He stopped, his chest rising and falling quickly under his dark wool coat.

“He is threatening our son, Lauren,” he said.

“Hensley helped him do it by holding up that medicine.”

“She is a pawn, and she is going to lead me straight to him.”

“If I don’t take her out now, we will never be safe.”

I placed my hands flat against his chest, feeling the hard muscle and the rapid beat of his heart.

“If you go out there with a gun, you are playing his game,” I said.

“You told me you wanted to reform.”

“You told me you wanted to be a father to Luca.”

Giovanni looked down at my hands, his jaw tight.

“A father protects his family,” he said.

“By becoming a murderer again?” I asked.

“By proving to the world that you are exactly what they think you are?”

He did not answer, but his eyes flared with a cold, familiar anger.

“If you kill Marla Hensley, the police will hunt you down,” I said.

“If you go to prison, or if you die in a gutter, what happens to Luca?”