Page 114 of Possessive Sinner
"A woman." I don't want to make this any more dramatic, but I hate saying these words out loud. "One who looked like your mother."
The silence that follows is sharp and immediate, as if all the air has been sucked out of the parking garage.
Alessio's mask slips for just a second. Then he composes himself again. "My mother?" he repeats, slower. "Where the fuck did that come from?"
I pull my phone out, unlock it, and bring up the image, holding it out for him to see. "The eyes."
He looks down at it, and the tendons on his neck strain as he works hard to remain in control of his emotions. The anger that always boils underneath his skin shows for just a moment. "Where the fuck did you get that?"
"Does it matter?" I question in return. "It's the same woman Audra saw."
He doesn't answer right away. Just stares at the screen a second longer before he looks away. He takes a step back to bring some distance between us and leans against the same wall I used a few minutes ago. He regards me thoughtfully, then the mask drops back into place. Clean. Cold.
"So what?" his voice is flat. "Mymotherran out on me eighteen years ago. She must have been a lot of places since."
"Audra saw her six or seven years ago," I point out.
"Fuck."
Yeah. That. Exactly.
We stand there for a second. The weight of it settling. Not just what it means, but what it could mean. If anything. It might just be exactly as Alessio's old man always told him. She took off. Abandoned them. On the other hand, the name Black Canyon Reapers has shown up a lot lately. In the most unexpected corners. In our lives, nothing is coincidental. If you start to believe that, you're dead. I slide my phone back into my pocket.
"This isn't nothing," I remark.
Alessio doesn't answer. His gaze is fixed somewhere past me now. Not the garage. Not the building. Somewhere else entirely. Working it. Rebuilding the past in real time.
"What exactly did she say?" he asks.
Quiet. Controlled again. But there's something under it now. Something dangerous. He knows Audra is off limits. But I know Alessio too. Once he sinks his teeth into something, nothing will stop him, not even a best friend or brother. I fill him in on as much as I'm comfortable sharing of Audra's story, which isn't much more than that she saw her.
"We need to let Massimo know." Alessio tugs on his tie, a sign that he's done with this conversation.
"Agreed." I follow him to the elevator, where our men are waiting for us.
Five minutes later, we enter the meeting room. Massimo stares at us. "This is starting to become a habit, being late."
"I'm not as late as last time," I defend myself with a chuckle, following Alessio once more, this time to the side bar to take the glass he fills for me with Massimo's choice of poison. Stagg Bourbon.
Alessio drinks his Stagg down and refills his glass. "What's up, boss?"
Massimo regards both of us thoughtfully. Trust is a rare commodity in our world, but we do have it among ourselves. He wouldn't be where he is, though, if he didn't follow up on any suspicions that might arise, and two of his capos meeting in the parking garage? Yeah, that would be high on his priority list. I'll let him sweat it for a little bit, just to fuck with him. Alessio must have gotten the same idea; he nods at me, but there is none of his usual sparkle in his gaze.
Our Don decides to humor us and moves on to the business we came here to do.
"It's time to put an end to El Recaudador." Massimo's voice cuts through the room. Final. Decided. The air shifts with it. This isn't a discussion.
Damiano leans forward slightly, already keyed in. "Good. Took long enough."
Enzo nods once, quiet as always, but there's a sharpness in his eyes. We've all been waiting for this. Massimo's gaze moves calculatingly between us.
"We've let this go on long enough. He's playing us, moving pieces behind the scenes, creating fractures where there shouldn't be any." A pause. "That ends now."
He's right. It has to. His eyes land on Alessio and Damiano. "I need?—"
"I'm out," Alessio announces.
The words drop into the room like a stone. Followed by immediate silence.
