Page 90 of Doll's Eye

“You still have a hit on your head, and until Massimo and I have tracked down the rest of The Organization and—”

“Wait.” She looks between the two of us. “You two are going after The Organization?”

“Yes.” Tullio looks at her tentatively then looks at me. “You didn’t know?”

“No.” She looks at me in disbelief. “I cannot believe you guys! And you guys say I’m the stupid and reckless one?!” She throws her arms in the air, for once taking something seriously.

“We know what we’re doing,” her brother argues.

“No, I don’t think you do. Do you even know who the head of it is?” Neither of us respond. “Exactly. No one does. And they have the Black Widow under their control!” We both frown. “Black Mamba. The Lynx. The Wolverine. The King Cobra. The Russian assassin!”

I’m cognizant of what she’s talking about and think back to my conversation with Komodo. “We aren’t ignorant, Alessia,” I speak up. “We are aware of who we’re dealing with.”

She shakes her head in dismay. “You two are going to get yourself and a lot of people killed. Me included.” My fists clench.“He hasn’t sent his assassin here yet, but if you provoke him, he will. And there will be no way to protect me or any of us.” She downs the rest of her wine, draining her glass.

I look over at Tullio and he looks at me.Is she at all right in any way?

The rest of dinner is quiet, and we only make some small talk. I let Tullio and Alessia have a moment as she walks him to the door, and I go ahead up to our room without her. I know she has too many questions to try and take the opportunity to run. I feel like I’ve aged several years since she’s been back in my life. I’ll be lucky if I make it past the age of sixty married to her.

I’m sitting on the edge of our bed when she comes in. I loosen my tie after peeling my jacket off and kick my shoes off, preparing for a confrontation over everything, but her actual topic of concern surprises me.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Vita?”

“What’s to tell?” I respond flatly.

“Um, that your sister is missing. The fact that you haven’t been able to find her should be disturbing. Aren’t you afraid that she’s dead?”

“I know where she is.”

“What? But Sarita said—”

“Sarita doesn’t know. She thinks we can’t find her.”

She stops a few feet in front of me and crosses her arms. I’m longing to reach out and touch her. “Why are you lying to her?”

“If I tell Sarita where Vita is, she’ll go and try to bring her home.”

“So? Maybe that’s what she wants.”

“Of course, that’s what she wants.”

“I don’t mean Sarita. I mean Vita.” I frown and she rolls her eyes. “Do you know her at all?” She sighs and drops her arms when I don’t answer. Then she comes to hop up on the bed next to me leaving too much distance between us and lettingher shoes drop to the floor. “Vita is constantly crying out for attention. Are you trying to tell me you never saw that?” I still don’t respond out of fear of what I might say. I honestly do not want to talk about this, but she’s finally talking to me and not yelling. “The girl was constantly getting herself into trouble desperately trying to get your attention.”

“Mine?”

“Yes, yours. Or Sarita or Ezzo or even your mother. Hell, even your father.”

“She could care less about our father.”

“Not from what she told me,” she utters under her breath.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” She exhales loudly. “It was stupid and in the past. Point is, Vita is most likely doing this to see if any of you will come after her. Try to bring her home.Wantto bring her home.”

“Is that what you were trying to do?”

She narrows those brown eyes at me. “I didn’t run away. And if I were trying to get your attention, I would’ve gotten married to the president of a biker gang or someone of a rival family.”

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