Page 24 of Her Dark Mafia Protector
“No, I wouldn’t have,” he scowls. “And did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Find answers.”
“No,” I say with a heavy sigh. “Unfortunately, a woman there ratted me out as a cop before I could discover anything.”
“Jesus, Elle. You’re really damn lucky that I got there when I did,” he says, sounding more relieved than angry now. “Do you have any idea what they do to cops?”
“No, but I think they were about to show me.”
Nico rolls his eyes at me and lets out a groan as if he doesn’t think I’m taking any of this seriously. Trust me, Iam.
“What were you doing there anyway?” I ask, suddenly realizing how remarkable it was that he arrived at the exact moment that I needed him. “How did you know I would be there and that I needed your help?”
He raises a brow at me. “Have you forgotten who I am?” he asks sarcastically.
“Of course not,” I let out a small chuckle as relief finally settles in and my adrenaline starts to fade. “You’re the infamousGhost. But seriously, your timing was impeccable this time.”
My last couple of words sting us both. They’re a keen reminder thatthistime he was able to prevent tragedy from happening, unlike the night my mother was killed.
Nico is quiet for a few minutes, and it makes me feel unsettled, as if he’s holding back from me again. After a few long minutes, he answers.
“I need to tell you something,” he says as he pulls the car over to the side of the road and turns to face me. “I wasn’t sure that I wanted to divulge this to you. I was hoping that you’d find out on your own, but considering that you’re not going to stop throwing yourself into danger until you find out the answer to your single most important question, I now feel compelled to reveal this to you.”
“Okay,” I say hesitantly. “What is it?”
“I told you before that I suspected your father’s involvement in covering up the investigation into your mother’s shooting,” he says slowly. “And I told you the truth about not knowing who exactly was responsible for killing her and who orchestrated the whole thing. But what Ididn’ttell you about that night is that there wasanotherperson there in that alley.”
Shards of my own memories resurface and cut through me again. I knew I had seen someone else, too. I knew it wasn’t just my imagination or a stupid coping mechanism.
“I honestly wasn’t certain who it was until today,” he continues. “But today, while you were undermining my warnings and breaking your promise by going on some risky undercover mission that exploded into chaos at the nightclub, I went to the police station to confront your father.”
“Youwhat?” I ask in shock. “Confront him about what? How he mishandled the investigation?”
“No, I went to confront him abouthaving your mother killed.”
A ringing starts in my ears as if my mind is trying to disassociate from what I’m about to hear.
“He admitted it, Elle. It was yourfatherthat night in the alley with us. He’s the one who hired the gunman to shoot your mother. He confessed all of it in his office today. Your mother had a lot of dirt on him and the corrupt shit he was doing while hiding behind his badge. She was getting ready to leave him and expose your father, and he was trying to save his own ass.Heis your mother’s true killer.”
“I don’t believe you,” I say, even though I know in my sinking heart that what Nico is saying is true. Perhaps deep,deepdown, I’ve always suspected it.
“You don’t have to,” he says as he pulls a small recording device out of his jacket pocket. He presses a button, and the sound of my father’s voice fills the car.
I listen with tears streaming down my face as my father confesses to having orchestrated my mother’s murder. And by the time the recording is finished, the front of my shirt is soaked with tears.
My father betrayed me, and Nico watched it happen.
CHAPTER 18
ELLE
Idon’t say another word for the rest of the car ride as Nico drives us back to his apartment. This time, he doesn’t take me to his safe house out in the middle of the desert. This time, he winds down a few city streets until he reaches an unassuming-looking building that could double as both an apartment building and an old factory. It’s set off the Strip, out of plain sight, but not in the middle of the sandy stretch.
At some point on the drive, he tells me why he doesn’t want me to be alone in my apartment tonight. It has something to do with my “stunt” at the nightclub and the chance that one of those men might still be a threat to me. But I can read between the words that he is saying and what hereallymeans—Nico is worried that my father is a threat to me now, just like he was to my mother.
The funny thing is, though, that I don’t think my father could possibly hurt me any more than he already has. He took away my mom, and he set my life on a course of pure obsession for more than a decade after that. I’m not sure there’s any physical damage that he can do to me that would hurt any worse.
