All Chapters of DEADLY FACADE: I Became His Obsession : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Lenny's Pov He looked at me for a long moment, the weight of the night still clinging to him like smoke. Then he put the blood-stained cloth down on the counter with deliberate calmness. “Sit down,” he said, voice low. “Tell me first.” “Lenny.” “Tell me first,” I insisted, crossing my arms, “and then I’ll sit.” He exhaled sharply, pulled out a chair from the kitchen table, and dropped into it. That was as close to compromise as I was going to get from Vincenzo Moretti. I walked over and sat across from him, refusing to let him hide behind that wall of silence tonight. He placed both hands flat on the table between us. They were clean now, but his left knuckle was split open and a fresh cut ran along his forearm — clearly patched up in a hurry. “There’s a situation connected to Rico’s old arrangements,” he said finally. “People he owed things to. Big promises that were never delivered. They’ve been looking for someone to hand the bill to.” “And they handed it

Lenny's Pov "Okay," I said. "So….. What happens now?" "Now I’ll take you somewhere tonight," he said. "I just got a threatening note on my door." "Yes," he said. "And the person responsible for it has been dealt with, and you are not going to sit in this apartment going over it until you've made yourself anxious." "I'm not anxious." "You've been standing three feet from your door since I knocked," he said. "You were close enough to open it before my knuckle finished the second knock." I opened my mouth and closed it again. "Where are we going?" "Race tonight," he said. "Different circuit. Safer location." "The last race someone shot at us." "Different circuit," he said again. "I wouldn't take you back somewhere compromised." "Is that a promise?" He looked at me. "Yes." I grabbed my jacket off the hook. The circuit was on the west side, a long industrial stretch that ran between two rows of warehouse buildings with a natural barrier on both ends that the spo

Vincenzo's Pov Giovanni's message came through at six in the morning. A message relayed through his personal attendant, formal, as Giovanni was when he was careful about documentation.“My health requires that certain arrangements be formalized before the commission meeting. Your presence is requested at the house this afternoon. Come alone.”I read it twice and put my phone face down on the kitchen table.Luca looked up from his coffee. "Giovanni.""This afternoon," I said. "Alone.""His health has dropped again," Luca said."Apparently." I stood up and went to the window. The morning was grey and flat outside. "He's formalizing arrangements. That means he's preparing for the possibility that he won't be present at the commission meeting himself.""Which means his protection over you becomes conditional," Luca said. "Once he steps back formally, Dante has a cleaner path to the floor

Lenny's Pov Luca almost fell through the door.He caught the frame with one hand and stayed upright but only just. His jacket was torn at the left shoulder. His lip was split and bleeding down his chin, he had his right arm pressed against his side in the way people held themselves when something underneath hurt badly."Inside," Vincenzo said immediately, taking his arm.Luca came in and Vincenzo closed the door and locked it and I was already off the couch and moving to the kitchen for the kit before either of them said another word.Vincenzo got Luca to the couch. Luca sat down heavily and leaned his head back against the cushions and breathed through his nose."How many," Vincenzo asked."Three," Luca said. "Dante's people. They were waiting for my car.""When?""An hour ago." He winced as Vincenzo pressed a hand carefully to his right side. "I drove here directly, took four differ

Lenny's Pov Francesca's house felt like the kind of place that had absorbed decades of serious conversations and came out the other side still standing.Everything in it was practical and chosen deliberately. Nothing on the walls that didn't mean something. Books on the shelves that had clearly been read rather than arranged for display. A kitchen that had fed a great many people over a great many years and didn't pretend otherwise.I liked it immediately and I didn't fully understand why until I sat down at that table and realized it felt like a place where people were allowed to be exactly what they were.After the coffee Vincenzo excused himself to take a call outside and Francesca topped up my cup without asking, sat back down at the table across from me like she had been waiting for exactly this."Ask me what you want to ask me," she said.I looked at her. "Is he going to be okay? With the situation and the fami