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“I’ll be keeping these,” I said, sliding the folder into my desk even though he made a noise of protest. “And, Niccolo, if this is a setup, you should know, I have more than just the Outfit at my disposal to hunt you down and flay you alive before I put a bullet between your eyes myself.”

He had the temerity to laugh at me. “You’ve turned out to be quite the woman, Fia. It’s my side mission to convince you to come home with me when all this messy business is said and done.”

I pursed my lips as he reached over to pat my hand still clasping my gun and then made his leave.

Because for the first time in my life, it seemed obvious to me that Sicily was just a place I’d once known.

And Chicago was my home.

One I would fight for even against those I’d once loved.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Fiammetta

“Luca killed my family.” I said the words out loud for the first time to Finn and Hank as they sat opposite me in my office, both with crossed arms and scowls on their faces. “As Lo Spettro while Dario married me.”

“Fuck,” Hank summarized eloquently, rubbing a hand over his mustache. “Goddamn, Fia.”

“That’s about the size of it,” I agreed with a flat smile.

Finn leaned forward with his freckled forearms braced on his thighs. “How do you want to deal with that information?”

This was one of the many reasons I loved Finn. He understood something had to be done with this knowledge, loaded like a bullet in the chamber of a gun and redirected somewhere so I could purge the pain from my body.

I drummed my fingers against my desk, over the photos of a tortured Dario I’d spread out across the surface to show two of my most trusted allies.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, letting myself be vulnerable for a moment.

I pressed my head back against my leather chair and closed my eyes. “He was taken from his family after being shot in the chest five times as a nine-year-old boy. He was groomed to be a killer. Programmed for it. Why would he hesitate over an order like that when he didn’t even know me?”

But I thought of what he’d said about finding me for the first time in Sicily. His instant curiosity about me, his desire to press me into the grass and discover what was under my skirts. He’d wanted me from the start, but he hadn’t even known enough to label it as desire.

It certainly wasn’t enough to go against what had been drilled into him like propaganda since birth.

Duty, honor, loyalty.

“He still killed your family,” Hank pointed out. “Someone came for mine, I’d kill ’em and try to understand why later. Maybe.”

My laugh was as hollow as shell casings. “Yes, well, we’re very different people, Hanky Panky.”

He raised both brows. “Are we? Seems to me over the last coupla years, you’ve proven to be a helluva lot like me and mine. Clever, ruthless, exacting.”

Hank’s dark eyes narrowed as he studied me closely, rubbing a meaty hand back and forth over his chin. “You like that about him, huh? Yeah, the man killed your family, but he did it for reasons you understand. He’s a monster, but you were raised in the pits of hell with beasts just like him. He’s a killer, Fia, but maybe, over the last six years, he’s proven himself to be your killer. That makes a difference, huh?”

I chewed my bottom lip, because his words hit me in the chest like a bull’s-eye.

“Only Fia would sympathize with a serial killer,” Finn said drolly.

I rolled my eyes. “Empathize. I don’t pity him. He’s not the kind of man you pity, even though he’s been dealt a crazy hand. I just . . . I guess I understand what it’s like to be forced to do something and then set aside.”

Hank made a displeased sound in the back of his throat, and Finn straight-up glowered, crossing his arms tightly across his chest so every one of his big muscles bulged.

“Not by you,” I corrected with a small genuine smile. “I’d still be rotting in my tower without you guys.”

“Told you once, I’ll tell you every fuckin’ day for the rest of our lives. You’ll never be alone again, girly,” Hank promised. “Now, tell us what you want to do about this shit show.”

“Obviously, if I tell Lando that Felipe has Dario, it’ll start a war. I have to assume Niccolo came here to tell me what he did for exactly that reason.”