My mind refocuses on the present in time to hear Nino debating the merits of attacking the Gallagher estate versus one of their nightclubs. Regardless of the target, he’s decided to move up the date.
Belinski chimes in by agreeing, with the added caveat that all the extra muscle will come from our enforcers.
Of course.
I clear my throat. “Nino, that’s… Let’s think about this.”
Nino’s head spins so fast in my direction, I’m surprised his neck doesn’t crack. He scratches the tattoo of the family crest over his ear, probably to remind me and everyone else in the room who’s boss.
When six pairs of eyes lock on me, I break out in a cold sweat. My silk blouse gets clingy around the collar. I wish I’d left my hair down to block the view because if I sweat through the material, I might die of embarrassment.
Normally, I’d stay silent and try to mitigate the damage later, but this is all too much. Clearly, the grief’s affecting Nino’s common sense. Just look at what it’s doing to me.
I suck in a breath and speak in a calm tone. “We can’t just march onto their property and start firing.”
Nino slaps the table. “They came into ours and killed Eduardo where he slept!”
I can’t argue with him here, but now that I’ve drawn everyone’s attention, I need to say something. “I know how it seems, and I want to find out who killed Eduardo as badly as you do.”Breathe in, hold, and exhale.“But someone turned off the cameras in Father’s room. And there’s no evidence of…any Gallagher…on the main floor the night of his murder.”
Two capos nod along with my words.
Their support gives me enough courage to push on. “I keep going over it in my head, and it’s not adding up.” I meet the eyes of every man at the table, even Belinski. “Why would Connor Gallagher kill him?” I can’t mention the negotiated alliance in front of the Russian, though every other man at the table knows what I mean. “The man was already on this deathbed. Why launch an all-out war by murdering someone already halfway in the grave?”
“Except he wasn’t.” Nino glares at me. “He was getting better. He had the antidote.”
Everyone starts mumbling, because no one but Nino, Connor, and our father’s three doctors knew anything about that development.
Father swore us to secrecy until we learned the full effects.
“Yes, it’s true.” I glance around. “Eduardo was being administered an antitoxin after we discovered Domenico Verone poisoned him.” I smile at the memory of what could have been. “Everyone else still believed he was dying, but he was on the mend. Only a handful of people knew that.”
“Including Connor Gallagher!” Nino shoves a finger into his collar and pulls. Red spots splotch his neck.
Despite his obvious rage, I press on. “Connor Gallagher is the reason we discovered Father was poisoned in the first place. Without him torturing Verone for that information, we wouldn’t have found an antitoxin, and Father would’ve died from liver failure.”
The capos all gasp and whisper as they debate. No logical conclusion ends with Connor Gallagher torturing Verone to save Eduardo’s life, only to sneak into the estate a few days later and slit the man’s throat.
Nino pounds a fist on the table, silencing the room. “No one asked for your theories, Caterina. You’re not here to speak. You’re only in this room as a courtesy to our late father.” He straightens his tie, angling away from me. “Where were we, Oleg?”
I shrink down in my chair.
“Us women are meant to be seen, not heard.”
My father worked so hard to get me a seat at the table. Did I have a voice? Not quite yet, but he was working on that too. He wanted more for me than this.
He left me the family…
The cut on Nino’s lip cracks open from all the snarling, and a bead of blood pops to the surface that he licks away.
“The Irish Kings did this.” He points at his bruises. “And I don’t need video footage to prove it, because my eyes are attached to my face, and I saw it! It’s on the video in my mind.” His eyes briefly bug out in my direction.
Can’t argue with that logic.
I sit quietly for the rest of the meeting as he and Belinski discuss and plot payback.
By the end of the talk, though, all four capos make eye contact with me, letting me know they believe my words ringwith some kind of truth. That it makes no sense for a Gallagher to save Eduardo Ricci’s life just to sneak into his home and kill him two days later…on the heels of an impending alliance.
Two plus two does not equal five.
