Page 90 of Sinful Bargains

I grabbed his arm, spinning him around. “You were the driver! That makes you part of this!”

His jaw tightened. “And I did my fucking job. I got us the fuck out of there.” He stepped in close, eyes burning into mine. “You had one job, and you fucked it up.”

“If I go down, so do you,” I shot back.

Giovanni grinned. “Joey would expect this from me. But you?” He tilted his head. “Imagine what he’ll do when he finds out his brand-new son was behind the whole thing.” He shoved me hard against the lockers. But I didn’t move. I stood there, my mind racing, trying to figure out what the fuck I was going to do.

I had made a mistake. And there was no way to take it back. Every day, he was getting better. Stronger. But also more obsessive—more unhinged in his desperate search for the person who shot him. Living under the same roof with him had become suffocating. But I was sure that was just the guilt talking.

Joey’s head poked through my bedroom door, startling me. “Hey, kid.”

“Hey, Joey.” I snapped my head up as he slipped inside, closing the door behind him.

The walls felt like they were closing in. Just the two of us.Trapped. I hadn’t even noticed I’d been pacing until then. Joey sat at the edge of my bed, and I forced myself to join him. “I wanted to apologize,” he began. “For everything that’s happened these last few weeks.”

“It’s okay,” I cut in.

He exhaled, running a hand over his jaw. “I just want you to know—I’m getting better. I’ll be back to myself in no time. We’ll be back to how we were before you know it. Tossing the baseball in the new backyard and getting you all ready to be the next big Yankee star, with me front row.”

Then came the smirk. My stomach twisted. What the fuck had I done?

“I feel terrible that you’ve had to go through all this,” Joey said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer. I wanted to resist, but I was exhausted—in every way a person could be. My body slumped, and my head dropped.

“Did you figure out who did it?” I dared to ask.

His grip on me tightened. “Ben’s working on it,” he said.

My eyes snapped to his, searching for any hint of suspicion. But there was none. He didn’t suspect me. Which could only mean he suspected someone else. And that meant someone else would die because of me. “What are you going to do to them?”

Joey sighed, shaking his head. “That’s not important.”

A sob tore through me before I could stop it. I collapsed forward, burying my face in my hands. Joey tugged me closer, holding me against him. But it felt wrong. Wrong to want his comfort. Wrong to let him give it. And wrong to know I was guilty while someone else would soon pay the price.

JOEY

Isat at my desk, my whiskey glass sat half-empty, the amber liquid swirling as I took slow sips. I looked over at the office door when I heard the tap that broke the silence. The door creaked open, and Ben slipped in. “What is it?” I asked.

I watched him cross the room like he was stepping over landmines, a manila folder tucked under his arm. “I got something for you,” he said.

“Do you know who did it?” He didn’t say anything. Just stood there, staring at me like he was trying to figure out how to break a man in half without touching him. Then, he placed a folder on my desk. There was a thud when it hit my desk, letting me know something was inside. My eyes met Ben’s again, searching for answers.

“It’s all in there,” he told me. “You need to see it for yourself.” Something cold curled in my stomach. Ben paused at the door, his hand gripping the doorknob as he looked over his shoulder at me. “Once you open that, there’s no going back.”

The door clicked shut behind him. I sat there, staring at the folder. The room was too quiet. The walls felt too close. Forweeks, I’d been trying to drag the truth into the light. And now, it was right in front of me. Staring me dead in the eyes. But I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. I forced myself to face the truth. I knew I’d never rest until I reached the end.

So I flipped the folder open, stuck my hand inside, and pulled out a revolver. I’d never seen it before. I didn’t know who it belonged to. But there was another envelope inside. It was registered. And the second I read the name William Bianchi, my world tilted. Nothing in the fucking world could have prepared me for that. Because Adriana couldn’t have done it. She was with me. William couldn’t have done it because I killed him. That meant it could only be one other person.

Antonio Romano.

My son.

ANTONIO

The second I stepped through the front doors, I knew something was wrong. Joey was standing in the middle of the living room, hands in his pockets. Still as a fucking statue. Like the calm before the storm. A predator waiting for the right moment to pounce. “Where’s Ma?” I asked, shrugging off my backpack. I dropped it by the front door and shoved my hands in my pockets. I had already begun to sweat profusely.

Joey tilted his head, his eyes never leaving mine. “She’s gone over to visit Angela and Lucy.”

I nodded, but the air in the room was suffocating. He knew. He fucking knew what I’d done. I could see it in his eyes. He was peeling back my skin, seeing straight through me. I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears, and I was sure he could hear it, too. Every instinct screamed at me to run, to get the hell out of there. But running would only confirm what he already knew.

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