Page 84 of The Lies We Tell

“Documents. To end you.”

Documents? Where the fuck would Tessa get hard copies of documents? He kept most of that shit at his office or locked in the study. Occasionally he’d bring work to bed, but he’d been doing that less and less since she stopped sleeping across the hall. And even when he did, it was financial reports and other boring shit for the clubs or casinos. There was no way she’d brought them anything of value.

“Then look for it.” Matteo loosened his hold, gesturing with the muzzle of the gun but keeping it aimed at Tomaso. “Go on.”

Tomaso tossed around blankets and tools for changing a tire and an emergency roadside kit from side to side. There was some trash. But no documents. Tessa had lured them here with the promise of a silver bullet, but she’d brought nothing. The perfect opportunity for her to betray him to her father, and she wasn’t. Relief flooded him, and he wrapped his arm around Tomaso’s shoulders again, yanking the boy back against his chest.

“Looks like I’m not the one being played here. Get in.”

Tomaso scoffed in a way that sounded exactly like his father and jerked against Matteo’s hold. “I’m not getting in the trunk of a fucking car. You’ll have to kill me,” he said with all the bravado of a kid who’d never faced down death before.

“I’d love to.”

“Just know that as soon as my father hears the shot, your little whore is dead.”

Holstering his weapon, Matteo leaned in to murmur against Tomaso’s ear. “Unfortunately for you, I’ve learned a thing or two from my siblings. Like my brother’s favorite way to kill. It’s very personal. And very quiet.”

Gripping Tomaso’s jaw in his hands, Matteo quickly twisted at a sharp angle until he heard a faint pop, and Tomaso collapsed. He caught the boy under the arms and shoved him in the trunk to keep his body out of sight. He’d clean up that particular mess later.

Glancing up at the dark rectangle of the alley, he slammed the trunk closed and palmed his weapon, careful to give the alley a wide berth so they didn’t see him coming. Eventually Salvatore would put it together that Tomaso wasn’t coming back, and Matteo needed to figure out a plan before that happened. A plan that didn’t involve putting Tessa in the line of fire, if at all possible.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he sent Luca a quick text with instructions to advance from the street side of the alley. They could take Salvatore by surprise that way, and Matteo might still manage to salvage the accidental death he wanted. Luca responded with his ETA. Ten minutes.

Edging along the side of the building toward the mouth of the alley, Matteo froze when he heard voices. They sounded closer and clearer than he anticipated.

“What are you going to do, girl? Shoot me?” Salvatore chuckled. “You don’t have the fucking nerve.”

“Are you sure about that, Father?” Tessa asked, tone cold and mocking. “I’ve killed before. I think I’ll especially enjoy watching you take your last breath.”

He gave a derisive laugh. “Who could you possibly have killed?”

“You’re always underestimating me. When your little hired hitman didn’t come home, didn’t you wonder what happened to him?”

“And you expect me to believe you’re the one who killed him?” Salvatore scoffed.

“You don’t have to believe me,” she replied. “That doesn’t make it any less true. I’m the one who stopped your plot to kill Sienna Gallo. I’m the one who gave Matteo your contact in Spain.”

“You little cunt,” Salvatore snarled.

“Don’t move, you son of a bitch. Or I will shoot you.”

“Please,” her father said. “If you were going to shoot me, you would have done it already. But you can’t, because you’re weak like your mother was.”

“Why did you kill her?”

Matteo’s fingers tightened on the butt of his gun at the pain in her words.

“What? She’s not dead,” Salvatore insisted. “You demanded proof of life before you would give me anything else, and I gave it to you. You spoke to her.”

“I spoke to someone. But it wasn’t my mother.”

“I don’t have time for this, Tessa. You’re trying my patience.”

“I just want to know why.”

Salvatore sighed like the entire conversation was boring him. “She didn’t want my heir in the house. And I didn’t have much use for a bitch who wouldn’t follow orders. Satisfied now?”

“Go to hell.”

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