Page 121 of When She Loves
“I won’t be home for a while.” My voice is pure ice. “I have to clean up this mess. If you want to wait there for me alone, be my guest.”
Her eyes fill with tears, and I can’t fucking stand to see it.
I walk away from her, trusting Giorgio to get her home safely, and with each step, I shove my feelings for her down.
CHAPTER37
RAFAEL
It takesthree hours to bury the bodies and get the warehouses cleaned up. In the meantime, Nero, Doc, and Emanuele take Michael Ferraro to the hospital for treatment so he’ll have the best chance of making it out of this alive.
I’m nearly home when I get the call from Nero.
I pick up. “Speak.”
“He’s dead.”
My heart freezes mid-beat. Just our fucking luck. Why is it that some assholes are seemingly impossible to kill, but this kid goes down with one damn bullet? I rub my forehead with the heel of my palm. This is bad.
“Get out of there right now and go somewhere safe.”
“Doc is still with me.”
“Ask him if he’s willing to stay until Ferraro’s men come. I’ll call Ferraro and explain the situation.”
A beat passes. “Rafe, he’ll want me.”
I clench my jaw. Ferraro will demand vengeance. There’s no doubt about that. “I know. Let me talk to Gino. Where’s Emanuele?”
“With his cousin. Saying his goodbyes.”
“Leave now. Destroy your phone. Next time you call me, use a burner.”
Nero lets out a heavy sigh. “Will do.”
I park the car outside the house and go straight to my office, my mind running over my limited options.
Can I deny Nero shot him? Impossible. There’s a witness. We should have killed Emanuele earlier and claimed both of them died in the gunfire. I sink into my chair and drag my hand down my face. I might have thought of that on the spot if I’d been in control of myself instead of flailing like an idiot and losing my mind over my wife.
It’s too late now. Emanuele’s probably already told Gino what happened. The only thing I can do is fucking pray Gino will forgive Nero for making an honest mistake.
Gino picks up my call right away. “My nephew is dead, killed by your consigliere, after I went out on a limb and sent him over to help you.” The anger in his voice is palpable.
“Gino, it was an accident. Nero didn’t know your guys were coming. I didn’t have time to call.”
“Your incompetence is not my fucking problem.” His voice booms over the speaker. “If you weren’t in control of the situation, you shouldn’t have asked for my fucking help.”
He’s right. He’sfuckingright. In retrospect, I can’t believe the reckless stupidity of my actions. It was pure desperation. Devoid of logic and reason.
“Truly, I’m sorry.”
“Fuck your sorry. You think that sorry is going to matter to Michael’s mother? And do you even realize how this makes me look? I agreed to help you as a gesture of good faith. I thought we really had a chance to put the feud between our families behind us once and for all. There’s only one way to make this right, and you fucking know it.”
My blood runs cold.
“I want to see Nero’s body by tomorrow morning. If you’re not man enough to kill him, I’ll do it myself.”
I get up and walk over to the bar. “Look, let’s not overreact. Let’s talk about this.”
