Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
She sniffled. “Is he. . .”
“I don’t know.” I wiped under my nose with the back of my hand. “I think so. If not, he will be.”
She remained silent.
“I’m so sorry, Mami.”
“Sorry for what? I should have been there.”
“You couldn’t have been here.” I took a shaky breath. “He killed Gabe and Dominic’s mom.” A pained sob left her mouth and hit my heart directly. “He killed Rosie’s mom too. And Rocco and Michael’s.”
She cried louder. I swallowed back my own tears and my throat hurt twice as much.
“At the church,” I continued, “he used me as a human shield so he wouldn’t get shot.”
She wailed against the phone. “I should have been there.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“I should have never left.”
“You were burying your mother.”
“I didn’t know,” she said quietly. “I’d always heard, but I didn’t know. I. . .”
“None of us knew,” I said. “We couldn’t have.”
“God.” Mom took a shaky breath. “My mother warned me. Over and over and over, she told me I shouldn’t be with him.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“Not about that, but I knew he was doing awful things. People talked about it all the time, bragged about it when they sat with him smoking cigars. I just. . .I guess I assumed he was doing those things to people who deserved to pay. I don’t know.”
“We all did that.” I sighed.
“Are you with your brothers?”
“With Michael and Gabe. We’re safe.”
“Stay there. Don’t wander off alone, not even to pick up the newspaper.”
“Okay.” I took one last long breath. “I love you.”
“I love you so much. I’m so sorry.” She was crying again. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
We hung up and I wiped my tears off Michael’s screen and onto the blanket before I handed it back.
“You okay?”
“I think I am.”
“Is she okay?”
I shook my head. “She didn’t know. About your mom.” I blinked away tears again. They just wouldn’t stop coming. “She didn’t know.”
“I investigate murders for a living,” he said. “I’ve had copies of the case files for years. I’ve gone through them countless times. Rocco has as well. It would have been impossible to link him to the crime without the proof on the USB.”
“I just feel like, if someone is that much of a monster. . .I don’t know.”
“Monsters hide in plain sight,” he said. “That’s one thing my job has taught me.”
“How do you do it?” I asked. “How do you go to crime scenes and remain unaffected?”
His brows shot up. “I don’t. Most of the time, I can justify it if it’s a criminal. It’s awful to say that, but they would have died anyway. But when it’s a child? A mother? A father?” He shook his head. “No one, not even the person who claims to be the biggest badass with no feelings, would leave unaffected.”
I brought my knees up and rested my chin on them. “Do you think Rocco would leave unaffected?”
His mouth tipped up slightly. “I don’t.”
“Really?”
“My brother is. . .he’s seen a lot of shit. He’s done a lot of shit. He’s never been unaffected by it; he just justifies it. He’s good at separating the man you see from the man he can be.” He shrugged. “He only ever kills criminals, so I guess it’s easier for him to excuse his actions.”
“He’s a criminal though.” I frowned. “A criminal killing a criminal.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right.” Michael chuckled. “Killing someone can never be justified, but the men Rocco has killed have raped their daughters, beaten their wives within an inch of their lives. They didn’t deserve to live.”
I nodded slowly as I thought about it. I’d always seen it in black and white. If you kill, you’re going to hell and you’re a terrible person. We’re not gods; we don’t get to choose who lives and dies, but I understood the logic behind Rocco doing what he did.
41
ROCCO
“Out of respect to your children, I’m not going to make this hurt as much as it should,” I said to Giuseppe, who was chained in the warehouse.
Before walking into the church, I’d taken a moment to thank O’Conner and his crew. It was a weird moment, one we knew changed the course of our histories going forward. I was sure both our fathers would have been confused, since their relationships had been turbulent, to say the least. We shared a mutual respect and maybe the beginnings of a real friendship. What I knew for certain was that, without them, none of it would have gone down as flawlessly as it had. No one was injured besides those we were targeting.
I’d made Rosie take Dominic home. He’d said he wanted to be here for this, but I knew him. I knew that he’d be okay with it tonight but have nightmares about it for the rest of his life. I’d sent Nico and Mattia to make sure he’d go home and stay there. Nico was dying to raid Dom’s fridge and Matti was still traumatized over the penis thing. So my audience was Dean, who was smoking a cigarette; Gio, who was staring at Giuseppe without saying a word; and Lorenzo, who was drinking a beer. A tough crowd. Giuseppe tried to laugh, but his age and the state he was in wouldn’t let him move much. He looked around, though.