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“G-Gio.” Gabriella's ashen face came into view as the screen shook violently. “It’s h-him.”
Somehow, even before she could gather enough breath to explain, Ana realized in slow dread what the girl was trying to say.
It made all too much sense.
There was no such thing as coincidence in the Family.
That’s what Gio had always believed. That’s what was true even now.
It had seemed like a sad twist of fate at the time–both of them experiencing such violence and pain, so much betrayal, from their own guards.
Except there were never two different guards.
Only one.
“He’s t-the man from that day!” Gabriella cried, heaving convulsively. “I saw him smiling down at me when Mom and Dad died.”
Chapter 25
I lost my mind and just ran–straight to their car…
I keep seeing it even now, the flames…and this sinister face coming for me.
Gabriella’s whispers drifted back from the past, suffused with terror.
The memory twisted until the girl’s face disappeared, giving way for the monster to rise again, smiling just as sinisterly as the younger girl had described.
Mocking, taunting.
Just as he had with Ana that night.
If you’re going to put me through all this trouble, I should at least get a reward…We’ll give poor Gio one more surprise before his wedding, hm?
She hadn’t realized then what the guard had meant, but it was all clicking into place now.
One more surprise, he’d said–the prior being Gio’s parents’ murder.
Merely weeks after their tragic deaths, the guard had suddenly appeared in the Mancini household. Ana hadn’t suspected anything at the time. There had been so much staff turnover across the Family, with everyone fearful of their staff betraying them.
Now, she wondered if Vitello had been trying to get rid of the guard–and, along with him, his involvement in the murder.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Grandfather stomped his cane on the floor of the car, barking at the driver to follow the speed limit. He grumbled under his breath about inept staff.
The sound jolted her out of her thoughts.
And anger swamped her in a flash.
Where was his concern about inept staff when the guard was hired? When his so-called friend was plotting an assassination of the old Boss and his wife?
Just because the Vitellos and Mancinis had been connected for decades and both came from old money, Grandfather turned a blind eye to all their faults. All while he reviled those without blue blood.
“What are you scowling over there for? I told Marta I didn’t need you stuck to my behind.”
