Chapter 8
Rafe asked me to hear him first.
I did.
Not because I trusted him blindly.
Because unlike Camilla, he looked angry at himself.
“Sofia told me because she wanted two cars following at distance.”
“Did you assign them?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
He gave me two names.
Both still alive.
Neither reported anything unusual that day.
Then he added:
“Marco changed one assignment.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Without you?”
“He said you approved it.”
I laughed once.
Of course.
My name again.
Always useful when somebody needed a door opened.
Marco replaced one of Rafe’s drivers with Dean Salvi, a man loyal to Camilla’s husband.
Dean later claimed he lost Sofia’s car ten minutes before the crash.
I remembered.
He attended the funeral.
Held Livia while I could barely stand.
My stomach turned.
“Where is Dean?”
“Arizona.”
“Bring him.”
Camilla panicked.
“No.”
There.
I looked at her.
“Why?”
“He’s sick.”
“So?”
“He has nothing to do with this.”
Now I knew he did.
Dean arrived the next morning.
Cancer had reduced him.
Not his memory.
When he saw Camilla, he laughed bitterly.
“She told me this day would never come.”
Marco was present now too.
Under guard.
He had stopped shouting.
Good.
Dean told the story.
Marco ordered him to frighten Sofia.
Not touch her.
Not cause a crash.
Just follow close enough that she would turn back toward the estate.
“Why?”
“To prove the mountain road wasn’t safe.”
My jaw clenched.
Perfect.
Manufacture danger.
Then use danger as proof the family compound was necessary.
Dean followed.
Sofia realized.
Accelerated.
He stayed behind her.
She called someone.
Then the road iced near the north bend.
Her car left the road.
Dean stopped.
He found her alive.
Barely.
Marco called him.
“What did Marco say?”
Dean looked at my cousin’s husband.
“Get out before Domenico connects you.”
The chapel went silent.
“Did you help Sofia?”
Dean’s face crumpled.
“I called Rafe anonymously after I left.”
Rafe closed his eyes.
That anonymous call had led us to her.
Too late.
Marco had not ordered Sofia killed.
Camilla had not planned her death.
They had created the fear that put her on the edge of an icy road.
May you like
Then protected themselves before protecting her.
That was enough.
