“Yeah. I’m coming out now.”
The bullets suddenly died. There were no sounds coming from outside except for those of the wind and the distant beach. What did that mean? Was the fight over?
Or wasitover?
No. Tino would never hurt Leo. Could I say the same about Leo?
My heart shrank. This couldn’t be happening.
A second knock on the door disrupted me. I took a deep breath and opened the door. One of the men gestured for me to take my seat as we were about to take off.
“Can you please wait another five minutes?” I urged.
“Mi dispiace, signora. Don Bellomo said ten minutes only.”
“At least, go look outside the plane door and fucking check if he’s anywhere close.” I was done being polite.
The second bodyguard popped his head out of the door, and then he glanced at me and shook his head.
“Please take your seat,” the first one said.
I stared at Arancia, who was already in her seat waving for me to join her.Okay. I can do this.
I took one step, and with the next I faked a fall. When one of the men bent to help me up, I stole the gun in his belt and aimed at both of them. “I’m not leaving without Tino. You wanna stay here, fine, but don’t try to stop me from going back.”
They mumbled a few curses and threats. I didn’t care about them or Arancia’s pleas as she jumped off her seat. I just backed up slowly, my hands firm on the gun, the wind clashing against my back, ruffling my hair. Then I wheeled out of the plane and ran as fast as I could back to the beach.
Thank God the guards didn’t try to stop me. They could have easily. I didn’t know why they let me leave. Maybe they were afraid to hurt me, afraid I’d hurt them if I recklessly pulled the trigger without prior training, afraid I’d put a bullet in the plane body and break it or—I hoped—wanted me to go so it’d be an excuse for them to come back for me and Tino without being at fault.
Whatever it was, I was thankful. I couldn’t let a father and son kill each other because of me. I couldn’t let Tino die because of me.
When I arrived, it was getting darker, but I could still see the bodies and the blood scattered on the sand. All the men were dead, Leo’s and Tino’s. No sign of Tino or Leo themselves, though.
Voices in a heated argument and sounds of struggle streamed from inside the house all of a sudden. I rushed toward the front door, my breath catching, my heart hammering.
“You took her from me!”
“She was never yours. She’s mine! Six years I’ve been taking care of her, waiting for her to grow, and you just—”
“I love her, and she loves me. She wants me!”
“She never wanted you. It was only when you lied to her that she agreed to be with you, thinking you saved her from Marciano when you faked the whole thing to make it look as if you did, thinking I’d been using her to get you made.”
What? Oh my God.
“Isn’t that the truth? You did use her to get me in the family business. Isn’t that the only reason you agreed to bring her to the mansion?”
“No, Leo. I brought her home so I could be with her, so I could keepyouaway from her, to protect her fromyou. Why do you think I scared her like that at the theatre? Only so that she’d agree to come live with me where you didn’t.”
So Leo had been lying to me all this time. All the things that brought us closer were fake, staged to make me choose him.
“It doesn’t matter. You know I’m not gonna let her go,” Leo said. “You know I can’t.”
“Nobody understands you more than I do, Son. We’re so much alike, Leo. You’re obsessed with her like I am, but she was never yours.”
“I don’t care! Where is she?”
I stepped inside, and both their heads jerked toward me. “Right here.”
