"About thirty minutes ago."
My body relaxed. "Oh."
Nic stood and took my hands in his. "Let's let Antonio finish and then you and I will talk."
When my eyes caught Charity's I smiled weakly. "I'll take that drink now."
WE ALL SAT and listened to Antonio explain how once Jim had notified him about figuring out that the girl I had gone to Italy to follow was Gabi, he had used me to help out in their plan to get Dante.
"So you told Jim to call me and pretend like he was giving me this info without you knowing. Why?"
"Because if my hunch about how much you loved my sister was right, I needed you to know the truth. I needed you to go to her. What I was really wasn't banking on was that you would be smart enough to look for Dante's men. So when you had your friend call a black and white to the scene, I knew we had to rush in and grab him."
"You knew he was there?"
"Yes. Lucas was in the car recording everything. Dante knew we had figured out he was on to Gabi. He was waiting for her to leave because he knew I would tell her to go to the next safe house. What he didn't know was that we knew he knew."
"My God. I'm so flipping confused," Charity said with a sigh.
I shook my head. "So wait, you told Gabi to leave because you wanted Dante to try to get her?"
"Yes. We were there as well. Waiting for when it happened. So in a way, you seeing the car kind of fucked up the plan."
I cringed. "Sorry."
Antonio laughed. "It's okay, because with you being there . . . going to Gabi, it pissed Dante off. He sort of lost it in the car and started talking about the night he shot his father. He confessed to everything and we got it all. When we intercepted the call for the black and white, we had to move in a bit earlier. It would have been nice to have attempted kidnapping, but we do have him talking about the plan to do it so hopefully that, along with his murder confession, will be enough to put his ass in jail for the rest of his life."
"But you got his confession on tape? Is this all over? Do I have to keep hiding?" Gabi asked.
"Yes. It's over, Gabi. He'll never be a threat to you again. Under Dante's leadership the family has fallen apart and no one is loyal to him. Truth be told, they'll probably be happy to see him sent to jail."
She covered her mouth as a loud sob slipped out. "I can go back to being me? No more lies? No more running?"
I could see the devastation on Antonio's face. He hated that his sister had been running scared for so long. "No more running, Angelo. It's over."
Gabi's body melted into mine. It didn't take her long before she broke down in another round of crying.
Glancing up, I looked at Cole. He lifted his brows and mouthed, holy shit.
I drew Gabi closer to my body and nodded. My attention then focused on her brother. I wasn't sure if I wanted to hit the asshole or shake his hand. Right now, I was leaning toward hitting him.
Charity walked out onto the balcony and handed me a cup of coffee.
"She still asleep?"
I nodded and took a drink. "Yeah. I'm sure she is emotionally exhausted."
Chewing on her lip, she looked away from me. "It's not really over, is it?"
Blowing out a deep breath, I replied, "No. She'll have to testify."
"So all that running, the lies, it was all for nothing?"
I smiled. "I wouldn't say that. If she hadn't gone on the run, we'd have never have had her come into our lives. Plus, like Antonio said, no one is loyal to Dante. Even if he tried to put a hit out on Gabi, he wouldn't find anyone to do it."
Charity sighed. "That's true. She wouldn't have been brought into our lives and I wouldn't be debating on what baby blanket to knit in our Knitters are Purls club."
With a laugh, I sat down next to her. "Crazy last few months, huh?"
She stared straight ahead. "Yeah. Crazy."
"Cole handling the baby okay?"
Charity turned to me and winked. "You would know better than me, you're his best friend."
I smiled as she continued on.
"At first I think he was freaked. Then with everything that happened yesterday with Gabi, I noticed he never left my side. He stayed last night and it was probably the most amazing night yet."
I lifted my hand. "Spare me the details or I may throw up in my mouth."
She giggled. "No, it's nothing like that. We stayed up most of the night talking."
"Talking, huh? Doesn't sound like the Cole I know and love."
I got another chuckle from her. "I don't know who else to say this to, so you're the lucky one again."