He sighed and took a moment to answer. “Look, I’m not involved anymore. Period. And now I’m telling you that neither are you. Best thing you did was getting the hell away from our father.”
“Yourfather.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you should count your lucky fucking stars.”
“It was a brutal killing.”
“I know you and Mateo were friends once, but you can’t get involved. You can’t get back into it. Let Franco handle it.”
Salvatore always had this way of beating you over the head with shit, especially if he thought he was doing it for your own good. That hadn’t changed, apparently.
“I’m not really out of it, Salvatore.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Mateo has a sister.”
“Who disappeared a few days after he did, and who’s probably dead.”
“No, she’s not.”
“Shit, Dominic. What are you talking about?”
“Look, I just needed to know if Roman ordered the killing. Is he covering his ass now that the body’s been found? Because that opens up a whole other can of worms.”
“What can?” he asked tightly.
I knew he was waiting for me to fill in the blanks. I wondered if he knew I hadn’t talked to Roman in over five years. And how did I tell him how I knew Gia Castellano was alive and that I had her here?
“I know for a fact it was Victor Scava who put the bullet in Mateo Castellano’s head,” I said.
“Scava? Angus Scava’s nephew? What the hell would he have had to do with anything? The brand on Castellano’s chest is the Benedetti family crest.”
“Then you believe it was our uncle who ordered it?”
“I don’t know what I believe, and I’m tired of thinking about it. I’m sorry Mateo was killed, but nothing will bring him back, and my knowing—oryourknowing—won’t change that. Stay out of it, Dominic.”
“Victor Scava is involved in human trafficking. Mateo was going to turn over evidence. That’s why he was silenced. Made an example of.”
“Stay the fuck out of it,” Salvatore repeated.
“Too fucking late for that.”
“What are you talking about? How do you know all this?”
“I’ve got Gia Castellano. She witnessed the murder. Scava branded her too. Same mark.” I paused, but I needed to tell him everything now. In a way, it was a sort of confession. Although I had no hopes of redemption. Hell, wasn’t I way beyond wanting it? “She’s due to go to auction in a week.”
“Due to go to auction? What the hell does that even mean?”
He knew what it meant. It was the one thing the Benedetti were not involved in. One thing where Franco, his father before him, and his father before him, had put their foot down on. No human trafficking.
Fucking saints, the lot of them.
“Any chance Roman could be involved with Victor Scava in something like this?” I pushed.
“Human trafficking? No. No way. Where exactly are you, and why do you have the girl?”
“If he’s not involved, then why would Mateo have been branded with the Benedetti mark? Why not quietly kill him and get rid of the body? I mean, we all know how to get rid of a fucking body if that’s what we want to do. Scava was sending a message. I want to know what that message is, and how the Benedettis are involved.”
