“Dominic fucked up; killed an old woman neighbor and left her body in plain view,” I explain, closing the door. A half-truth. The real reason is Dominic touched Taylor, but I don’t need a lecture from my brother about my ring girl ‘friend.’ “To clean up the scene, I had to kill him and torch the house.” It seemed like a good plan in the moment, but I don’t expect Taylor to be thanking me anytime soon.
“Why were you even there?” Inferno presses.
Unable to come up with an excuse, I chose honesty. “You know why.”
He sighs heavily. “Out of all the women in the world, you had to go and catch feelings for this one.”
“Yeah.” My hand runs over my head. “Where’s John?” I deflect.
“In Newark, held by Romeo Parisi.”
“What?” I shout, my voice ricocheting around the room.
“Taken there by Darius Angelos and Fabio Mazza,” he says calmly.
“How do you know this?”
“I was tailing John. Guess where I found him?”
“At the motel meeting Enzo,” I say, my shoulders slumping.
“At the motel meeting Enzo,” he parrots.
My hands fall to the top of my head. “But why did you let them take John?”
“You don’t think I would have saved him if I could,” he snaps. “It was too risky for me to make a move; I would’ve gotten us both killed.” Inferno tells me the plan. “I’d ask if your head’s in the game, but you and John both have yours so far up your asses, neither of you can see straight.”
“Nobody lays a finger on Taylor,” I warn him, dropping my hands.
“Making my point for me, brother,” he chides.
Crossing my arms, I stare him down. “I’m not going anywhere until you swear it.”
“Jesus Christ, I swear it. Now go execute the plan.” He shoves Kat’s unlocked phone at me.
With phone in hand, I hustle to Kat’s holding cell and slip inside, closing the door behind me.
Sauntering across the room, I pull up a chair and sit. Leaning over, I rip off the tape covering her mouth.
“Oww!”
“Small world, isn’t it?” I muse.
“Why am I here?” she demands.
“Funny story. See, I had no clue about your connection to the Parisi family. It wasn’t until you kept pestering me about dealing that I looked into your background.” Inferno looked into it, but close enough. “Turns out curiosity does kill the cat.”
“You’re not going to kill me,” she declares. “Why go to all this trouble bringing me here?Unlessyou need me alive.”
“She’s quick, and she’s smart, ladies and gentlemen,” I mock. “Not to mention connected. Cousin of the Parisi family enforcer. Lover of the Parisi family capo.” I whistle. “My, how things just got interesting.”
“Wifeof a Parisi family capo,” she corrects me. “And when Fabio finds out what you’ve done, let’s just say I’m not going to fucking stop him.”
I laugh with glee. We’ve got their capo’s wife. Even better. “Oh, he’s going to find out, alright. In fact, why don’t we tell him now?” I grab Kat’s phone, holding it up. “Removed the tracker on it, by the way.”
Scrolling through her contacts, I find Fabio’s number and hit call. It goes to voicemail.
A text comes through immediately.