Page 138 of End It All

I gestured wildly to my brother. "That part! Since when?"

Benito shrugged. "This is the information Grand Myah gave me. She said he's been coming around looking for a particular kind of guy. Rafael just so happens to be looking for an opportunity and this is the perfect one. He's a great actor and he'll be able to get closer to Cesare than anyone else." He paused. "I hope."

"Or... Cesare's going to kill him," Paolo said.

"That's what I was thinking," Enzo added grimly.

Rafael held up a hand. "I understand your concern, but that isn't a deal breaker for me. Trust me, my entire life has been danger, uncertainty, and oftentimes, downright terrifying. I know how men like Cesare operate, how they think," he said, pointing a long, sharp fingernail to his temple. He brushed away long, brown locks and smiled. "I know what they crave. I can do the job."

"What's in it for you?" Enzo asked bluntly. "That's what I can’t figure out."

"Benito has offered me a lot of money," he said. "Isn't that enough?"

"No." Paulo shook his head. "Money usually isn’t enough. What are you hiding?"

The man bristled, but he clamped his mouth shut. I saw the way his eyes blanked out, as if he was disassociating from the entire situation. Whatever was going on with him, he was a strange guy.

"Enough," Benito said. "There's no need to interrogate him. Rafael and I have already made an agreement. He feeds us information about our father to take him down, and he gets a whole lot of money. Anyone who has a problem with my plan, please, give me another one. I'm dying to hear it."

The intense glare on Benito's face made all of us find something else, anything else, to look at. Finally, he sighed and all the tension evaporated from the air.

"I'll go over the game plan," Benito said. "Listen carefully."

By the time I left the office, I was on edge. What Benito had planned made sense, but it was also batshit crazy. If Cesare ever found out what he was up to, he would be pissed. Part of me still worried too. What if we could just sit down and talk to him? When I suggested that, all of my brother's looked at me as if Iwas fucking nuts. Clearly, they'd had a lifetime of dealing with Cesare's shit. They knew him better than I did. So I conceded.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to him. That maybe we could fix this without all-out war.

"Hey, baby girl."

I glanced up as I hit the sidewalk. Standing there with two cups of steaming hot coffee, was my husband. I carefully took mine, thanked him, and fell into the kiss he planted on me.

"Figured you'd like a ride," he said. "Your mom's still at our place, tidying up."

"Hmm. Yeah," I said.

"What's wrong?"

I shrugged. "Nothing. Things are just getting odd."

Quincy looked like he wanted to ask me more, but he didn't. I appreciated that. I had no idea how much of Benito's plan I was supposed to talk about. Or not talk about. The whole ride, my stomach was tight. I could barely take in a deep breath.

"You sure you're okay?" Quincy asked.

I took his hand, lacing our fingers together before I squeezed. "Okay enough," I said. "For now. Can we leave it at that?"

"Of course." He nodded. "I'm sure you're doing what you have to do."

Yeah, I was. I was choosing to betray my father and any hope that we would ever reconcile in the future. As difficult as my feelings were for Cesare, I didn't hate him. This still hurt.

Quincy brushed his lips over my knuckles. "Everything's going to be okay."

"Promise?" I whispered.

He nodded. "As long as we have each other."

Yeah, I believed that. Maybe that's all I needed right now.

Hope.