Tempting the Mafia Twins novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Dying Man

I took a cab to Lake Forest alone, with the Polaroid zipped inside my coat.

Carmine had shouted my name across the garage.

I had said, "Don't follow me," and he hadn't.

The housekeeper at Deerpath looked at my face and led me straight down the hall to the study without a word.

It was a long dark room, all leather and books, with a fire going.

Sergio Valenti sat behind a desk the size of a car.

The oxygen tube was out in the open now, running from a small green tank beside his chair.

A doctor in a gray suit stood at his shoulder, and a capo with a white mustache stood by the window.

"You came without being sent for," the old man said. "That is more than my sons have ever done."

"I want to ask you something."

"First I will ask you something."

He lifted a hand, and the capo crossed to the desk and laid a long envelope in front of me.

"Open it."

I did.

It was a cashier's check for five million dollars, payable to Cassandra Brennan.

Clipped behind it was a divorce petition, already signed by Carmine's lawyer.

"A clean end," Sergio said. "Five million, a house anywhere you choose, and my son's signature."

"You walk out today with your name and without a mark on you."

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