“They will try and kill us.”
I laughed. “Do you really believe that, brother? They have as much to lose as we do. They aren’t entirely certain we’re behind Lorenzo’s death either.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“If they’d initiated the attack at the courthouse, the chances of me leaving outside of a body bag would be slim. Whatever evidence there might be, which I’m beginning to doubt given what my lovely guest has already told me, it was planted, leading the police and the Russos to me. But they know his death wasn’t my style.”
“Alright. You’re brutal, but I’ll give you that. Then who?” Sinclair asked, as weary of the bullshit as I was.
“This has everything to do with the meeting between Russo and our father.” Sighing, I looked away, still dealing with the aftermath of knowing. “This is about that goddamn alliance from years ago.”
“With Emmeline?”
“I think so, but Russo wouldn’t tell me for certain.”
He sucked in his breath. “Have you told her?”
“Hell, no. I don’t want that to be the last memory of her father.” I could tell the comment sparked something. “What?”
“What if the alliance wasn’t about Emmeline? Think about it. Maybe Russo is desperate, and his enemies are breathing down his neck. If he truly wanted an alliance, he wasn’t going to suggest the one thing that almost caused a war years ago. He’s not that stupid.”
He had a good point. “Then what? How?”
“Generally, when two parties are in a discussion about entering into an agreement, both have something to offer.” The sly look on his face kept my attention.
“Go on.”
“What if Pops wanted to get Uncle Armand off our backs?” He waited to see if I could connect the dots.
“You mean with his insidious demand that the Don of the Prince family be married?”
He nodded vehemently. “Makes sense.”
“There’s one problem. Vitelli doesn’t have a daughter.”
“What do you know about Catherine?”
I allowed my thoughts to return to the filth from earlier. “Enough to know she was tossed in the middle of this shit.”
“Everything happens for a reason. Right?”
Footsteps drew my attention, Jarvis entering the room with a thick file in his hand. “You’re right that it has something to do with Catherine.” He hesitated before walking any closer. “Maybe everything.”
“The dossier.”
“Yeah.” His hesitation was followed by a deep sigh. “I don’t know what to make of it, but there is no room for coincidences any longer. I’m sorry, Alex. I wish I had better news.”
After two long strides, I snatched the file from his hand, furiously flipping through the pages. Very little shocked me any longer and while the information itself was similar to the jacked-up evidence in the legal case against me, the fact she’d kept the information about lineage from me was unacceptable.
As Jarvis had expected, my anger was off the charts. When I said nothing, Jarvis cleared his throat. “What I don’t know is if Catherine has any idea. From everything I’ve found, she’s not had one noted connection with who she really is.”
A vacuum sucked all the air from my lungs as I read the information again. Even breathing was difficult.
“As you said. Coincidences do not exist. Not in this world.”
The fact I’d not only shared the darkest part of my life with her but had also told her in no uncertain terms any kind of betrayal wasn’t allowed infuriated me more than it should.
But I was finished with playing games with everyone. My father was dead because of it and she obviously had answers that she’d never intended on telling me.
