Page 85 of The Secrets We Keep

“Tell me, then.”

“Your father, your brothers. They commanded too much respect.” Nero shrugged so casually it made her want to scream. “Your father was rallying men against me. In talks with the Bianchis about marriage after my talks about Dante marrying Carina fell through.”

Sienna’s eyes darted up to Luca’s and back to her uncle.

“You’re a lying son of a bitch. They were nothing but loyal to you.” Tears bubbled up, and she shoved them back down. “They never would have betrayed you like that.”

“Everyone’s loyalty has a price. I didn’t want to wait around wondering what theirs might be. I did what I had to do to preserve my legacy.”

“And look what good it did you.” She pressed the gun into his temple, enjoying the quick flash of fear in his eyes. “You’re a fucking coward. Murdering women and children and loyal men because you’re afraid. Fear has a price too. And now you get to pay it.”

“You don’t have the fucking guts, Sienna.”

She chuckled softly, but there was no humor in it. “I’d have agreed with you once. But I’ve killed two men already, and I didn’t bat an eye. I’d kill a hundred men if you were waiting for me at the end of it.”

“Your father would have made the exact same decision if he was in my place.”

“He wouldn’t have.” Sienna shook her head. “He never would have betrayed you like that.”

“If you say so, little girl.” Nero snorted. “You have no idea what kind of violence your father was really capable of.”

“Maybe not. But I guess that means I come by it honestly.”

Nero opened his mouth to speak, but the words died on his tongue when she pulled the trigger. He slumped to the side, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and down over his chin. More blood painted the bookcase behind him, sliding down the expensive polished wood.

And his eyes, so much like her father’s, were left wide and staring.

“Baby girl,” Luca whispered in her ear while Alexei reached for the gun, prying it from her fingers. “It’s done. You’re done. He’s gone.”

Luca pulled her away so Alexei could finish staging the body and the scene, pressing Nero’s fingerprints into the gun and then letting it drop to the floor.

“No sign of our mystery man,” Dom said from the doorway. “But it looks like we’re finished here.”

Sienna let Luca lead her away, pausing for one last look at her uncle’s lifeless body. She wished she could say she felt happy he was dead. But his death was just the last in a long line of tragedy.

All that was left now was to start over.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Sienna sat curled in the corner of the sofa in the great room, surrounded by the wreckage of brightly colored wrapping paper and pretty ribbons and bows. It had been a long time since she’d celebrated Christmas with anyone.

It was different from her childhood. Smaller, quieter, less frenzied. But it was good and solid. For the first time in a long time, she was looking forward to what the new year would bring.

Her uncle was dead, her vendetta finished. They’d figured out it was Drago who’d escaped from the compound that night. Slithering away like the snake he was. But Matteo was sure he was holed up in the Syracuse territory with Antonetti.

Matteo seemed to want Drago’s blood on his hands as much as Sienna did. Luca found his brother’s singular focus on her uncle’s right hand curious, but as long as he ended up dead at the end of it, she’d let Matteo’s obsession carry her to her end goal.

She’d sent the evidence she had against Nero to the press and then agreed to a single sit-down interview with Valentina to explain as much as she could. If Valentina sensed holes in Sienna’s story, she didn’t press for answers.

Maybe it was a good enough story without all the facts. Now the world knew Nero for who and what he was. A monster and a traitor. A man willing to murder his entire family in the name of greed and fear.

Restivo had been forced to resign, and Matteo was working hard to get his man Bonacci elected president in the next special election. And the chief of police had locked himself in his office and put a gun to his head when the state police came to arrest him.

She imagined more of her uncle’s contacts would fall like dominoes under the scrutiny of corruption. The Bianchis were eager to put their own men in the vacant spaces.

With the entire Gallo family dead save for Sienna, Gallo Industries would legally pass to her as the only surviving family member. Sienna thought about pushing back against Matteo’s plans to absorb the organization, to claim what was hers, but she liked the idea of taking what was and creating something new, something better. Plus, it gave her time to focus on other things.

It was a strange thing, coming back from the dead, all the legal machinations, to say nothing of the emotional toll. Luca had taken her to visit her family’s graves for the first time, holding her while she sobbed.

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