CHAPTERFIVE
Dario
I wonderat first if she’s fallen asleep. Even though she’s our prisoner, and it’s my job to get answers out of her, I saw the way she reacted with real fear, the way her blindfold dampened with tears. She’s distraught.
I won’t give her comfort, though. No. Until I know the truth, I have to remind myself she either attempted to take the life of one of the people I’ve been sworn to protect, or she was complicit in the murder attempt. She isn’t innocent.
“Brother.” Orlando looks at me in the rearview mirror. I knew when he came for us that we wouldn’t be going to The Castle. I knew I’d be taking her into custody, so I was the one that recommended we pretend we were killed to throw any potential attackers off track. Word will spread, quickly, and the people who kidnapped us today will drop their search if they know that not only was she killed, she was killed at the side of a Rossi.
“Can you have Mario and Gloria send me everything they have on her?”
“Of course. I haven’t talked to them yet. So far, it’s just been you and me, and I’m going to keep this circle as small as possible. But I can ask them to send me what they had that caused the search yesterday.”
I nod. “We going to where I think we’re going?”
He grins. “S’mores?”
I nod. If Vivia’s anything like the Rossi girls, she’s gonna lose her shit when she sees where we’re going. La Cabina, a rustic cabin off the Rhode Island coastline, is nestled in the woods. Bordered on one side by the ocean and on the other side by nothing but trees, La Cabina has no running water or neighbors for three solid miles. I’ve been there once, for a bachelor party. I personally like the little retreat, but something tells me Vivia won’t share the sentiment.
Orlando hasn’t spoken to the rest of our brothers, not yet. We’re better off just working together for now. The fewer people who know our whereabouts, the better, at least until we figure out who came after us, because that one tie will for sure lead us to whoever called the hit on Marialena.
I’d like to think Vivia’s innocent, but in my line of work, you’re guilty until proven innocent, and the evidence against her isn’t looking good.
It takes about an hour for us to get there, and the whole time Orlando tells me what he knows.
“Contacted one of our associates on the coast already, and you should have everything you need,” Orlando says as he cruises to a stop at a red light. “There’s everything from food to clothes to cash if you need to buy something. Burner phones and chargers.”
“Marshmallow sticks?”
“Yeah, man. You want a fuckin’ marshmallow stick you find it in the woods. And there’s no way I’d give that girl something that could work as a potential weapon.”
I can’t help but smile at that.
“There’s some fishing gear, though you’ll have to be careful.”
“Got it.”
“As far as Sergio and the rest, you let me handle them. Sit her up, bro, will you?”
I sit her up. We’re away from the miles of traffic now, and alone on the stretch of road that will take us to La Cabina.
“Vivia,” Orlando says, as he looks in the rearview mirror, though she can’t see him with her blindfold.
She nods silently. Her only choice, really.
“You’re not in a good place. I told you Sergio wanted retribution himself. He said if you were complicit in the attack on Marialena, you were dead to the Montavios.”
She flinches as if struck but otherwise doesn’t react.
“You’re not gonna like being here alone with Dario. You won’t like what has to happen to get to the bottom of this. And it pains me to see it come to this, cousin, but you know our rules.”
She clenches her jaw and turns her head away but doesn’t respond. I don’t know how old Vivia is, but she’s spent at least a couple of decades deeply immersed in the rules of mob life. She knows how close she is to a very, very serious consequence… if not several.
And I’m not gonna lie. I’m good at this. I’m not easily swayed by feminine wiles or pleas. I’ll get answers, and she’ll be out of the line of Sergio’s fire for now, while my brothers will have a chance to investigate.
Alone in the woods with a beautiful woman who’s my captive and my charge? Yeah, I’ve had a lot worse assignments than this one. Probably most.
You wouldn’t find La Cabina on any GPS. You wouldn’t find it on a map, even. La Cabina is nestled deep in the woods that surround the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, and it’s the only rustic cabin for miles. About ten miles down the road, there’s a small, private campground run by a husband and wife who’ve been friends with the Rossi family for so long, they’re practically family themselves. We’re guaranteed privacy and isolation here.