Chapter 108

“I’m sorry, Iris,” Christian says, looking down at his plate and settling his hands in his lap. “You’re right.”

My eyebrows go up as my spine straightens. Because, I mean, those are not two sentences I’ve heard very often over the past two months.

Christian lifts his eyes to mine. “It is difficult for me. My knee-jerk is to keep you in the dark about things, because I still think that you’re safer not knowing.”

“Not knowing didn’t stop me from getting kidnapped and tortured, Chris,” I say quietly, leaning forward towards him, feeling his fear but wanting to be part of this nonetheless.

“Not knowing did let you keep all your fingers, Iris,” he replies, likewise leaning towards me.

“I don’t think so,” I respond, shaking my head. “I think the only thing that held them back on that account was my connection to you. “Those guys knew they had to work with you in the future, and that you weren’t going to make that easy for them if they returned me with more than just some cuts and bruises.”

Christian scowls, looking away from me, sitting back in his chair. “Well, that backfired on them. I’m going to kill them all anyway.”

“What?” I whisper, staring at him. I mean, from anyone else, that would just be a throw-away statement.

But from Cristian Romano, Mafia King and heir apparent to his family’s empire…

I mean, is he serious?

My eyes fly back to the phone. “What is – what happened?” I ask, snatching for the device, which Christian grabs and pulls out of my grasp. “What the hell did those texts say?”

“They confirm my suspicions,” Christian says, lowering the phone back to the table but keeping his hand over top of it when I sit back in my chair and scowl, crossing my arms.

“How do you even have a phone?” I grumble. “Won’t people be able to like…trace you here? Like what Nico did with mine?”

“That was special spyware Nico put on your phone,” Christian says, flicking a hand to dismiss the point. “This one’s a burner phone – it relays all my texts and information from my real phone, which is still in the Penthouse. None of which actually…matters right now.”

My eyes go up with surprise because…well, because I guess I don’t really understand the technology of it all, do I? “Okay, whatever,” I say, moving on. “But seriously, what brought all of this on?”

Christian pauses for a second but then he clenches his jaw for a moment before pushing the phone towards me. “The confirmation,” he says, “that my father and my whole family was conspiring against me.”

“What?” I breathe, totally shocked. But the shock only stills me for a minute before I reach for the phone. There, I see a bunch of messages – but not from Nico, as I assumed.

From Violetta.

“But…you said Nico…” I murmur, shaking my head.

“He sent some too,” Christian says, lifting his chin, urging me to read. “These ones are…more telling.”

I lower my eyes to the screen, flicking through the long set of messages – it starts out with short sentences and then they get longer, turning eventually into long paragraphs. The first ones – the short ones – are pissed, really laying into Christian for dumping her, for leaving her for a basic, classless stripper who can’t cook –

“I can cook,” I mutter, frowning. Christian laughs a little at this, but I ignore him, focusing in on the messages.

The longer messages – they have a completely different tone. They’re apologetic, and wheedling, and conciliatory – begging him to come back, to try again.

“What am I not getting, Chris?” I ask when I’m finished, putting the phone down. “These just seem like…standard breakup texts. How does this confirm anything?”

He shakes his head slowly. “Girls like Violetta, Iris?” he says. “They don’t beg guys to come back. They say scathing texts and then walk away for good, burning the bridge and never letting their ex back in their life. Those longer messages – she didn’t write them. My step mom did, probably – did you notice? The different way she spells ‘axe’?”

“What?” I ask, looking back at the messages and flicking through them again. “When she…says you took an axe to the relationship?”

“The first time, yes, and then when she takes it back at the bottom – she spells it ‘ax,’ without the ‘e.’ That wasn’t autocorrect – that was a different author. Violetta – she sent those long, begging messages because she was told to make nice.”

My jaw drops open because…I mean, still, how would he know that for sure?

“Please,” I say, not getting it, putting the phone down. “You need to walk me through this.”

Christian folds his hands on the table. “When you were kidnapped, Iris, they already knew that you and I knew each other from childhood – that you were more to me than just a pet stripper, yes?”

“Yes,” I say, rankling a little at the idea that Nico’s “pet stripper” phrase has now become a normalized part of our mutual language. But I ignore it, knowing it’s not important now.

“And are you really ready to believe that Nico or Frankie gave up that information?”

I sit quietly for a moment, truly considering it. Nico, no – he was against me, but his allegiance to Christian is crystal clear, at least in my eyes. He would never give him information that would give anyone leverage on him. And Frankie…

I mean, no. Never. Frankie – he’s strange, and funny, and such a mixed contradiction of a man – but he’s true blue. There’s no way – he wouldn’t betray either of us. It’s just not in his bones.

“No,” I say after a moment, my eyes focusing again on Christian. “I honestly can’t believe that.”

“Right. And it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t you…” he raises an eyebrow here and I scoff at him.

“Christian, obviously it’s not me! I wouldn’t have told anyone…”

But my words fade off and my mouth pops open because…

Because. I mean. I did tell someone.

“Oh my god,” I whisper, sitting up straight as my hand flies to my mouth. “It’s me. I’m the leak.”

“Not quite,” Christian says, giving me half a shrug. “You got played, Iris – but Violetta, I’m learning, is very good. She’s the leak – I should have known it. Bianca – of course she set me up with a girl who is loyal to her far more than she is me. Of course she sent someone who was going to report back.”

He scowls and looks off into the distance like he’s disappointed in himself for letting it happen.

I just stare at him, processing. Because Bianca – she seems…well, she seems so out of it, so detached from the business of the mafia that such a move would be unthinkable. But is that all part of her act? Is she walking around in a fog all day precisely because no one would suspect her of anything?

“Wow,” I whisper.

“Wow is right,” Christian replies, returning his eyes to mine. “But it’s bigger than that, Iris. If Violetta told Bianca, who told my dad, then my dad knows about you too – for who knows how long. Longer, I’m sure, than just the last few days. Which means he set you on assignment with Edward Marino knowing it would set me off. And considering that someone let it slip to Bonetti and Marino before you were kidnapped…”

My eyes go wide as I realize what he’s saying. “You don’t think…”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense, Iris,” Christian says, holding my gaze. “Violetta doesn’t talk to men – she’s a mafia wife-to-be, through and through. She didn’t go to Bonetti and Marino. Which means she talked to someone who did. And considering that you were picked up from Lupa by a crew who knew, somehow, that you’d be there taking a break…”

“Christian,” I whisper, shocked.

“Dad gave you to them, Iris,” Christian snaps, cold. “He did it because you mean nothing to him and because he was punishing me for keeping a secret. He probably suspects that we had more to do with Edward Marino’s death than we’ve been letting on, and he’s punishing me for it. He’s marked me, Iris – I’m out of the family now because I’m keeping secrets from him, because he can’t trust me. He’s going to make an example of me to my brothers – this is what happens when you try to keep things from him.”

I gape at Christian, cold down to my bones now. Because Don Romano is a much more calculating man than I ever gave him credit for.