“Pop, you can’t; this is mine to do. She’s my mother.” There was so much pain in that one sentence, and I understood, I really do.
But I can’t show him that now, no sign of weakness. Mancini asked for time, so I’m like a drowning man holding onto his last ray of hope.
“She’s, my wife. And you’re my son, end of story. Now let’s hope that what you’ve already put in play goes off without a hitch.”
“It won’t, not without me there to finish it.”
“What do you mean?”
“His family, his friends, the ones who stood by and did nothing.”
“You were planning to take them all out?”
“Gramps said it was the best way to leave none standing.” This fucking old man.
MANCINI
We hit the ground running as soon as we landed back on the island. It had only taken Russo’s acknowledgment of the facts that we’d uncovered to be true to cast away all doubts. I’m not sure how much we can rely on his assumption about the girl, but I’m not gonna question it. Since it's the only thing we’ve got going for us, there’s no reason not to look into it.
I’d already called ahead before we took off and told the others to start the search. I’m sure that, like myself, none of us had really paid much attention to her while we were looking for the Russo kid; in fact, I don’t even recall seeing her face since my attention was solely on him.
We practically jogged to the house from the car once we left the airstrip; even Lyon seemed more invested now that he knew we were on the right track. His impatient ass can be like that. “Did we find the girl?”
“Not yet, but you might want to take a look at this.” Lyon branched off from the rest of us to go check on his wife while the rest of us that had just arrived walked over to see what Tyler was trying to show us.
“What is this?”
“That’s her, Gia Fontane.”
“Are you sure? Was someone playing with the image manipulation?”
“Nope, that’s her. We blew it up and everything, even thought there was some kind of double exposure issue, but it’s the real deal. Devon ran a check, and the image has not been tampered with.”
“Oh, damn, what the hell does this mean? Everyone take five until he gets back.”
LYON
“Kat, where are you?” I didn’t realize it was so late when we left and even later when we returned. Only this group would think nothing of flying eight hours round trip in the same day just for shits and giggles. She was already in the bathroom with Casey and Cade from the sounds of the water splashing coming from the area.
“We’re in here, Colt.”
I kicked off my shoes and went to join her at the side of the tub, where my two boys looked like drowned rats. “Sorry, babe, we had a thing.” I kissed her head and turned my attention to the boys who were excited to see me. Usually, I’d give her a little bit more than that, but not this time, not with this.
“A thing that took you all the way to New York?”
“Kat!”
“Okay, okay, I won’t ask.”
“And don’t ask Mata Hari either before I send her ass to boarding school.”
“You know, we gave our daughter a name when she was born; you think you could use it?” Oh, she’s pissy because I’m not sharing, nosy ass.
“I’ll call her by her name when she starts acting like the adorable little girl you brought home. Until then, I call it like I see it. You and all the rest of these people around here keep acting like she’s an angel as if you forget there’s a whole other host of those shits….”
“If you’re about to call my daughter Beelzebub again, you can leave.”
“Ah, period? Sorry about that. You women have it rough, huh. There’s no cure for every month crazy. I wish there was.” She tried to brain me with the damn rubber duck.
“Your penchant for violence gets worse when your kids reach a certain age; you ever notice that? I told you stop breastfeeding the monsters when they start growing teeth.”
The little shits heard breast and feeding and started splashing the water harder. This one started rubbing her temple like I was the cause of her distress. “Colton, please go back to what you were doing. Thanks.”
“Can I at least dry them off, help you get them dressed?” Heaven knows she won’t let any of the million nannies Mancini have around here help her out.
“I can dress my kids myself, thank you.” I doubt she even knows why she’s like that, why she’s been like that with every kid we have. She’s terrified of any one of our kids going through the things she did as a kid. So, she overcompensates by trying to do it all. That’s why I’m always going to be her wingman.