“I’ll choose to believe whatever the hell I want to believe. I have been taught a lot of lessons in my life, and I cannot afford another one—not with you.” Her voice shook. “Just give me the damn flash drive, Elio.”
I looked at the drive in my hand. “Is this what you wanted? Is this drive the reason you needed the protection my name offered? You have a secret you don’t want anyone to know? Or is this all for Manuel?”
She scoffed. “Manuel…” she mused aloud before she leveled me with a glare. “There’s no Manuel, Elio.”
I paused, watching her.
“There’s justme. That flash drive belongs to me. I rule Sicily; IownSicily. I’ve owned it for years.”
I knew my soldiers would storm this place any minute, but the thought at the forefront of my mind was the information she had just let loose.
“You once asked me who I was,” she said, her eyes and the tone of her voice promising malice. A different kind of composure—one that I saw and noted the first time she talked back to me—took over her features. “Manuel pushed me aside. He was done with me. Told me I could leave. He had used me, gotten all he wanted, and his obsession with me was slowly fading away…”
“You told me you left.”
“I was naïve, tempted by the idea of freedom so I didn’t see he had discarded me,” she explained. “I left, yes. But I didn’ttell you I went back. I went back, and slowly, gradually, I killed him. I made it hurt; I made it last a long time, made him suffer because nobody uses me, nobodycontrolsme, I am the one who does the throwing away, I am the one in fucking control.” She took a step forward. “I fought tooth and nail to become somebody in a world where I was made to be nobody.
“Manuel Conti has not been pronounced dead yet because I wanted it that way. Stopping this ring was my last mission before I settled down and tried to figure out what I wanted for myself and what I would do with the power I acquired after taking his life. I thought I had it all figured out. Bring down P. Deluxe Corp, stop the ring, and save a lot of people—and maybe I could get to keep Street, but then I found out that it is much, much more extensive than I thought, and the man that I—the man that I fell for, was the overseer of everything.”
I could see the strength she’d used to hold the gun. The force of her hate. Her body shook with her words.
“I know the MCSS are sovereign,” she bit out. “But without the Marino empire, they wouldn’t exist; without your legal name as a backup, they wouldn’t get away with this shit they’re doing—trafficking and making children in the name of research facilities.
“I know you were maybe eight years old when I was born. But you’re no longer eight, Elio. You’re not a child; you know right from wrong and the consequences of ignorance, yet you chose never to check what these people were doing to earn you billions of dollars every damn month.”
I clenched my jaw.
“What makes you think I would believe something so fucking unbelievable?” she asked.
“Because you’re hurt, and you’re not listening to me, and I understand—”
“You don’t understand shit about me!”
“If you can just relax, sit down, and come to your sensesenough for you to think clearly, we wouldn’t have to resort to being at odds with each other. We can figure something out.”
“I don’t want to figure anything out with you, Elio.” She quickly looked toward the door and then back to me. “Give me the flash drive.”
“Not until you listen to me.Por favor, Zahra, drop the gun. Any minute, my people will storm this room to find you pointing a gun at me. In this position, after your betrayal today, they will shoot first and ask questions later.”
“Then give me the drive.”
“I am not letting you leave. We can easily sort things out once you have a clearer mind.”
The sound of footsteps reached us, and the moment she glanced back to the door, I charged. She gasped as I grabbed her wrist, raising her hand as a shot from the gun rang out, hitting the wall. I rose to my feet, and the weight of my body made her move backward as she fought me for the gun.
“Let go of the gun,” I warned, but her grip was firm, even as I tried to pry her fingers from the weapon.
There was panic, anger, and hurt in her eyes, three dangerous emotions to be felt all at once. Three emotions that made me rethink our whole conversation. The tears that had been in her eyes, and her silence when I had asked her if she still hated me despite knowing I hadn’t been actively fueling the MCSS’s business.
“Zahra, we can talk about this.”
“Let. Go. Of. Me,” she said with grit, her voice strained as she tried to kick me, elbow me—anything to get me to let go of her and the gun, but I held firm, not wanting to hurt her.
“Why are you so scared of believing me? I know you know I have nothing to do with the MCSS, and I am ready to rectify my mistakes; why do you think I will hurt you when you know I do not judge you for your flaws and mistakes because we all make them? I love you regardless of your identity or anything you have done.”
She supplied me with a humorless laugh. “Yeah?” she questioned, tears filling her eyes. “Even if I confess to being responsible for Casmiro’s shooting?”
I held her wrist tighter as she tried to twist the gun until it was right at our sides, and my body pushed hers to the wall.
