Page 168 of Ruthless Sin
Quiet.
“Skazhi mne, chto on skazal.”Tell me what he said.
He looks at me. He takes one breath.
Voice rough.
“Sokolov told me. Before he left the room. Your father. Alexei poisoned him. Digoxin in his tea. Three months.”
The room I am in goes flat.
“He said you were ten.”
Gia does not look up. The stitch goes in.
“He said you brought him the tea. He said you sat beside him while he died.”
I do not move.
My jaw goes tight. My right hand closes on the edge of the cot. The grip does not open.
My father did not die of his heart.
My father was killed slow while I sat next to the bed.
I take one breath. Another. The third is the one that holds.
Nico’s hand finds my knee. One press. His fingers are warm through the fabric and my pulse spikes hard and I hate that it does and I need it to keep doing it.
I stand. I press my mouth to the corner of his forehead where there is no cut.
His breath changes against my cheek. His jaw goes tighter than the medic’s stitches allow. His hand doesn’t let go of my knee until I step back.
I walk to the back room.
The back room.
Marco at comms. Izzy at her laptop, six monitors lit. Renzo standing at the table, vest still on, the blood on his sleeve dried. Dante at the head of the table, signet ring on his hand. Cassia next to him, the bump full under the silk robe, hair down. Nonna in the doorway in her apron with her rosary in her left hand.
Nico’s chair is empty.
I’m at the table.
My hand is clean. Giada scrubbed Sofia’s blood off it in the medical wing while I stood at the sink and didn’t speak.
Sofia is in surgery. The bullet missed the kidney. Giada said missed. I held the word.
Now I am here.
I walked into the back room without being invited. Nobody told me to leave.
The door opens.
Nico. White shirt on over the bandages, sleeve down over the taped forearm. The cut at his eyebrow is closed. He looks at me once when he walks in. Then he looks at the table. He takes his place at the far side where the Consigliere stands.
Dante looks at Nico.
Nico. Voice flat. The Consigliere register.
