Page 35 of The Secrets We Keep

“Really, Dom. It’s fine. I—”

“Did you get married and not tell me?” Matteo wondered. “Because if not, your…girlfriend can go while we talk business.”

Emilia tried to extract her hand from Dom’s grip, squeaking softly when he tugged her into his lap and met Matteo’s steely glare with his own. “She stays.”

“Great,” Luca said to defuse the tension, stepping between his brothers. “Now that it’s settled. The report from my contact.”

He unsealed the envelope with the information Sienna had given him and spread the pages out over the low table between the two couches. Alexei and Matteo reached out to grab photos, Alexei handing some to Dom, who kept one arm wrapped tight around Emilia’s waist to keep her from bolting.

“Gallo’s got more politicians than we thought in his pocket.”

“Jesus,” Alexei mumbled. “The Regional President?”

Luca nodded. “And the chief of police, two prefects, and the mayor of Catania.”

“Chief of police makes sense,” Carina said, looking at the photos in Alexei’s hands. “I always thought the investigation into his brother’s murder was a little suspicious.”

“What do you mean?” Matteo asked, glancing up from the photos he was studying.

“Something like three or four years after you left, Nero’s brother was killed, along with his whole family. Wife, five kids and their spouses, nine or ten grandchildren. All of them wiped out and then the house set on fire.”

“That’s awful,” Emilia breathed, tears gathering in her eyes. It wasn’t all that far off from how her mother died. Even if Dom insisted the bitch deserved it.

“It was.” Carina sighed, slipping her arm through Alexei’s and resting her cheek against his shoulder. “They eventually pinned it on a small gang, unaffiliated. But it always smelled like a hit to me. The Romanos thought so too.”

Luca swallowed and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I didn’t realize you followed that story.”

“All of Sicily followed it. Mafia or not, Gallo is still a big name on this island.” Carina tilted her head to study him. “Surely you heard about it.”

“Of course I did. I just didn’t pay much attention,” Luca lied. He’d eaten up every article he could find about it until they stopped printing them. “The casinos were starting to get bad then. I was working a lot.”

Dom snorted, tossing the photos back onto the table and pressing a kiss to Emilia’s shoulder. “An understatement.”

“So then what’s the plan with all of this?” Carina gestured to everything laid out before them. “You can’t just kill Sicily’s president or chief of police.”

“At least not without raising some serious red flags,” Alexei added.

“How much is Gallo paying them?” Matteo wondered.

“About two thousand a month. Sometimes it’s more. I assume those bumps come when they do him an extra favor.”

“We could afford to double it.” Matteo tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. “Get them to defect to us.”

“I don’t think that’ll work.” Every head turned to look at Emilia, her hand flying to her mouth as if she could shove the words back in. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“Why won’t it work?” Matteo asked, voice cold, stare measured.

“It’s really not my place.”

“You’ve made it your place now. So tell me,” Matteo demanded, ignoring Dom’s warning growl.

Emilia glanced down at Dom, who nodded for her to continue, his hand skimming up and down her back. “I just…when I was paying off my mother’s loan to Varda, it was the threat of violence as much as the desire to be out from under the debt that kept me paying. Often putting down extra to be done with it. Done with him.”

Carina glanced back at the photos on the table. “So the money is changing hands. But it’s probably the blackmail files that are really keeping them in line.”

“Yeah. At least. That would be my guess.”

“Very clever,” Alexei said, and a small smile ghosted Emilia’s lips.

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