Silence.
Then, flatly, “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means she’s not what we thought.”
“She’s Kozlov’s daughter.”
“Yeah, no shit. I’m familiar.”
“Then act like it.” Dario’s voice shifts. Harder. Closer to the bone. “Remember Santino? Our consigliere? The man the Bratva put in the ground? You told Dad you could make them pay. Youbeggedfor this, Luca. You looked him in the eye and said ‘trust me’.”
The mirror gives me back my own face, and I hate every inch of it.
Trust me.I did say that. Standing in Lorenzo’s office with my pulse jacked and my hands behind my back so he wouldn’t see them shaking.I can handle this. Let me prove it. Let me prove I’m not?—
I shake my head. “Look, Dario. Kozlov doesn’t give a shit about her. She’s not a player, she’s a pawn. Killing her doesn’t hurt him. It doesn’t avenge Santino. It does nothing.”
“And you know this how? Because you’ve beenliving with herfor a month?”
“Because I’ve been closer to our family’s enemy than anyone in our organization has ever been. I’m learning things we can actually use.”
“Then use them and finish the job.”
“The job was wrong,” I blurt out.
Silence.
I can hear Dario breathing. Can feel him processing what I just said, not as a tactical disagreement but as something much more dangerous.
“Luca.” His voice drops. “Do you hear yourself right now?”
“She didn’t choose her family. She’s not a combatant. She’s got nothing to do with what happened to Santino and she sure as hell doesn’t deserve to die because her last name is Kozlov.”
“Since when do you get to make that call?”
“Since I’m the one standing in front of her.”
“And what happens when Dad finds out? When he realizes his son, the one whobeggedfor this mission, caught feelings for the target instead?”
The wordfeelingslands like a fist. Not because it’s wrong. Because it isn’t enough.
“You know what the worst part is?” Dario continues. “That I’m even on this call now. Paolo gave me this number, and now I know. So either I tell Dad, or I don’t. And if I don’t, and he finds out later...”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because I have a family, Luca. Paige. The twins. I have people who need me to not be on Lorenzo Andretti’s shit list because my little brother decided to go rogue on the most important operation we’ve ever?—”
“Iknow, Dario.”
My hand is white-knuckled around the phone. Every person who knows is another person standing in the blast radius whenLorenzo finds out, and I put them there because I can’t do the one thing they need me to do.
Can’t. Not won’t.Can’t.
“It doesn’t seem like you know.” His voice is tinged with bitterness. “It seems like you got distracted.”
“It’s not me getting distracted,” I explode. “It’s not me losing my nerve. It’s not pity, and it’s not confusion, and it’s not a fucking phase.” My voice drops lower with every word. Meaner. Truer. “I’m not going to do this just because I was born an Andretti. And I’m not going to fucking kill Natalia.”
The silence after that is enormous.
