Turned out it was more difficult to follow the old man with my constant shadow tagging along. And he was slippery. We’d still been unable to follow him to his flat, so the direct approach was going to have to be my ticket… without back up. And the opportunity was here, so I was going to take it while the Blake Security guys were busy.

Stop being a pussy and just go up and talk to him.

We didn’t get to talk.

I’d been sitting at the same café as Pietro Luca for the last hour. He’d come here after work today. No trips to Nice or Monaco in the last two days.

Normally with any mark, I’d watch them for weeks, months even. I’d take my time to follow them. See what they did on the weekends. See what they did on holidays, who their family might be. This felt rushed.

Because it is rushed. But I needed answers, and Oskar was right. I was running out of time. I was good at hiding, but Tony, he was motivated. And honestly, I couldn’t spend much more time in Italy. If I did, I’d get caught. Either by my brother or by my stepfather. So it was almost time to leave, to ditch this pop stand, which meant I needed to grow a sack and go talk to him.

I rubbed my hands on my jeans for the umpteenth time. And then I pushed out from my seat. The chair squeaked a little on the linoleum, and I shoved it back.

Now or never. I walked up to the table at the front. “May I?”

Pietro glanced up and nodded, waving a cigarette about. “It’s a free country. Actually, no, not always. There are quite a few fascists in the government.”

I couldn’t help it, I chuckled. He had a point there.

“I wanted to do this with more finesse. Really, I did. But I’m out of time. You’re Pietro, right?”

His gaze slid over me. “Who’s asking? Do I owe you money? You don’t look like anyone I owe money to.”

I had to chuckle at that. “No, you don’t owe me money. I just want to confirm that you are Pietro Luca. You knew Adele Joninski when she was here in Italy, is that right?”

Pietro’s eyes went wide and then scanned over me again. This time with more scrutiny, paying closer attention. As if looking for something specific.

“I knew her. Who are you?”

“I think you’ve figured that out by now. I’m your son. I think you’re my father.”

He paled then assessed me again. I’d dressed simply. Jeans. Tennis shoes. T-shirt. My clothes gave nothing away about who I might be.

“So what if I knew your mother?”

My lips tipped into a smirk. “I never said she was my mother. But that topic aside, I was told an outrageous story a year ago about who I was and where I came from. Now, there’s only one person to corroborate that story. No one seems to have the time or availability, and all I want are some answers.”

He sat back with his cappuccino. “You didn’t have to say. I can see it in your eyes. I know you think you want answers. But you won’t find them here.”

“Just—" What the hell did I need him to tell me? “Just tell me the truth. If you know my mother, is there a chance that you are my father?”

He leaned forward, studying me again in that way of his. “I don’t know. But I don’t see any of myself in you.”

“Yeah well, I guess I’ve learned you can say anything you want to say, so I’d really like to get this right.”

The old man sagged as he sat there. “What a horrible thing to not know where you came from. I’ve often thought about you. Where you were, if you were even my son, or if I had fucked up by letting your mother take you. But I have no way of knowing.” He shrugged.

“So just like that, you let me go?”

“That’s not what I said.”

This was a bad idea. The more he talked, the less I knew. “Well, can you at least tell me what the hell happened?”

He leaned forward on the table. His voice was low but had a soft lilt of Italian in it. “All I know is shortly after I met your mother, these men, two of them, turned up at my job. You know, big, dumb looking. I remember as if it was yesterday. They were dressed in black, wearing gold rings with a dagger symbol. I can still feel the dagger on the ring pressed into my face as they tried to reason with me. At that time, I had hardly any money, worked in a factory, and barely found a way to survive. And they told me what was going to happen. That your mother had met someone important. That he was smitten with her, or whatever the hell it was he told her.”

“They told you she was cheating on you?”

He nodded. “They said she’d betrayed me. I didn’t believe it, but of course it was the truth. Then she broke up with me. I found out she was having a baby, and I had no idea whose baby it was. I tried to do the right thing, to look after her and the child. And then I realized that I didn't have the means to look after a family. I had no business being anyone’s father.”

“You’d be surprised. The alternative was so much worse.”

He frowned. “I’m sorry if you had a difficult life.”

“Difficult? That hardly covers it.”

His head sagged, making him look like he was shriveling in front of my eyes. “It hurt not knowing where you were. But those men, they gave me more money than I’d ever seen. All I had to do was stay away from you.”

I shook my head, the rage seeping out of me through my pores. “So you sold me.”

“No, I survived. Those men, they were serious. They didn’t ask kindly. That money they gave me was on top of the bruises and broken bones they gave me.”

Steel yourself. He still sold you. “Do you know who they were?”

He shook his head. “No. But they were determined that I would not be in your life. I got the impression it was very important that you be the child of that other man.”

“Why?”

“Again, I don’t know. But ten years ago, when my parents were gone and I had some money saved, I tried to find you.”

I sat up straighter then.

“You what?”

The old man nodded even as his body looked like an old scarecrow too frightened to do his job anymore. “Yes, I hired people. Spent my money.”

“What happened?”

“I met with a terrible car accident. It almost killed me. Put me in the hospital for two weeks. That was when I started being more careful about my location. Those people are dangerous. Twice they almost killed me for trying to be your father. I figured you were safer without me.”