Page 104 of Her Dark Salvation

“There’s a line that divides Boston. Invisible, but hard as steel. Strange how Ciarán Shaughnessy decided now would be a good time to cross it.”

Luca shifted in his seat but nodded. “They’re lawless thugs who want control of our city.”

I drew on my cigar. “That’s one explanation.”

His eyebrows pulled together. “That’s the only explanation.” His bouncing knee told me he knew otherwise.

“Or…” I canted my head. “Someone wanted me to move against the Irish badly enough to make a very poor decision.” The words came out slower and more suggestive than I’d intended, but I was barely holding on to control.

Luca scoffed and looked away, but his knee picked up speed. “You’re grasping,” he spat the bitter words. “Another excuse not to get involved. Un-fucking-believable.”

How I’d been so willfully blind to Luca’s lust for revenge was a disgrace. I’d wanted to do right by Tony, but the happy little boy I’d raised with Gina was gone, and the volatile adult who’d taken his place was no longer my responsibility.

“It was the Shaughnessys,” he snapped.

I rested my cigar on the lip of the ashtray and folded my hands in my lap. “Ciarán Shaughnessy says otherwise.”

He leaned forward as if to protest, but I cut him off.

“Anna was at Vesuvio. Did you know that? So was Siobhán.” His face paled, and his lips parted, but I kept going, done with excuses. “Anna was hit by a car when they ran out. She’s in the ICU at Mass General.” Angry heat traveled up my neck and into my eyes at the thought of Anna’s damaged body in that hospital bed. “Siobhán got lucky, but she’s a fucking mess.”

“Oh my God,” he said in a horrified whisper. His throat bobbed, working through labored swallows. “Marco, I?—”

“I know about the money.”

“Wh—what…” He shook his head and blinked. “What money?”

“I thought maybe Vinnie put you up to it. Wanted you to help him force me into a deal. But after last night…” I picked up my cigar and took a deep pull trying to numb my rising anger. “You thought the money would be enough. You thought if you could put DEI at risk—put our family at risk—you could tip Vinnie off, tell him I’d be open to an arrangement. Isn’t that right?”

Luca’s jaw twitched under the strain of his clenched teeth.

“Answer the fucking question, Luca.”

“I—”

“And when that didn’t work?” I cut him off and stood, leaning forward, knuckles pressed into the poker table, unable to cage the fury in my blood. “When thatdidn’t fucking work?” I shouted, and Luca scrambled to his feet. “You sent a group of thugs to threaten me and force my hand.”

My eyes turned and fangs descended from the intensity of unleashing my pain on its source. I stepped around the table, and Luca’s nostrils flared with short, rapid breaths. I gripped the back of his neck and squeezed to hold him in place. I wanted to look him in his red eyes when I laid out the truth of what he’d done. “You attacked a made man. Came in fucking heavy. And now the woman I love is fighting for her life.”

Luca pushed back against my hand, his eyes glassy with awareness and regret, the color leeched from the hard lines of his conflicted face. “I was trying to protect us,” he mumbled, his unwavering bravado finally shaken. “I was trying to get you to lead our family.”

I pulled him closer. “Basta con le stronzate, Luca. You wanted revenge. This has nothing to do with family.”

“Doesn’t it?” Luca grabbed my forearm and threw my hand off his neck. He stepped back, and his face twisted into an angry sneer. “The noble DeVita family. Walking away from Cosa Nostra. Adopting the poor, parentless child of a fallen capo, determined to lead him away from his father’s despicable life and down the path of righteousness.” He pointed a finger in my face. “This has everything to do with family!”

Luca’s crimson eyes were filled with so much resentment, I knew I’d lost him.

“The DeVitas are built on as much blood as the Valenzanos and the Morettis. Or have you forgotten? The only difference is we fucking own it! And my father’s blood—the Moretti family’s blood—is a stain on the DeVitas and the Valenzanos that has never been wiped clean.” His words were bitter poison that burned for all the truth they contained. He stepped forward, hands fisted at his sides. “Thisisabout family, Marco. And if you,mio zio, aren’t going to help me make this right, by God, I will do it alone.”

I stared at Luca—mio nipote, my son—and shook my head in disbelief. “There are more important things at stake than this vendetta, Luca, and you put them in jeopardy with this stunt. You took an oath. You should have trusted me.

“Your father and I made a promise to each other the day we met. We were brothers, and we’d protect each other like brothers. Gina and I honored that promise by raising you a DeVita.” My voice caught on our family name, my throat tightening around words that held all the love I had for my brother and his son. “And your actions—the money, the attack...” I shook my head. “They dishonor that promise. You have dishonored your father’s legacy.”

I showed him my back. The pain of his betrayal, the anger at his callous regard for the sanctity of our family and Anna’s safety was too much to face.

“You made a mistake crossing a made man, and you will pay for that mistake. You want to be a part of this world so badly? Cosa Nostra has rules, and you violated more than one.”

“You won’t hurt me.” His bravado returned, but I recognized the undercurrent of fear in his brash words.

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