Page 51 of The Broker

“What happened?”

“Bad dream.” I take a deep breath and wipe my palms on my sheet. My heart is still racing. I focus on Valentina. “You’re dressed.”

“I wanted to get back to my bedroom.” She sits next to me and gives me a slight smile. “Just in case Angelica wakes up.” She rests her head on my shoulder. “Want to talk about it?”

I only have to close my eyes to see her body on the icy floor. “I was in the farmhouse in Bergamo,” I say quietly. I don’t want to let her hand go. “I found Giorgio’s body there. He was dead, as was his daughter.” I stare at our interlaced fingers. “Her throat had been slit. With my knife.”

She sucks in a breath, and her grip tightens. “Dante. . .” Her voice is soft. “I’m so sorry.”

“Then Angelica screamed.” I don’t know why I’m telling her this. I shouldn’t. I don’t want to put the nightmarish images in her head, but I can’t seem to stop talking. “Giorgio had her. He told me I killed his daughter. And then he—”

“You didn’t kill his daughter,” she interrupts. “It was a nightmare, that’s all. Anyway, if we’re placing blame, I’m the one—”

“No.” I cut her off. “I asked Giorgio to find Verratti’s payroll information, knowing full well that my request put him in danger. I feel like shit about it, but I would make that call again. It’s not even close. I would trade his safety for yoursevery single time.”

She kisses my cheek. “You don’t have to protect me all the time, Dante. This started back in the hospital, I know, but I’m not a victim.”

“You think that’s why I protect you?” I shake my head. “I’m protective of you because you’re precious to me, Valentina. You’ve been precious to me from the day we met.”

Her eyes go wide. “Oh,” she whispers. I’ve shocked her, though I don’t know why. I thought the way I felt about her was obvious.But she doesn’t let go of my hand.“Dante, I don’t know how to—”

“You don’t have to respond.”

“That’s good.” She gives me a wry smile. “Because I don’t know what to say.” She wraps a strand of her hair around her finger. “I got nightmares for months after Roberto died. It was always a variation of the same theme. Angelica would be crying in her crib, and I would be asleep, and he would burst into my bedroom and hit the baby to shut her up. I don’t think I got a good night’s sleep that first year.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“I didn’t tell you. I knew you were different from your brother, and I’ve always felt like I could trust you. You’re a good person, Dante. But in those early days, fresh off his abuse, I didn’t trust my judgment very much. Anyway, I would wake up from my nightmare and remind myself that Roberto was dead. Antonio killed him. The threat was taken care of, and nobody could hurt my baby.”

Tell her. Tell her the truth. Tell her it wasn’t Antonio.

“Anyway,” Valentina continues. “That’s all over now.” She snuggles closer to me. “I owed Antonio a debt, and I’ve paid it. It’s all in the past.”

I go ice cold. “That’s why you went to work for Antonio? Because you were grateful he killed Roberto?”

She looks surprised. “Wasn’t that obvious? After Roberto, I didn’t want anything to do with the mafia. That first year, I wanted to do what Lucia did and move far away from Venice and never come back.” She laughs softly. “Of course, Lucia is back home now, so that didn’t work well for her.”

God, but the fates are cruel. I feel sick. She’s only a hacker for the mafia because she thinks Antonio killed Roberto. All this time, I’ve tried to keep her as safe as possible, even if it resulted in her hating me when all I had to do to protect her was to tell her the truth.

“What would you have done if you hadn’t become a hacker?”

“I’ve always been a hacker. But if I didn’t go to work for Antonio, I would have probably worked in a bank or something. Something boring. Assuming I could even find a job, which wasn’t guaranteed. It’s not easy for single mothers with newborns to find work.”

“Your debt is paid. That option is still open to you.”

“Not really,” she replies. “I can’t talk about the work I did for the mafia, so there’s a giant gap in my resume. Nobody is going to hire me except for the lowest-level jobs. Besides, I might not have picked this path if I had other options, but I love what I do. This is my life now.” She moves so she’s sitting astride me, her ass pressed against my crotch, and her lips meet mine. “I can’t say I have complaints about how any of it turned out.”

I kiss her back, but I can’t focus.

The irony. Thefuckingirony of our damned pasts.

Valentina thinks I’m a good person. She trusts me. She shouldn’t. Because it’s not Roberto’s abuse that has affected the course of her life.

It’s the secret I hid from Valentina.

The secret I’m still hiding from her.

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