Page 57 of Confession
She seats herself elegantly in the chair across from my desk.
“To what do I owe this dubious pleasure?”
She chuckles softly. “I always liked you, Vitali.” When I don’t respond to that, her polished fingernails drum on her pearl-studded clutch. “I’ve come with an offering.”
“Why would you offer me something?”
“Because it serves me, of course.”
“Of course. But I imagine it requires something from me.”
“Indeed. But I think it’s something you’ll want to do.”
I gesture for her to continue.
She opens her clutch and pulls out her phone. She fiddles with it briefly then extends it to me across the desk.
I take it and settle back to look at the picture on the screen. It’s two men, one pinning the other to a wall. It’s sexual, not violent. The man pinned against the wall is Alesso DiMaggio, but I can only see the back of the other’s head.
“Swipe through,” Cecilia says.
When I swipe to the next image, my heart skips. I zoom in. No. It can’t be.
I swipe to the next picture, then the next. I zoom in again. I frown.
“What the fuck,” I mutter. “When were these taken?”
“About two and half years ago.”
Some of my panic subsides. I look again. Yeah, his hair is longer, like when …
Like when he applied for a job at Eclipse.
I set Cecilia’s phone down. “Why show me this?”
“So you’ll know I’m telling the truth when I say that your man had quite the fling with my brother, and that fling was what got him a very lucrative job. One he didn’t actually do—or you wouldn’t be sitting here tonight.”
“Explain.”
“I think you understand what I’m saying, Vitali.”
I do, but it takes a minute for that understanding to take shape, for me to put it into words.
“You’re saying that Alesso hired him to kill me.”
“My father hired him actually, at Alesso’s urging. That’s why he applied for a job here. To get close.”
Everything inside me goes cold and hard. Not again. Not another one, another betrayal. Nothim.
“These pictures don’t prove that.”
“Maybe you should ask him,” Cecilia suggests.
What would he say? Would he tell me the truth?
“I don’t see how any of this is actionable.” Jesus. How the hell do I sound so calm and logical right now?
“Oh, none of this is actionable, certainly. This is all prelude. What I really came to tell you is that your man has in his possession something thatisactionable. He has very compelling evidence against my brother.”
