Page 71 of Tito
“So, we do not speak of it. In fact, I never have until today,” Rocky admitted.
“Yeah, it wouldn’t be good for her to know,” Tito agreed.
“There was something we could never figure out though,” Rocky mentioned.
“Yeah? What?” Tito asked.
“Someone killed the hitter, but we never knew who he was or how he did it.”
“What do you mean how?” Tito asked.
“Marco kept babbling about this tall, pale looking devil. He said this devil reduced the hitman to ashes. Marco claimed he saw it happen and he took off before the devil could see him. Stephano asked him where and when. I wondered why he was even giving Marco the chance to say anything, but later on I figured out why. Uncle Stephano had me drive him to the very place where the hitter had been murdered. Oddly enough, we did find a pile of ashes under a tree, just like Marco told us.” Rocky shrugged. “But how could someone be killed like that?”
I almost held my breath as I looked over at Tito.
Chapter Nineteen:It’s The Secrets
Tito
I paused and my gaze met Valencia’s.
She said not a word.
Damn, I hated secrets. Look at what had been kept from me. My father had been murdered over a damned will. Then my brother and uncle took out a family member who had actually hired a hitter to kill our dad. And I never knew about any of it.
“Then if you remember,” Rocky mentioned. “Mama ended up giving that inheritance to Aunt Stella after her husband ran off.” He shook his head. “I almost choked on my drink when she announced that. Mama gave it to her and she said that our father would have done that anyway.”
“Oh, wow,” Valencia murmured. “So he died—”
“For no good reason,” I cut in. “And I agree he would have given it to Stella anyway. He was generous like that. He also had his own money. Too bad Marco was such a self-centered prick that he never thought of that.”
Rocky agreed with me as he nodded. “Marco had been destined to end up badly. He wasn’t a nice guy at all. From what I remember of him, I never heard him laugh or saw him smile. I remember Uncle Stephano looked incensed when Mama made that announcement. But I really don’t think Stella was in on it. She was so torn up by our dad’s death. She loved him. I only met her a few times, but she just wasn’t like that. Now her son and daughter have the winery and the estate. And thank God, they are nothing like Marco. They’re good people and they have no idea about the past.”
“And sometimes that’s good,” I said as I looked over at Rocky. “But you can imagine my shock when we discovered that the girl’s dad was our dad's best friend Tommy. Man, I remember the stories our dad told us about him and Tommy. I never knew that anyone could have so much fun in a small town, in Italy of all places. Then the bigger shock came when Tommaso asked me if we ever found dad’s killer.”
Rocky slowly shook his head. “I bet that wasn’t easy. But damn, brother… I never thought about it much after so many years passed. I mean it was just safer to keep it quiet. I put it out of my head and just lived my life. I also knew if it ever came out suddenly…Well, Mama doesn’t need to have all that opened up again.”
“I get it and I forgive you.” I smirked at him.
Rocky smirked back at me and said, “I never asked for forgiveness, brother.”
“Well, you should have.” I sniffed arrogantly.
“Maybe but I happen to know for sure that there’s lots of shit you never told me,” he accused.
“The hell you mean?” I exclaimed.
“Like where you got the answers to that driving test, that you could not pass the first and the second time. Cause I knew you could not have aced that damned test. Then for the love of God…how did you manage to talk Uncle Stephano into letting you use that limo for your senior prom? How did he ever trust you to bring it back in one piece? Then why did Romeo do your chores for a full summer, right after said prom? What did you have on him? To this day, he will not give me an answer. Then there’s that time when that girl Lana—”
I held my hand up at him. “Whoa!”
Rocky laughed at the panicked look on my face.
I laughed a bit nervously, but I did not want to explain most of this in front of Valencia. “Damn, you have a longass memory, brother. I mean all of that is as old as hell. Why aren’t you interested in the new stuff?”
Rocky stopped chuckling and turned his head to stare at me. “What new stuff?” he asked very seriously.
Valencia laughed.
