All I Believe (Firsts and Forever, #10)(79)

“And then there’s law school.”

“That’s the least of my concerns right now,” I told him.

A voice to our left startled us by saying, “That’s also very true.”

Luca and I both turned to see who’d spoken. A tall, dark-haired figure in a light linen suit stepped out from among the trees, and I exclaimed, “Connie?”

“God, I hate that nickname,” he said. “Would it kill you to call me Tino like everyone else?”

“What are you doing in Tahiti?”


“I’m here on business. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

I said, “Oh. Yeah, of course. Luca Caruso, this is my brother, Constantino Dombruso.” Luca’s eyes went wide and he took a step back. “What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“Tino Dombruso,” he repeated nervously.

I didn’t understand his reaction, until something Dante had said came rushing back to me. Did Andreo tell you about your brother, too? I turned to Constantino as a sick feeling started to well up in my stomach, and asked again, “What are you doing here, Connie?”

He raised his left arm, and I saw the long, black, high-caliber handgun he was holding for the first time. It was fitted with a silencer. “I told you, baby brother. I’m here on business.”

I pushed Luca behind me as my heart rate surged. “This can’t be happening,” I mumbled.

“Get out of the way, Nicky.”

“So you can gun down the man I love right in front of me? Fuck you,” I growled, anger and fear vying for the top spot in the onslaught of emotions battling inside me.

“Killing him in front of you is part of the job,” my brother said, his voice alarmingly cool and detached. “Jerry was very specific. He wants to make sure you suffer for bringing a Natori into your bed.”

“Jerry’s a f*cking psycho, and so are you!”

My brother rolled his eyes. “Resorting to name calling? Really? I thought we’d evolved beyond that point.”

“So, this is what you do? You kill people? I thought you were a businessman.”

“Oh, I am. This is my business. I followed in our father’s footsteps.” He grinned a little and my blood ran cold.

“How did you find us here?” We’d begun to slowly circle each other, and I kept Luca behind me.

“This is the information age, little brother. Do you think anyone can remain hidden indefinitely? I will say it slowed me down a bit when Dante used a friend’s credit card to pay for the flight, hospital and hotel, but it was just a matter of time before I was able to pick up your trail.” That told me nothing.

“I’m not letting you do this.”

“As if you have a choice,” he said. “It’ll just take one bullet to your knee to drop you like a rock. It won’t kill you, but it will hurt like hell and leave you with a nasty limp. I’d prefer to avoid such theatrics, but I know how stubborn you are, so if that’s what it takes, so be it.”

He’d been moving just a little closer as we circled, and I lunged forward, closing the gap between us, and grabbed the barrel of the gun. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to wrestle it away from him, so instead I pressed the muzzle of the silencer to my forehead and locked eyes with my brother. “If you want to go through me, this is what it’s going to take,” I told him.

Behind me, Luca yelled, “No!”

He started to step forward, but I held up my free hand to stop him and said, “Get out of here, Luca.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Connie sighed dramatically. “You two are quite a pair, a matched set of stubbornness. Let go of the gun, Nicky. Killing you wasn’t part of the deal, but I’m completing this job one way or the other.”

“Like hell you are.”

That came from Andreo, who’d appeared beside us. I let go of the gun barrel, and Connie immediately swung it around and pointed it at the newcomer. When I turned to look at Andreo, I was surprised to see he too was holding a big handgun and was pointing it at Constantino. He held it at arm’s length, his hand perfectly steady, and stared daggers at my brother.

“Andy!” Constantino exclaimed. “Now this is a surprise. My intel was faulty, I didn’t realize you were here playing chaperone. Well, good. Saves me the trouble of tracking you down next.”

Andreo held his gaze steadily as he said, “Nico, get Luca out of here.”

I started to do as he said, but my brother stopped me in my tracks. He’d produced a second, smaller handgun, and turned the weapon with the silencer on us as he trained the nine-millimeter on Andreo. “That’s just not going to happen,” he said. Andreo began to stride toward him, and to my surprise, Connie hesitated. It was the first time he’d shown even the slightest weakness during the entire confrontation.

Andreo stopped when they were an arm’s length apart, the guns pointed directly at each other’s foreheads, just an inch from their intended targets. Tension crackled in the air. Connie lowered the gun with the silencer, all of his attention on Andreo, who told him in a voice of quiet authority, “I’m not going to let you kill my brother, Tino. You’ll have to go through me, and I know you’re not willing to do that.” I realized suddenly that there had to be a history between them. The nickname ‘Andy’ hadn’t just been spur-of-the-moment.