Page 59 of Savage Claim

“He let you watch?” I couldn’t tell if Cristian was sickened at the idea, or envious.

“I insisted.”

Somehow, his gaze became even more intense. “I can’t tell if my brother is corrupting you, or if he finally found his perfect match.” His words were not a compliment.

“So, Father David wasn’t a good man,” I said, “but does one bad person who was able to hide the worst of himself behind piety make the whole system bad? Maybe you don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater here.”

A strange, sick look passed over his face. “The other man who attacked you was also a priest.”

My stomach was going to turn itself inside out at this point. “What?” I remembered Lorenzo trying to extract that information out of Father David, but he’d said over and over that he didn’t know the man. “Father David said that he didn’t know him. He was just another low-level thug.”

“He lied.”

“To what end?” I asked, although I didn’t expect any sort of answer. “Is he actually dead? Father David said he performed the Last Rites.”

“He committed suicide.”

“Wouldn’t that mean that there would be no funeral for him? I didn’t think that was allowed.”

Cristian looked like he was in agony. “Before he killed himself, he wrote out his confession. It detailed what they did to you, and he named Father David as his accomplice. I found it in his personal desk when I was trying to pack things up for donations.”

“How did Father David get a hold of it?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Either the priest sent a copy to Father David, or a Church official found it after the man killed himself and sent it to Father David instead of turning him in.”

The prospect of that was unsettling. “Why would the Church help him cover up something like that?”

Cristian opened his empty palms in a helpless gesture. “The Church has a dark history of smoothing things over for badly behaving priests. Father David was likely on the road to being transferred to another parish.” His lips twisted into a sneer. “Even so, I never imagined that I would meet a priest like that. I thought it was a bogeyman story, you know? But this has been haunting me for weeks,” he said. “I walked away when I realized that if I couldn’t tell good men from bad ones, then I might as well be with my family. The Cosa Nostra is full of men who couldn’t be called good, but they aren’t hiding that fact from anyone.”

He probably would hate it if I tried, but there was a part of me that wanted to pull him into a hug. It had to be so difficult to question everything that he had ever learned and all the people around him that he cared about.

There was also the niggling feeling that someone had confessed to almost killing me, and instead of punishing the man responsible, the Church covered it up. I rubbed my belly again, soothing myself now, but my skin felt tight, like it didn’t fit me all of a sudden. I was angry and horrified and had nowhere to put it all.

That thought brought me pause. Was this what Lorenzo was feeling right now? Anger that he had no place to funnel it toward. My fiancé was a doer. When one of his people was hurt, he wanted to fix it. Fight the monsters, get revenge. But mine and Cristian’s monsters were dead, so there was nothing to do. We simply had to get over it.

But that was nearly impossible. So what were either of us meant to do with this crawling feeling beneath our skin?

I pushed myself to my feet. “Is Lorenzo in the house?”

Cristian nodded. “He’s been in his office for hours. I think he’s been in meetings since he came back from breakfast.”

“Okay.” I could handle it if he had locked himself in his office for a meeting. Although Amalia would forever be one of Lorenzo’s people, she was also my friend, and she didn’t like it when anyone fought. I could count on her to get me the skeleton key. If it even came to that. I paused before I left the room. “You can always come to me if you need to chat,” I said. He nodded, giving me a stilted smile, but I didn’t let it go. “I know people who say that to be nice, but seriously, I’m here.”

His smile became a little warmer, more genuine. “Thank you,piccolina.”

I put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I haven’t done anything yet,” I said. “Save your ‘thank yous’ for when I’ve done more than just offer my ear.”

I went up to Lorenzo’s office. The door was, in fact, locked. I rapped my knuckles against the hard wood. “Let me in,” I called.

There was no answer.

“I want you to punish me.”

There was movement, and then quick footsteps. I counted them until the door swung open. Lorenzo crossed his arms over his chest, looming over me from the doorjamb. My heart kicked in my ribs, and warmth flooded through me.

Behind him, Damian and Carmine were seated in front of his desk. I made eye contact with Damian. “Both of you get the fuck out.”

Carmine frowned, but Damian stood and dragged the older man after him. Lorenzo didn’t so much as glance their way as they passed on the way out.

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