I was right. His words were a tad slurred, his eyes red-rimmed and glassing over. He hadn’t been drinking while he was sick, but now that he was better, it was game on.
“We were making up for lost time,” Leo joked. “It’s fine if you need to end the evening. I enjoyed myself at your expense, but now it’s time for me to retire.”
I wanted to push the old men out of their chairs to get them moving, but instead, I had to bide my time while they went through the motions of saying goodbye. Patience had never really been my strong suit, and pretending I didn't want to wring their necks was not an easy task.
Finally, I was alone in the elevator with my father. “Sailor had some interesting information to share with me tonight.”
Dad leaned against the wall, completely unaffected by my agitation. “Oh yeah?”
I stepped over carefully, getting close so I could watch his eyes. “She told me her real name, and she recognized the man we’ve all been scrambling to identify.”
And there it was; his pupils dilated, and he no longer appeared drunk. Glancing up at the cameras, he shook his head. I hadn't planned on saying more yet anyway, but I did move back to the opposite wall.
The second his hotel room door closed behind us, I lost the thin control on my temper. “You told me Carmine Franco was the sole occupant of that motherfucking car.”
Dad walked to the corner bar a little too casually. “That was the intel we had at the time.”
His betrayal burned a hole in my gut. “And afterward, you just never heard otherwise, huh? That’s what you're telling me?”
“Nero—”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I lashed out. “I knew you were lying to me about something when all this mess started, but I never considered it was about something this major.”
He poured himself a drink and downed it. “It was my fault, and I didn't want you to blame yourself.”
“That’s the same line you use about Mom, and it’s getting old.”
“I would like to know what Sailor told you,” he said calmly.
“You mean Sara Franco?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean.”
A searing headache roared at my temples, forcing me to stumble back. Throwing out my arm, I managed to catch myself before I fell. “How the fuck did you know that?”
“I’ve kept an eye on her from a distance, just in case her memory ever returned.”
Finally, I had to sit down. My legs were simply giving out. “If you knew she was a Franco, then why have you pushed us together so hard?”
“Because—”
“You wouldn't let me do a background check on her!” I exploded, surging back to my feet. “I knew there was something familiar about her that first day, and you told me to back off. Were you merely covering your own ass?”
Dad poured another drink, holding it in his hand and staring down at it. “When Grandview told me I needed a visiting doctor, I asked Hogan to assign her to me. I needed to know she was still in the dark.”
My heart thundered in my chest, ready to rise up and choke me. “And you thought insisting I marry her would somehow absolve me of my sins?”
“I thought you two were well-suited, and it seems a kind of kismet that you love each other.”
“There’s no going back from this.” Breathing became harder, and I sat back down. Sucking in air, I said, “I can’t marry the woman whose parents I killed.”
“She doesn't know,” he insisted.
“How could I possibly keep it from her?” Tugging at my tie, I ripped the stupid thing off my head and tried to breathe. “In just the last hour, the knowledge has brutalized me. I can’t lie to her face and pretend I’m not a monster.”
Dad rested his hand firmly on my shoulder, a gesture that I was learning to despise. “You can’t tell her.”
Unable to form words, I merely shook my head. I hated myself, so how could I expect her not to feel the same?
