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She gave him a sidelong glance. “You were getting a bit heavy-handed yourself with those questions.”
“Was I?” Gio’s black eyes gleamed, thoroughly unrepentant. “I got the answer I needed, though. Not that it’s much of a surprise. It seems all roads eventually lead to Vitello.” He let out an irritated huff, gazing back at the house and the guards circling its perimeter. “Should’ve known that if incompetent hiring was involved, he would be somewhere in the mix.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“Well, I need some more details first on the guard.”
“But why? He’s…gone.” Her stomach clenched. She knew it better than most; she was the one responsible for making him disappear.
“I can’t just let it go with that, Ana.” He regarded her beseechingly. “Don’t ask me to.”
She stared up at him, torn. Her hands fiddled with the skirt of her cotton dress as the loose hairs from her braid fluttered in the wind. Gio looked determined, imploring her to agree. But why? Any further investigation would be futile. It would only lead to the same end: a dead man. There was nothing else either of them could do to seek justice.
Gio didn’t seem to agree. His supposed failure to protect her was festering inside him, and he wanted to do something to rectify it.
She was afraid, however, that once the door to the past reopened, it would drag them both under. She was barely staying afloat as it was.
“This will be the last time I bring it up. I swear to you,” he pressed when she fell silent, his voice low and coaxing. “I wouldn’t put you through all that again if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. And it is. As Don, I have to hold these guards accountable–that includes the people who hired them. Otherwise, there may be other families that go through this.”
The thought of some other poor girl fending off a monster like him made her sick. How many other predators were lying in wait? How many other families were cautioning their daughters to stay silent?
Closing her eyes, Ana conceded, “What details do you need?”
Relieved, Gio squeezed her hand gratefully. “Anything you know about him. I have Vitello’s payroll records and also the Mancini ones, but you’ve seen those. They’re useless.” Right. Except for the briefest of details, they had no value. “All I could tell was there were five guards who worked under both Vitello and your grandfather in the last five years. One is retired and two are still active here.” He gestured at the house, making fear crawl up her throat.
Had any of the current guards been close to him? It was natural for staff to befriend each other, especially the ones working on a high-stakes security team.
“The other two are unknown,” Gio said.
“They couldn’t be reached over the phone?”
He denied it, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “I don’t know how else to find them. The records are complete shit,” he said irritably. “The only data that somewhat helped was their employment dates. It showed both of them were terminated roughly around the time of–”
Her attack.
She swallowed. “So it must be one of those two.”
Gio agreed, his dark eyes boring into her as if she could supply the missing clue. But she struggled to recall anything of note. “I barely knew him…” she admitted. “He was not part of the regular crew, so I rarely saw him. I don’t know if the other staff knew him well either. I never heard anyone mention him or approach him.”
Ana racked her mind, but it was so hard to remember. That man had haunted her sleep for so many nights that it was hard to decipher what was reality and what was nightmare. “He would just appear out of the blue every few weeks, always when I was alone.”
Shivers scattered across her arms, and she hugged herself, trying to pace her breathing. A painful ache radiated through her shoulder, and she realized Gio’s hand was curled tightly around her as his brows pinched in concern.
Her small, delicate fingers reached up to cover his grip reassuringly until he released her with an apologetic grimace.
“Auntie is the best resource,” she said hesitantly, and even Gio looked skeptical at the suggestion.
“You’re sure she won’t freak out if I question her?”
Oh, she would. It would be the biggest tantrum ever–and all directed at Ana for blabbing about the incident and shaming their family in front of the Don. Pride and image were everything to her aunt. She wouldn’t take accusations of staff mismanagement lightly.
“I can’t have Vitello catch wind of this investigation from Marta or anyone else,” Gio said. “He’ll do a runner and probably whine to the entire faction in the process.”
“I know.” Ana sighed. “But I don’t know who else has the details you need.”
“I’ll start digging around. But don’t worry; I will eventually talk to Marta,” he said with quiet and deadly intent, an ominous expression crossing his face. “She will have to answer for her role in this too–her gross negligence in letting that guard stay even after you raised the alarm.”
Ana opened and closed her mouth, ready to reflexively defend her aunt. But his forbidding look silenced her. She’d complained about the guard’s behavior merely two weeks before the attack, leaving little time for Auntie to act. But that excuse would not pacify Gio. If he’d had it his way, the guard would have been six feet under from the very first moment he’d tried to breathe near Ana.
