“Why?” I grill.
“Why else?” Dima raises an eyebrow at me like an idiot. I resist the urge to throw my fist in his smug little face. “Information. Men talk when they’re drunk and horny.”
“And you found out…”
“Well, nothing from him directly, but I did manage to break into his accounts.”
I’m going to kill this motherfucker.
Fuck the code.
“Jesus,” Maksim snorts. “Stop being an ass. Three million dollars was wired into his account less than twenty-four hours after the sniper hit the wedding. Do I need to spell the rest out for you?”
Choosing to ignore the insult, I turn my gaze back to Dima. “Why would Romano pay one of his men to kill his own niece?”
The Italians have a code.Family doesn’t kill family.Dante Romano made that code after the death of his father. The father he killed. He wouldn’t break it.
Unless something within the Romano organization has changed.
Pizdets.Dammit. How could I have missed that?
“You think Christian hired Marko to kill his own sister?”
The three of them simply stare at me as if it’s the obvious conclusion. Conflict smacks across their faces, shining from their eyes like fucking beacons, but they all know better.
I don’t need their pity.
“Why?” I ask, somewhat dumbfounded. “What would Christian Ward have to gain from killing her?”
“Nothing,” Leon answers simply. “From what we can tell, killing Libby wasn’t part of any grand scheme. She didn’t have any insider knowledge or passcodes. Libby was sharp, and her insights into how her father behaved were helpful, but from what we can tell, nothing worth killing over.”
“So why do it?” No one has an answer to that. “Do you think we could use Marko? Shake him down?”
Dima shakes his head. “Marko has been on the outs since Alfonzo Romano’s death,” he informs me.
“Maybe he wasn’t aiming for Libby,” I surmise hopefully. “Maybe he was aiming for me.”
None of my brothers looks convinced.
“You said he was a low-level hitman,” I remind Dima. “He could have just missed the shot.”
“No,brat.” Leon frowns. “Evidence on his computer testifies that he was aiming for Libby. And he may be a low-level thug now, but he wasn’t always. Not until Dante took over for hisfather. Before that, Marko Cane was his top hitman. Marine sniper. Top marks.”
Damn it all to hell. Why did it have to be Libby? Sweet, naïve, innocent Libby. The only woman in the world who managed to knock me off my high horse and get my blood boiling. I can still taste her on my lips from our first kiss.
Cherry Chapstick.
She fought it at first, but by the end, she was meeting my passion with her own. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. There’d been women before Libby, but I doubt there will truly be any after her.
Libby was fireworks and confetti. Now, she’s nothing more than flesh to rot away beneath the dirt.
“Do you think Romano knew about the hit?”
Leon shakes his head. “No,” he replies assuredly. “Christian knows what would happen if anyone found out. He likely chose Marko because of how isolated Dante made him. Not to mention, if Romano found out about his debt, he’d be dead. Christian saved his ass.”
“We don’t think anyone knows he killed Elias either,” Nikolai speaks up.
That makes sense. Christian would be a dead man if anyone did. Patricide is looked down upon in the Italian Mafia. Even if Elias wasn’t part of the mafia itself, he was still kin. The only one to ever pull it off successfully without repercussions is Dante Romano himself.
