Shattered Loyalty, A New Beginning Blooms novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: What He Knew
Lucio ran.
He saw Santino in the elevator door and every drop of color left his face.
He bolted for the stairwell, and his dress shoes slapped down three flights of concrete and faded.
Santino didn't go after him.
He stood in the doorway with his hand on his side, looking at me.
I lowered the pistol.
"Is it true?" I asked.
The gym was very quiet.
Far below, a door banged.
Santino walked across the mat to the center of the ring and stopped a few feet from me.
His face was grey, and not only from the wound.
"Yes," he said.
I waited.
"I was twenty-two. Carlo's old driver was dying in St. Agnes Hospital, and I sat with him because nobody else would. He was out of his head on morphine. He said, 'It was the Delaware Avenue pier, Nunzio, I'm sorry, the boss made me hold you under.'"
His voice didn't shake.
That was the worst part.
"I thought it was a dream. I told myself it was a dream." His jaw worked. "I went to Carlo the next morning and I had the question in my mouth. And he put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'You're my best boy. I don't know what I'd do without you.' And I swallowed it."
"Why?"
"Because he was the only family I had that wasn't Marta." He looked at his hands. "Because if I asked, and he said yes, I'd have to leave. And if I left, he'd never let Marta alone. And if I stayed and never asked, then it wasn't true. A man can live a long time inside a thing that isn't true."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Shattered Loyalty, A New Beginning Blooms are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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