Page 83 of The Lies We Tell

And Tomaso was no match for Matteo. The Bianchis would hunt him down and truly put an end to the Antonetti name forever.

Her heartbeat pounded through her ears, time slowing as she gripped the gun tighter in her fist. One shot in the center of his chest. That’s all she needed, and then, whatever happened to her, her father would be dead and it would all be over for good.

“Father.” Tomaso shifted on his feet, tilting his head as he studied the area behind them.

“What?” Salvatore snapped, looking from Tessa to his son.

“That’s the tenth time the same black SUV has driven past us.”

Tessa’s head jerked up, eyes scanning the parking lot. She didn’t see Matteo’s car, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t doing another loop and looking for his best way in. Had he come for her? And if he had, who was he here to punish?

“You told Matteo you were coming?” Her father took a menacing step forward, and she shook her head.

“Of course not. Don’t you think he’d have attacked long before now if I had? It’s probably not even the same car. Lots of black SUVs on this island.”

Tomaso’s lip curled back over his teeth. “I know what I saw, bitch.”

“Enough,” her father barked when Tessa opened her mouth to reply. “Give him your keys, Tessa.”

“What?”

He backhanded her across the face, and she stumbled into the wall, cupping her cheek and ringing ear. “Give your brother the goddamn car keys so he can get the information and I can get the fuck out of here.”

Tessa let out a hissing breath through tight lips and dug the keys from her pocket, placing them in Tomaso’s outstretched hand. She hoped it really was Matteo out there circling the lot. Because if not, she was cutting off her only means of escape once she shot her father.

“They’re in the trunk. Under some blankets.”

Tomaso turned and strode quickly from the alley, twirling the keys around his finger. And as soon as they were alone, Tessa kicked her foot into her father’s kneecap. As he collapsed against the far wall, she pulled the gun from the waistband of her jeans and aimed it at his chest.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Matteo pulled into the parking lot in front of the address Maeve had sent him, the same one Tessa had left on the bottom of her note, and backed into the shade of a large tree. The Alfa was here but empty, and he hadn’t spotted Tessa in any of his rotations.

Luca was on his way, but he was across town in the wrong direction. And he knew from Carina that Tessa had arranged to meet with her father. A lure, she’d called it. A lure for who was the question.

In the last forty-eight hours, pinning Antonetti down had been impossible. His behavior had become more frenzied and erratic. It had been harder to predict his movements and make sense of where he might go next.

They’d assumed he was laying low after the hit in Belgium, but now Matteo knew better. Antonetti was trying to shake any tails so no one would know he was planning on being in Palermo today. Close enough to take out. He’d succeeded.

That pissed him off almost as much as Tessa being here to meet with him. Her note insisted she was trying to prove her loyalty, but every word out of her mouth had been a lie since the first moment he met her. This could just as easily be a trap as it could be her attempt to help.

Still, there was a part of him that didn’t want to take the chance that she might be on his side and willingly putting herself in danger. Even with the gun she’d taken from his room, she was hardly a match for her father and his callousness.

Climbing out of the vehicle, he crept along the low stone wall separating the lot from the road, ducking down behind a car when Tomaso appeared at the mouth of the alley and jogged toward the Alfa Romeo.

When Tomaso rounded the trunk of the car, his back to the rear of the parking lot, Matteo closed the distance between them in quick strides, unholstering the gun at his back and carrying it low against his thigh.

Tomaso wasn’t paying attention as he unlocked the trunk of the car. Matteo had his arm around the kid’s shoulders and the gun pressed to his temple before Tomaso even registered his presence.

“You’re a long way from home,” Matteo said, voice low.

“Just came here to get what was promised to us.”

“Yeah? And what was that?”

“My sister isn’t quite what she seems.” Tomaso grinned. “Did you enjoy fucking a traitor, Bianchi?”

He pressed the gun harder into the kid’s temple. “What did she bring you?”

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