Chapter 10: What the Wing Means

Allegra's POV

"G.L.," I said again. "Whose initials?"

Teo set the ledger down on the desk very slowly.

He stood with his hands flat on either side of it, and he didn't look at me.

"Gino Lanza," he said. "My brother."

The air went out of the room.

"He kept this club's books," Teo said.

"Corrado thanked him for his honesty and asked him for a week."

"Two years ago in March they put him in that chair."

"Teo."

"Paolo shot him twice in the chest. He was thirty-three. He had a wife who still sets his place at the table."

I couldn't speak.

"I came here to find out who did it," he said.

"I asked for your hand because it was the only door they'd open."

"You used me."

"Yes."

"You let me think you wanted me."

"I did want you." His voice broke on it. "That's the part I can't forgive myself for."

He looked up, and I saw his eyes.

They were black again.

They were pointed at me.

"Look at that card," he said.

"It's your hand, Allegra. Your A, your Y."

"They read it to my brother in the dark while he begged for his life."

"I didn't write it."

"Your name is on it."

"Somebody forged it."

"Somebody took my notebooks out of my bakery last week, the ones I copied my mother's recipes in."

"Why would anyone want those?"

"Maybe because you needed an alibi."

I slapped him.

The sound cracked in the little room.

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