He felt himself falling and knew it was too late to save himself. He didn’t understand what happened, but when he hit the jagged rocks below, he felt his body breaking into pieces, the bones smashed. He opened his mouth to scream in pain, but the waves smashed into him, driving salty water down his throat and into his lungs.
Casimir indicated for Lissa to step onto the path out of the softer dirt. Meticulously, taking his time, he erased all evidence of the two of them being at the edge with Cosmos. He took Lissa’s hand and they walked through the riot of cheerful flowers, staying on the stamped path so as not to leave any shoeprints behind. No one was around. It was the gardener’s day off, just as Luigi’s intelligence had reported. He had been thorough. Cosmos’s wife was out of the house with her friends, getting her weekly pedicure and facial. There was no one around to see Cosmos Agosto drunkenly fall over the edge of the cliff he loved so much.
Just out of sight of the street, Casimir stopped, pulling Lissa to a halt as well. He had to know she was all right. They had the confirmation they needed. Cosmos had told them everything they needed to know, the alcohol rushing through his veins loosening his tongue. Had he not gone over the cliff, he would have died from alcohol poisoning before he was discovered, but this way, no sharp-eyed medical examiner could discover the pinpricks on his skin.
“Golubushka, look at me.” She had to be hurting. She had expected the confirmation, had already accepted that Luigi was guilty, but it was human nature to hold out hope. Just a tiny sliver of hope, but still, it would hurt when that was ripped away.
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “Let’s get home and finish this.”
“Look at me,” he repeated, standing directly in front of her. A rock wall she couldn’t move or get around. His voice was gentle, but there was command in it.
She tilted her chin. Lifted her lashes. Met his eyes. His gut tightened. He leaned down, framing her face with both hands. “I’m with you every step of the way. Your real family is waiting for you back in the States. This is just another job we have to do. A job, malyshka, something to be done. Don’t feel one way or the other.”
Her lashes fluttered. He loved Lissa’s red-gold tips, not Patrice’s black ones. He brushed his mouth over hers because there was no changing Lissa’s mouth – and just for one heart-stopping moment her lips had trembled.
“Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Giacinta? That’s how you’re going to get through this. Hang on to me. To your sisters. To my brothers. We’re real. We’re solid. We won’t ever let you down. If you called right now, they would all be on the next plane. You know that. I’m not going anywhere. You have to put distance between yourself and this man who was supposed to be your uncle. He’s nothing but an illusion, and now he’s a mark. He made himself that. You didn’t put his ass there, he did. Do you get this?”
Her gaze moved over his face, studying every line there. She slowly nodded. “I do, Casimir. I’ll put him where he belongs now. I have to sit down with him. Tell him it’s done. He’ll hand me my next assignment, Aldo Porcelli. Aldo supposedly was the one that got his father to order the hit on my family. He probably did. He believes Luigi is his friend. Luigi married his sister. Of course he would believe that. Aldo won’t suspect, and he’s the last obstacle before Luigi is head of both families. The Porcelli territory is large, much larger than the Abbracciabene territory ever was.”
“I hope Luigi enjoys thinking about being the all-powerful head of both families, because he won’t have time to enjoy it,” Casimir said. “Are you going to be all right by yourself getting home?”
She nodded. “It will be good for me, taking the time on the bus. You go be Tomasso, the faithful bodyguard. Keep an eye on Arturo.”
He smirked. He couldn’t help it. He’d keep his eye on Arturo, all right. Especially when she was sequestered with her uncle in his study and she had an alibi – when there was no possible way Luigi would ever suspect his niece. Arturo was going to die. It was that simple. Arturo was every bit as guilty as Luigi. He had to know Luigi didn’t have multiple sclerosis. He knew Luigi was married and had a full life in another town. He also knew that Luigi planned to dispose of his niece the moment she finished taking out the key figures in the Porcelli family to leave the opening for Luigi. Arturo was living on borrowed time. He just didn’t know it.
“What are you planning?” she asked.
He smiled down at her. “Go, Lissa. Go now.” He glanced at his watch. “You have a bus to catch. I’ll shadow the bus until you get to your stop. If you have trouble, you know the signal. You’ll be on your own once you get to that stop. I’ve got to take the car back to the rental place and get my own transportation.”