But that reality is a thing of the past with the recent news that her mom is gone and has been for quite some time.
I only got limited information from Silver, but from what I did gather, Ricardo put her mother on ice at the morgue when she died, probably to buy him more time with this sick fucking deal he made.
What kind of sadistic, fucked up person would force someone to go through with their end of the bargain when they no longer had the leverage to uphold theirs?
The one singular saving grace is if we can follow through with the rest of the plan and eliminate Ricardo, giving Cora some semblance of knowing he is dead.
And hopefully, in the next hour, we can deliver that.
I glance down at the broken girl in my arms and back at the screen in the distance with various cameras showing different viewpoints of The Manor, courtesy of Silver's hacker content. The mere fact that he was able to get us these feeds is a true testament to how skilled he is. That place is supposed to be impenetrable, totally safe from this sort of attack.
Cora wipes at her face and sits up, surprising both Silver and I who were holding onto her. She points her finger in the general direction of the screen. "Where is he? Why isn't he there yet?"
Silver and I scoot to the edge of our seats and scan the feeds.
"I don't know," I say, my impatience getting the best of me as I rise to my feet. "I'm going there."
Silver stands, too. "No. I will."
Cora continues to keep her gaze trained on the screen. "No one is going anywhere."
"He'll spot you from a million miles away," Silver tells me. "He's not looking for me. I won't draw his attention." He shifts his attention to the girl between us. "You need to stay here with her."
Silver's right—after my stunt with shooting Ricardo, even in his paranoid state, he'll notice me the second I walk through the front door. Silver, on the other hand, he'd never blink twice at him wandering around The Manor. He'd be just another face in the crowd of criminals, no one to cause his suspicions to grow.
He lowers himself back onto the couch and puts his hand on Cora's knee, careful not to startle her. "Hey, Angel." He keeps his voice low. "Do you need anything before I leave?"
"I need you to stop treating me like I'm a bomb that's ready to explode. I'm fine." She wipes at her cheeks again. "And I'll be better once he's dead. I had my pity party, now it's over."
I walk closer to the screen and point at a small, but rather large figure. "There’s Vito."
"Are you sure?" Silver comes over, taking a better look. "Yeah, that is him. Won't be much longer until the rest of them are there." He looks to Cora. "I'll be back once it's done. Okay?"
She nods and reaches for the glass of bourbon he poured her earlier. Cora swallows it in one gulp. "Where's Alec?"
"He's with Dom on the other side of town, like we talked about," I remind her.
"Okay. Just making sure." Cora sets the glass down. "This will all be over soon."
Silver meets my gaze, a sort of silent agreement falling over us. I tip my head briefly and he does the same.
"Call me if there's any trouble," I tell him as he's walking to the door.
Once he's gone, I return to Cora's side, watching this real-life thriller movie play out before us. Everything was going so fucking well, until it wasn't, and now, if anything else goes wrong, I'm not sure how Cora is going to cope. If Ricardo dies, there will be a silver lining, but if he manages to cock-roach his way out of the situation...I'm scared for the state of her mental health.
Minutes pass and we watch the screen together, silence falling between us.
Cora anxiously rocks, and I put my hand on her back, unsure how to make her worries disappear. Part of me wishes that I would have stood up to Silver and insisted I went to The Manor, just to put a bullet in Ricardo's skull. But if I had, I would have been killed on the spot, making Cora grieve for more than just the loss of her mother.
I hate sitting here, not knowing what the outcome is going to be or being able to do anything about it, and not being able to reassure her that everything will be fine, when it very well might not be.
"There's John and Tony," I say while pointing at the left side of the screen.
More times passes, and I check my watch, Silver no doubt having arrived at The Manor by now.
Cora chews at her nail. "What if something happened to Silver?"
"Silver's tough," I tell her and tug her closer to me. "He's been through worse, and plus, The Manor is the safest place for him."
