Only With Me (With Me #2)(71)

"All right, first her name isn't Gabi Mandola. It's Gabriella Rossi. She is the daughter of an extremely wealthy Italian immigrant. Her brother, Antonio, is an undercover FBI agent."

I sat there numb while I tried to process everything that Jim was saying.

"Wait. Antonio is her brother?"

"Yes. That was the man she ran to in Italy and hugged. She hadn't seen him or her family for six years. Not since her brother had secretly arranged for her death . . . or pretend death I should say."

Everything started to sway as I tried to regain my balance.

Fuck, I'm sitting down not standing.

I closed my eyes and took in a few deep breaths. "Wait. You're throwing some serious shit my way with no explanations."

"Eight years ago, Antonio and I were undercover in New Jersey. We were working to bring down Marco Du Luca, an Italian mob boss. In the process, Antonio and I befriended the guy's son, who we didn't think was a part of the mob. His name was Dante De Luca. He hung around with us, did everything with us. So much so, I was beginning to have my suspicions that he was undercover himself. One night, he met Gabi. He really took to her and they started dating. I never got the feeling Gabi was as into Dante as he was to her. He asked her to marry him and she was going to tell him no, but Antonio ended up telling her about the opt. He needed Gabi to get closer to the family so we could bust them."

My stomach turned. "He used his sister to get closer into a mob family?"

"Believe me, he hated himself then and even more when Gabi witnessed Dante killing his own father."

It felt like I hit a brick wall.

"What?"

"Yeah, she of course freaked and immediately told Dante she wouldn't have anything to do with this life. He threatened her. Told her if she ever left, he'd kill her."

"And where in the fuck were you and her brother when all this went down?"

"About to bust a drug deal Dante's father had set up for that night. This was the deal we had been waiting for. The one that was going to take the family down. Gabi had called Antonio freaking out. He left right before the bust went down, so Dante never did find out that Antonio was FBI because he wasn't there when it all went down. News spread quickly that Marco had killed himself. That he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in jail. The body though was never found."

I sat there stunned. Listening to Jim speak.

"Two days later, I got a call from Antonio saying his sister had died in a car accident. I had no idea she had witnessed the murder, fuck I had no idea about the murder until Antonio had told me. He didn't trust the FBI with his sister, and he certainly didn't trust Dante. The guy is a nut case. He wanted his father dead so he could have control of the family."

"It was staged? Her death was staged?" I asked.

"Yes, but at the time I didn't know it was. Antonio did it all on his own without the FBI's help. He felt like he couldn't trust anyone."

"Not even you? His partner?"

Jim laughed. "If that had been my sister, I wouldn't have told him. Anyway, once I started to piece it all together, I went to Antonio in Italy. Told him I had seen Gabi and that you had been in Italy. That's when he told me the truth. That Gabi was alive. I told him if I had put two and two together, it wouldn't take long for Dante's guys to figure it out. Antonio put someone on Gabi when she left Italy and Antonio's had someone planted in with Dante the last six years. Dante's in Colorado. He's coming after Gabi."



       
         
       
        

I dropped my head and scrubbed my hand down my face. "Son of a bitch."

"Yeah. I'm not convinced they saw her in Italy though and neither is Antonio."

"Why?"

"Dante is a smart guy. I don't doubt that he hasn't believed that Gabi has been dead all this time, but he isn't a very trusting guy. I'd bet a year's paycheck he's been scanning all the major newspapers still for Gabi to slip up."

The cooking competition.

"Oh holy shit. The cooking competition. They put her picture in the Denver paper."

"That's what Antonio thinks. Anyway, he was contacting Gabi and telling her to move on to the closest safe house."

I shook my head, trying to make sense of the massive information Jim had just laid out on me. Then it hit me.

"Dante's here in Colorado?"

"Yes. And he knows her name, Nic. Antonio has someone following her."

"Why are you telling me this, Jim?"

He paused before answering. "I saw the way you looked at her that day and I knew you were destroyed thinking she was cheating. I didn't want you to go the rest of your life wondering what happened. If Gabi leaves, you'll never see her again."