Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
I ripped the balaclava from his face and squinted at the sight in front of me.
It was…
A fucking nobody.
Not anyone I recognized, and certainly no one from the Irish, Camorra, or Outfit.
I was confused to say the least.
Lila tugged on my sleeve from behind, and I turned to look at her.
“I know him.” She breathed out, eyes wide. “Roger. He worked on Crimson Key for at least a decade. At my parents’ country club and sometimes in the mansion, when there were big events. I bet he was a member of the staff during Luca’s wedding.”
I said nothing.
“I’m happy it’s done.” She fell into my arms while I was still crouching. “I’m tired, Tiernan. Tired of poking this wound that keeps opening, gushing out. Tired of the violence and misery finding this bastard brought with it. I want to forget he ever existed and move on.”
Stroking her back absentmindedly, I sent her to wait in the car for me while I cleaned any potential evidence from the crime scene. I followed her alertly with my gaze until she climbed in and locked herself inside the Mercedes.
After she was gone, I yanked his wallet from his pants—which I knew I’d find because whoever sent this asshole here wanted me to find it—and called Sam. I wasn’t convinced by what I was seeing.
“Brennan,” he answered.
“Roger Carsodo. Run his name on your system,” I clipped out. I held his driver’s license using the tips of my fingernails. I never left evidence behind, and I wasn’t going to start now only because this case was personal to me.
“Pfft. Forget about it,” Sam confirmed my suspicion. “Family man. Veteran. Kids, wife, pets, a steady job. Landed on Crimson Key because his daughter has a rare lung disease and the humidity is good for her. I’m sending you his full bio.”
I killed the call and skimmed over the file Sam popped in my unencrypted chat app.
Roger Carsodo didn’t fit the profile.
He was well into his fifties, slim and relatively short.
More importantly, he had a wife and four children at home.
Frail enough not to attack a girl so viciously and violently, old enough not to be hard and ready in the seconds it took him to push her skirt up and violate her.
Yeah, he was a waiter at the wedding, but he had worked on Crimson Key for years. He was known as a devout Catholic and a family man.
It seemed the real attacker greased Cardoso’s palm. Paid him to take the fall. Kill or get killed. Roger took it, likely because the overdue medical bills kept piling up. He sacrificed himself for the greater good of his family.
But even poor people like Roger didn’t do this kind of shit for a few bucks. He needed to make sure his family was taken care of, which meant whoever attacked Lila had money.
Fucking loads of it.
Lila was terrified and exhausted from this ordeal. I wasn’t going to share all of this with her. As far as she was concerned, this shit was over. Done. She killed her rapist and was happy about it.
This was her truth, though. Not mine.
I was going to find that sneaky asshole.
Even if it was the last thing I did.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
LILA
“What will you do with Harlem, now that it’s yours?” I asked as we drove to my baby shower at my parents’ house.
It was a last-minute gathering, but Mama insisted we should make up for some lost time.
She’d been the picture of a perfect mother since our talk at the hospital, dropping by with food and clothes, sometimes accompanying Tiernan and me to our weekly checkups at the doctor’s office.
I was excited to spend time with Tierney and Sofia. Really, I was excited to see everyone other than Vello.
I was relieved to find out he wasn’t my biological father, and unlike with Mama, I saw no reason to try to patch things up with him. It wasn’t my fault I wasn’t his, and it certainly wasn’t my job to make him love me. If he wanted us to be strangers, that was exactly what we’d be.
“Nothing,” Tiernan clipped out, his gaze unwavering from the road.
“You mean, you’re going to keep things as is?”
“I mean, I’m not getting Harlem.”
Rearing my head back, I frowned. “Vello refused to fulfill his side of the bargain?”
It wouldn’t surprise me. The man was a menace.
“He tried giving it to me. I declined it.”
“Why?” I asked incredulously.
“Because finding that asshole had stopped being about territory and prestige a long time ago.”
His veiny, big hand tap-tap-tapped the wheel impatiently. “And I don’t want you to ever doubt why I’m here. Besides, I’ve no interest in Harlem anymore. Alex and I have bigger plans. The Midwest is wide open, waiting to be claimed. Fewer feds’ eyes on it, too.”
“You should’ve taken what’s yours.” But even as I said this, I couldn’t deny the pleasure it gave me to know he gave up Harlem to show me his devotion. “I already know that you love me.”