Page 94 of Dark Alliance
I didn’t want to face the reality of his impending death, believing that if I retrieved the keepsakes, it’d signal my loss of hope.
Who would have thought I’d be here anyway?
That truth hurts.
Shit.
I dig through the first box, startling when I hear a strange creaking moan.
Just the wind. Or old pipes. Maybe the HVAC system kicking on.
I really need to calm down.
Twelve boxes later, I have a stack of photos to pick from but no scarf. Nino and I should sort through all this old stuff together sometime. Might be a nice bonding moment.
Add it to the list, Cat, right afterStop the war with the Gallaghers andGet rid of the Russians.
I shove another box aside, as if blaming it for all the chaos. My mother’s missing scarf. Father’s murder. The Russians invasion inside the Ricci estate. Nino’s quest to take down Connor and all the Irish Kings.
Connor.
Danny and I saw him bolting into Café Castellane earlier this evening.
What the hell was he doing?
I could hardly go in and ask. I wasn’t supposed to be there either. But what exactly did he think he would accomplish by charging inside?
I can’t for the life of me?—
A high-pitched whine rings through the basement. My skin crawls, and I whirl around, gasping.
It’s like ghosts crying out for help.
Maybe Tony’s haunting me.
I shudder at the thought.
Since my father’s murder, I haven’t slept for more than four hours at a time, and I wonder if I’m starting to hallucinate.
The whine echoes again, this time from the far end of the basement near the cells.
I leave the storage room to trace the noise.
I haven’t finished exploring even one of the empty spaces when someone curses overhead.
Shit. Nino’s home, and he’s pissed.
I find him in the kitchen nursing a deep, blood-crusted cut over one eye that’s turning purple and black. His lip is split, his shirt stained with crimson splotches. His knuckles appear swollen and raw.
My jaw drops. “Nino, what happened?”
He rips a paper towel off the roll and shoves it under the faucet. “Nothing.”
“It’s clearly not nothing. Who did this?”
I have a feeling I can answer my own question, but I’ll choke before uttering Connor’s name in front of my brother again.
Nino tosses the wet paper towel on the floor. “I got jumped by a pack of Micks, Cat. That’s what happened. In the alley behind Café Castellane.”
