Page 111 of Contempt

Lucian nodded. “It is.”

He wasn’t looking at her, though. He was looking at the ceiling. She didn’t need him to say it—he didn’t need to tell her what he was doing, then.

God wasn’t a big thing to Lucia. He was there on the back of her mind, and she went to church. God and religion was as much a part of being a Marcello was as anything else in their life. It was engrained into their culture, honestly.

He was praying.

Silently, sure.

Privately.

Her father did that a lot.

She didn’t mind.

Lucian’s silence let Lucia run through the shit in her mind. The things she knew about Christian Savino, and this plan he had made. It seemed like the man planned for everything, didn’t it?

Backup after backup.

A timer.

A kill switch.

Just in case.

Lucia wondered … what if she was able to take away one of those backups? If she could possibly give Renzo a little extra time, or if she could take away one of the backups altogether, would that give him the chance to do what he did best?

He’d never explained his specialty with bombs to her in detail, although to be fair, she had also never asked. So much about his time at The League and the person it made him were not topics that he wanted to discuss with her, and she didn’t push.

She didn’t have to push.

Renzo was just Renzo to her.

But could he do it?

And if she was able to help … would it give them a better chance? Should she even try?

It wasn’t even a question for her. Yes, she should try, if she could. For her family because she loved them more than anything. Her father hadn’t just spent months of his life fighting to be healthy just to end it by watching his son and nephew die.

For Renzo, though?

God.

Hadn’t she spent enough time without him? Hadn’t all this time been enough? They’d just started again—just came together again. There was no way in hell she was going to give up.

That was weak.

The easy way out.

Without him, there was no point to her.

She was not her without him.

Lucia would rather be dead.

But how could she help?

How could she take away one of the backups?