All Chapters of DEADLY FACADE: I Became His Obsession : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Vincenzo's Pov The news broke at seven and by eight my phone had received four separate notifications about it from people inside the family who wanted to know if I had anything to say about Rico Vasquez. I didn't respond to any of them. I sat at my kitchen table with Luca and went through the immediate damage assessment the way we always did when something moved into public visibility. "The police report lists the cause of death as blunt force trauma," Luca said, looking at his screen. "They're calling it a homicide investigation. No suspects named publicly yet." "Yet," I said. "Yet," he confirmed. "The detective assigned is a woman named Reyes. She's competent, not connected to anyone in the family as far as my information goes. She's going to work it straight." "And the connection to Lenny." "Rico's last known address was still listed as the apartment he shared with Sofia," Luca said. "But his phone records show frequent calls to this building in the months before h

Lenny's Pov I worked through the cut on his jaw, the area around his eye, the forearm. He sat with his hands on his knees and looked at the wall above my head and breathed evenly. "Did you at least make your point," I said. "Yes." "Clearly." "Clearly enough that he's going to be thinking about it when he walks into that session tomorrow," he said. "He needed to feel that I wasn't rattled. That the pressure he's been applying hasn't changed anything." "You proved that by letting him hit you." "I proved it by walking into a room I wasn't supposed to walk into and standing in front of him and not backing down," he said. "The hitting was a side effect." I smoothed the last piece of tape on his forearm and sat back. "Your ribs." "Left side again," he said. I pressed carefully along his left side and he exhaled once through his nose. "Same ones," I said. "Yes." "Vincenzo these ribs are never going to heal if you keep—" "I know," he said. "After tomo

Lenny's Pov He left at noon and told me he would be back by three.Shadow watched the door close and then looked at me with the particular expression he had when something had shifted in the apartment and he was waiting to see what I was going to do about it."I know," I told him.I sat on the couch for about ten minutes. I drank my coffee. I looked at the kitchen table where his laptop sat closed exactly where he always left it. I thought about the photo at Francesca's house. Rico and Vincenzo, arm around each other, comfortable and easy in a way that didn't fit the story I had been given.The story was that he had investigated a leak. The trail had led him to Rico. Rico had a connection to me so he moved in next door and established proximity.That was the version.But the photo was older than the investigation. The photo was mid-twenties Vincenzo with his arm around Rico like they had history. Like they

Lenny's Pov His hand closed around my wrist before I got the door open."Let go," I said, without turning around."No.""Vincenzo.""Turn around.""I don't want to turn around right now.""I know," he said. "Turn around anyway."I stood at the door with my hand still on the handle and his hand still on my wrist and neither of us moved for a long moment.Then I turned around.He was right there. Closer than I expected. He hadn't pulled me back, just held the wrist, and when I turned we were almost chest to chest in the narrow space by the door."You don't get to do that," I said. "You don't get to tell me the truth about what you did and then stop me from leaving like you have the right.""I'm not stopping you from leaving," he said. "I'm asking you to stay, those are different things.""Your hand on my wrist is not asking."He let

Lenny's Pov The body outside the building was removed by morning.The police tape came down by noon. By three in the afternoon, you would not have known anything had happened on that pavement except that the building residents were all walking past the spot a little faster than usual.I stood at Vincenzo’s kitchen window and watched a woman walk her dog around the area in a wide arc. I thought about how quickly ordinary life covered the things that happened in it.“You’re doing it again,” he said from the table.“Doing what?”“Going quiet and going somewhere in your head,” he said. “You’ve been standing at that window for twenty minutes.”“Someone died outside our building last night,” I said, turning around. “I’m allowed to stand at the window.”“You are,” he said. “I’m not telling you to stop. I’m asking where you went.”I crossed to the table and sat down across from him. “I’m thin