip of the iceberg. If he started the moment he’d arrived back at the ranch, he likely had a million stashed away. And if he’d been smart and invested it rather than tossed it away in some ridiculous poker game with Puzo, he could have a much more sizeable amount waiting for him.
