"Why?"
Lorenzo doesn't answer immediately.
He picks up his glass again. Swirls the whiskey. Watches the amber liquid catch the light from the city outside.
"Because he knows what you'll do when you hear it."
My chest tightens.
If he's ordered Lorenzo to keep me in the dark, it means whatever he's about to say will unleash something Bruno doesn't want unleashed.
Not yet.
Not like this.
"Tell me anyway."
Lorenzo sighs.
He runs a hand through his hair.
For a moment, he looks tired. Not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. The kind that settles into your bones and stays there.
"I'm probably going to regret this," he says quietly. "Bruno's going to have my head."
"Lorenzo."
He meets my eyes.
"But I'll regret it more if I hide it from you." He takes a breath. "You deserve to know. After everything. You deserve the truth."
The truth.
I've built my life on truths. Hard truths. Ugly truths. The kind of truths that leave scars.
But something in Lorenzo's voice tells me this truth is different.
This truth is going to break something.
"The Mendoza cartel," Lorenzo begins. "Their leader. The man running the operation."
He stops.
Swallows.
"His name is Alejandro Mendoza. He took over the cartel fifteen years ago after his father died. Before that, he was running operations in Sicily."
Sicily.
The word hits me like a fist to the chest.
"What operations?"
Lorenzo doesn't look away.
"Contract killings. Eliminations. Cleaning up loose ends for people who could afford his prices."
My hands are shaking.
