Stephan

I stared at the FBI agent on the other side of the table, too stunned to respond.

“What do you know about the disappearance of Isabella Parisi?”

Paulie held out his hand. “Can I have a minute with my client?”

Hesitant, the agent nodded, and his partner followed him out the door.

Paulie tugged on my arm and shook me. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.” I turned in my chair, so we were facing. “Just get me out of here, and it will all blow over.”

“No, it will not.” Anger radiated through him, his cheeks growing redder by the second. “Do you have any idea how this looks? You threatened a United States Senator—“

“Allegedly,” I corrected.

“They have proof of you threatening Senator Parisi.”

“We haven’t heard a tape or seen anything that proves my guilt, now have we?”

He clenched his teeth. “Stop acting like a child, Stephan. This shit is serious.”

“My old man has the Senator on his side. I’m sure they can work something out. Parisi wouldn’t have done this if he didn’t want something from us in return.”

“He wants you out of his daughter’s life.”

“And now she’s missing,” I countered.

Lowering his voice, he said, “And I’m willing to bet you know where she is.”

I looked away from him, refusing to answer.

“You do, don’t you?” His voice was deep but low and full of so much anger. “This is not the time to play games, kid. You could end up spending the rest of your life in prison, and for what? For this girl? She’s nothing to you.”

“She’s everything to me,” I shot back, my tone so cold the words shook through me. “And if Parisi doesn’t drop the charges, he’ll never see Isabella again.”

He shook his head, beyond pissed at me. Paulie couldn’t even look at me. He pushed his chair out from the table and jumped to his feet. “I don’t know what I can do for you. You’re beyond help.”

“You’re leaving me in here?” I balled my hand into a fist and pounded it against the wooden table. “What good are you? What does my father pay you for if you can’t even get me out of this fucking place? Our guys have been in worse situations, and you’ve gotten them off every time.”

“That’s because Senator Parisi intervened. This is different. You’re in here because of him, and he can make your stay permanent if you don’t wise up.”

“I’m not giving in to him.”

“Then I hope you enjoy the rest of your life from behind bars.”

“Get me out of here,” I growled. “Now.”

“Your bail hearing is in the morning.” Paulie stood in front of the door. “I’ll do my best.”

“What do you expect me to tell them? I’m not answering any of their questions.”

“I’ll stay with you until they’re done, just keep your mouth shut.”

I sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. “Where are you going?”

“To grab a smoke. This is going to be a long night.”

For six hours straight, the same agents interrogated me. And for all six hours, I pretended they didn’t exist. I had my bail hearing in the morning. Paulie had assured the judge I wasn’t a flight risk, but because my family had the means for me to disappear, I had to surrender my passport. I wasn’t planning to leave the country the traditional way. But I was getting the fuck out.

Paulie drove out of the parking lot in complete silence. The only thing I wanted to do was run to Atlantic City. My cousin, Damon, would know how to get me out of here without a trace.

We were almost home when Paulie said, “You better not think of leaving, kid. Your dad had to put one of his businesses up as collateral.”

I shrugged, staring out the window at the cars on the highway. “I can’t make any promises.”

He grunted but didn’t speak another word.

There was no winning when I was in this kind of mood. And I no longer cared about my father or his businesses. As far as I was concerned, we were done. He was a traitor, a fucking rat I would never trust again.

Instead of dropping me off at my house, Paulie drove straight to my father’s villa, where everyone was waiting for me. Nino was on the couch in the living room next to my mother and Alessio was on the opposite side of the coffee table next to my dad.

“Are we having a family reunion I didn’t know about?” I asked them.

Ma jumped off the couch and came rushing into my arms. “Stephan, you had me worried sick.”

I wrapped my arms around her. “I’m okay, Ma. They just asked me some questions. Nothing to worry about.”

What a lie. I was going to prison for the better part of my life if I didn’t act right away. No matter how much I didn’t want to leave my mother and Nino, I didn’t have a choice.

Over her shoulder, I spotted my father shooting me a nasty look. No surprise. I knew he’d be angry with me, but at the time I made the decision to fuck with Senator Parisi, I didn’t care. I still didn’t give a shit.

“I need to speak with you,” my father said to me. “Alone.” His voice boomed when he said the last part.

My mother’s tears wet the sleeve of my shirt, and as I released her from my grip, I wiped them away from her cheeks. “It will be okay,” I promised.

In time, it would be, everything would work out. But I had to get over a few hurdles before I could begin planning my new life.

After my mother left the room, Nino and Alessio stayed behind, assuming they would be included in the discussion.

“Give me a few minutes with Stephan,” my dad told them.

Nino cupped my shoulder and pulled me into a hug. “I hope you gave them hell.”

I smiled for the first time in days. “You know it.”

Alessio patted me on the back as if I’d done the right thing. We never spoke much, not unless it was to fight about something. I was always at odds with my older brother, and now that I knew my father’s secret, it only made me resent Alessio more. He was the reason our father became a turncoat.

“I warned you to stay away from the Parisi family,” my father said once we were alone. “You just couldn’t listen, could you?”

“I heard you,” I spat back. “I chose not to listen.”

“That girl will ruin this family. Is that what you want?”

I sat on the couch across from my father, with a long oak table separating us. Resting my elbow on the arm, I glared at him. “You’ve already ruined this family… and any chance of me being a part of it.”

He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I told you that in confidence. To help convince you to do the right thing for this family.”

I snorted. “Well, your plan backfired.”

“What did you tell the Feds?”

“Nothing.”

“Isabella Parisi is missing. Did you have anything to do with her disappearance?”

“Why does everyone assume it was me?”

“Don’t answer a question with a question, Stephan. Where is the girl?”

I shrugged against the plush fabric, sinking further into the cushions. It had been days since I’d last slept. The only thing I wanted was a hot shower and a bed. Talking to my father was the last thing on my list.

“I don’t know. Maybe you should ask Senator Parisi. He’s the one who’s content on locking her up for the rest of her life.”

“He had nothing to do with it. If he did, he wouldn’t have come to see me, begging to get her back.”

“Has he considered the possibility that she ran away? That maybe she doesn’t want to be found. No one should have to live the way she does.”

“That’s not for you to decide, Stephan.” He gritted his teeth, looking away from me. “If you know where she’s hiding, you better tell me. No more games.”

“I wish I knew. But I don’t have any information that can help you.”

It was the truth.

“I don’t believe that for one second.”

Pushing myself up from the couch, I let out a frustrated groan. “I need to get some sleep.”

“Nino can drive you home. In the morning, I expect you to give me some answers. You know more than you are letting on.”

“Think what you want.”

He waved his hand to dismiss me, ending the conversation.

In the kitchen, I found Nino sitting on top of the counter, eating a bowl of meatball soup. Slurping loudly, he shoveled another spoonful in his mouth, and then glanced up at me.

“Can you take me home when you’re done?”

“Yeah,” he said, with his mouth full of food. “Give me a sec.”

I pulled out a chair from the small table and sat down. “Did you meet with Bruno?”

He nodded.

“Did he talk to Grandpa Sal?”

Nino set the empty bowl on the counter and hopped down from it. “I took care of it. Put two bullets in the back of Joe Rizzoli’s head. He won’t be a problem for us anymore.”

“Do you even know why you had to kill him?”

He gave me a confused look as if it were a trick question. “Because he went against the family.”

“It goes much deeper than that.”

“What are you not telling me?”

“Outside,” I said, my voice almost a whisper.

His eyes told me he understood, and he didn’t speak until we were in his car. “What’s going on?”

“There’s something Dad has been hiding from us for years.”

He drove off the property, through the high wrought iron gates, and down the empty street. “Like what?”

“Dad’s a rat. Rizzoli somehow found out we had someone on the inside informing to the Feds. I don’t think he knew it was Dad, but—”

Nino pulled the car over to the side of the road. His breathing was labored, his voice muffled when he spoke. “Dad’s a rat? No… that’s not… possible.”

“I felt the same way when he first told me.”

“Betrayed,” he shot back.

I nodded. “Like everything we’ve ever done for him was a lie. That everything he’s ever told us was a lie.”

“Why? It doesn’t make any sense? He wouldn’t do this to us.”

I filled him in about Alessio’s arrest and why our father became an informant. No matter how many times I told him the story, he still didn’t want to believe me.

“It’s true,” I confessed. “I’m getting out of here. I can’t work for Dad anymore. You should come with me.”

He looked at me with pain in his eyes. “Where?”

“Italy. We can work for the family in Calabria.”

“Does Dad know?”

“No. And you can’t tell him.”

Nino seemed irritated but not opposed to the idea. “You don’t have a passport. How are you getting there?”

“Damon’s going to hook me up. He can do the same for you if you want to come with me.”

“That’s why you wanted me to call him for you.”

“I want you to come with me,” I admitted. “It won’t be the same without you.”

Nino was my twin, and without him, a part of me would have been missing. I needed him to agree to this, to see things my way. Whether he realized it or not, I was doing him a favor. We could have a better life in Italy.

He scratched the dark stubble along his jaw. “When are you leaving?”

“I don’t know yet. I have to drive to Atlantic City to see Damon. He could tell me I have to be ready in ten minutes for all I know. Depends on how soon another shipment is leaving.”

“You should get some sleep first.” Nino shifted the car back into gear and pulled onto the dark street. “I need some time to think about it.”

As we drove back to our house in silence, I hoped he would consider my offer. I couldn’t imagine my life without Nino in it.