“Cisco?” Giovanni says, finding me there an hour later. “Are you okay?”
“Sure,” I respond with little interest. “What did you find?”
“Well, this guy betrayed the family. The specifics are a little hard to come by, but it looks like he lost a significant sum of money on an enterprise that was central to the family’s books,” Giovanni explains, showing me the entry in the archives that I’ve already seen.
“So he was a gambler?” I guess, reading between the lines.
“Yeah, and a bad one,” Giovanni confirms. “He was exiled to America, something they used to do if the crime was serious enough.”
“And his children?” I ask.
“Yeah, he had one child, a son,” Giovanni reveals. “Son was a piece of work.”
“Yeah?” I wonder, already knowing how the story ends.
“Hired hitman,” Giovanni answers. “Made quite a name for himself. He was freelance, not attached to any one particular family.”
“And that’s what got him into trouble?” I guess, following the trail of logic to its obvious conclusion.
“From what I can tell, he ran afoul of the Andretti family,” Giovanni says. “Killed one of the high-ranking family members on contract. They never forgave him.”
“So it’s Carlo Andretti who’s after him,” I surmise.
“Not anymore, boss,” Giovanni corrects me. “Vincent Rocca is dead. Real nasty piece of work, too. Closed casket and everything.”
“I know,” I mutter.
“What’s with all this interest?” Giovanni wonders. “Did Rocca do something to the family?”
“No,” I say. “Thank you. That will be all.”
“Okay,” Giovanni responds, clearly expecting me to fill in some of the gaps. But I’m not ready to reveal Marlena’s secret. I wonder if she knows what her father was into. She said she hated him, and that she had left home as soon as possible. But it’s a far leap from an unhappy teenager to someone aware that her father is a contract killer.
My own childhood wasn’t the best, but I had a much better relationship with my father than Marlena seems to have had. I wasn’t so eager to leave home. In fact, I followed right in my old man’s footsteps.
But it seems like Marlena has a whole lot more to worry about. Now that I know who she is, and what she has to fear, I’m worried. She’s been careful about covering her tracks, changing her name and getting a new home, but she hasn’t moved far enough away. I would have thought that with her experience, she would have moved across the country, or even to a different country altogether. But she stayed in the same city with the man who is quite possibly responsible for murdering her father. That’s either optimism or foolishness, and I want to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Still, I doubt she’s safe. If I found out, it’s only a matter of time until Andretti does. Killing a high-ranking member of the family is not something you let go, and it’s excuse enough to wipe out a whole family. Her coming here to teach my son is the icing on the cake. I don’t like Andretti, and he doesn’t like me. Give him the type of opportunity where he can kill two birds with one stone and he’ll take it in an instant, especially as it seems he’s actively trying to gather information on me.
Killing Marlena would avenge his fallen comrade, and it would hurt me in turn. I can’t let that happen. She’s my responsibility whether or not she knows now that she’s agreed to stay. I won’t let her out of my sight.
“I want you to send a car to pick up Marlena,” I tell Giovanni.
He studies me carefully, and I can see him putting two and two together. First, I’ve asked about this dead Rocca character, and now I’m reaching out to Frankie’s tutor. Giovanni doesn’t have all the answers, but I know he’s got a pretty good idea of what’s going on.
“Sure, boss,” he says easily.
“Bring her here, and make up one of the guestrooms for her,” I continue. “She’s coming to stay for a while.”
“What should I say if she refuses?” Giovanni asks.
“She won’t refuse,” I assure him. “She knows what’s at stake.”
“You think Marlena is related to this Rocca guy?” Giovanni wonders.
“I don’t think,” I tell him. “I know.”
“If Carlo finds out…” Giovanni whispers, shaking his head.
