Page 130 of When She Loves
“No, he has to leave New York,” Giorgio says. “I suggest sending him a few states over. Somewhere quiet without any mob presence. He can’t be spotted by anyone who could report back to Ferraro.”
Nero must pick up on what I’m proposing, because he gets to his feet, clear protest in his eyes.
Nero in a small town? What the fuck is a big-city guy like him going to do somewhere quiet on his own? He’s not going to like this, but he doesn’t have a choice. Not when the alternatives are death or war. I need to make sure he doesn’t come back, no matter what. But how?
Sandro picks that moment to walk through the door, two cups of coffee in hand. My gaze latches onto the driver. The kid’s got no family. He’s in his early twenties. And he owes Nero and me for pulling him out of the street racing scene where he would have crashed and broken his neck sooner or later.
I’ll send Sandro with Nero.
He’ll keep Nero from doing something stupid like coming back here as soon as things quiet down.
“Grab two of Garzolo’s men,” I say into the phone. “Sandro is going with Nero.”
“Sandro the driver?”
“Yeah.”
Sandro and Nero exchange a what-the-fuck look.
“All right,” Giorgio says. “Ras and I will grab the bodies and bring them to you. I’ll get a DNA sample from one of them, run it through as soon as we get back to Italy, and swap with Nero’s record,” Giorgio says. “That way, if anyone runs anything through the system, they’ll get the confirmation they’re looking for.”
I nod to myself. This is going to work. “We need to move quickly. Can you leave right now?”
“Yes,” Ras says. “Damiano will stay here to keep an eye on the women. If we all leave, they’ll get suspicious. How far are you from where we buried Garzolo’s men?”
“About forty-five minutes.” I rattle off the address we’re at now.
“We’ll be there in about two hours. Be ready with a few tanks of gasoline.”
It won’t take much to burn this place down, but we need to make sure the bodies are unrecognizable. “Will do.”
“Rafaele.” It’s Giorgio again.
“Yeah?”
“No one but us can know about this,” Giorgio says. “Not even the women. The more people who know, the bigger the risk. Nero and Sandro can never come back.”
I swallow. “I know.” The rest of the world must think I killed my consigliere. They must believe it. I hang up and turn to Nero and Sandro.
“Rafe, what the fuck are you planning?” Nero growls.
“You’re going to disappear. Both of you.”
Nero narrows his eyes. “What does that mean?”
I bring him and Sandro up to speed, and when I finish, Nero’s glowering at me.
“I’d rather die like a consigliere than be sent away to some shithole where I’m a nobody.”
“You won’t be a nobody to Sandro.”
My driver blows out a breath. Unlike Nero, he doesn’t argue. “Never thought retirement would be in the cards for me this early. I’ll need to find some hobbies,” he says.
“You’ll need to find a job. The two of you will need to blend in wherever you end up.”
“Sandro, shut up,” Nero growls. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“You’d rather die than get a demotion?” I ask.
