Page 56 of Chaos & Corruption

“And trust me when I tell you, no one will ever find that body. No body, no crime. The society will never know you killed him or that Victoria’s dad had a hand in helping you get rid of him.”

Hearing her say those words out loud causes my gut to twist. It’s a truth I will have to learn to live with. Mila’s right, there is a brand on me now. On all of us.

“I’m going to tell Mr. B I was raped and that I told Victoria it was Jennings. You’ll tell him that she was trying to expose him, and that’s why he went after her.”

While that is all basically true, it feels like we’re protecting those scumbags. I swipe a hand over my face and peer back at Mila. There’s one missing piece to the puzzle, though.

“What about Webber?”

She crosses her arms and shrugs a shoulder.

“What about him?”

“I don’t know if he’s gonna pull through, but if he does, there’s a good chance of him putting this all together. When Robinson and I found him, he had gotten a suspicious text. I think he knew Jennings had gone after Victoria. Now, Jennings suddenly disappears…”

I know Mila thinks Webber is part of the society, but I still haven’t made a solid connection. He doesn’t wear the ink.

“I’ll leave Webber to you. I’m still banking on him being dead.” She drops her hands to her sides and sighs. “I’m sorry, I know he’s your friend—”

“Was. He was my friend,” I correct.

I don’t know what Webber is anymore, or Robinson for that matter too.

“So do we have our story straight?”

“If this is how you want to play it, then I’m with you.” I pause for a beat. “I’m sorry if I was an asshole to you. Turns out you’re not so bad.”

“Yeah, neither are you. But a warning, Reggiano, if you hurt my friend, I’ll kill you.”

I feel the corners of my mouth twitch.

Yeah, I can totally see why she and Victoria are best friends.

~*~

After my talk with Mila, I found Mr. Bianci waiting for me in the living room. He was with Riggs, but that Parrish guy was nowhere to be found. It’s a good thing too, because that guy scared the fuck out of me.

“Let’s go for a drive,” Mr. Bianci said. Those words should’ve scared the fuck out of me too, but they didn’t.

Now, here I am, in the middle of nowhere, sitting in the passenger seat of his truck, watching him load his gun and still, I’m not shitting my pants. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me. I may not be all that educated in the mob, but this has to be a scene in one of those movies. You know the one where the mobster takes the poor unsuspecting kid out to the woods and offs him because he didn’t protect his daughter—yeah, that scene.

“You ever shoot one of these before?”

My eyes dart toward the gun in his hand.

“Uh…no.”

“Well, you’re about to.”

Lifting my eyes to his, my mouth drops open.

“What?”

“My daughter is going to wake up and it’s going to be her decision whether she stays here at Stonewall with you or if she comes back to Staten Island with me. I’m no fool, and I know that the chances of the latter happening are slim to none. That means you get an education today, but first there are some things you and I need to discuss.”

I swallow.

“Mila told me what that little fucker did to her and it’s a fucking miracle he didn’t do the same to Victoria.”

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