“What else is on your mind?” Wolf asks.
“Just…stuff.”
“There’s no need to do everything alone all the damn time,” he says. “I’m here. I’m always fucking here, and I want to help you.”
“We both are.” Victoria steps in, an arm on the backrest of her husband’s chair.
I lean back, running a hand down my face. They’re right. This is not the same as paying for the sins of my past. If anyone’s offering to help make my wife feel better, I’d be an idiot to refuse.
“It’s this whole fucking thing. Something doesn’t feel right,” I tell them. “I don’t think Antonio’s lying about anything he told me—I didn’t get that from the way he spoke—but there were cracks in his story. And they’re driving me insane.”
“Like?” Wolf asks.
“Like…the fact that her piano teacher was the one who found Cecilia that night. It struck me as odd, but Antonio said she wasgood friends with the wife and had no motive. Whereas Cecilia, he said she looked calm after what she did and started saying she was sorry. That’s also fucking odd. I mean, have you met the girl? She has no bad bone in her body. She apologizes when other people bump into her.”
“The piano teacher is Lucia Donatello, who came to the wedding, yes?” Wolf asks.
I nod. “She worked at The Hive. But she had retired long before she started teaching Cecilia. Hard to imagine killing Antonio’s wife would’ve been part of a job she was given.”
“Depends,” Wolf says, cocking his head. “Just because she was no longer working with the club doesn’t mean she refused freelance gigs that came after her retirement.”
“Maybe. But nothing notable happened since then. From the brief research I did on her before going to San Maleno, she doesn’t seem to have benefited in any way after Antonio’s wife died. Same income, same job, same place.”
Wolf brings one ankle over his knee, thinking. “They could’ve played a longer game. Maybe the benefits weren’t supposed to come immediately after the murder. Is he fucking this woman?”
I shake my head. “She’s too old for his taste.”
“How did she react to everything? Did Antonio say anything about that?” Victoria asks, taking a seat. “If Lucia was good friends with his wife, she must have been devastated.”
I look up, the question piquing my interest. “Devastated is not really how he framed it. More like horrified. Scared of a six-year-old.”
“You mean a woman who grew up training at The Hive?” Wolf asks, perking his brows. “Those girls are trained to see much worse. Maybe Antonio bought her act in the moment because of how intense everything was.” He shrugs. “Not saying Lucia actually killed Giada, but I wouldn’t disregard herinvolvement just yet. Talk to Maksim—have him look into her fully. I can put some of our men on her, just in case.”
Yeah…that’s it. That’s what I need instead of going in circles like a fucking idiot—a plan, something palpable I can do while Cecilia slowly comes back to herself.
I stand, already pulling out my phone as I call the hacker and ask for what I need, down to that woman’s fucking birth certificate and who she sleeps with.
“Stop any other work. This is urgent. Understand?”
“Even the...?” Maksim asks.
“Did I fucking stutter?Everythingelse is on hold.”
A second of silence, and then he says—“Give me a few days. I’ll keep you posted.”
I shut down the call, tapping the back of my phone impatiently.A few dayscan’t come soon enough.
The possibility of being able to tell Cecilia this was all a big fucking misunderstanding is keeping me wired. I need her to know there’s nothing wrong with her, that whatever happened that night wasn’t her fault. I won’t accept that she has to live with this burden her entire life, even if I find Lucia Donatello wasn’t involved. I’ll fucking frame her if I have to. Anything to protect my perfect wife from those fucking demons.
“Hey,” Victoria says, making my gaze snap in her direction. “We’ll figure this out. No matter what. We’re all here for Cecilia.” She nods like she fully means it.
I run a hand through my hair.
And it’s my brother this time who opens his mouth to say something as he comes to stand beside me.
“Whatever it takes,” he says, and I believe him.
43
