AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dante steps between us, and he comes up short, looking up at Dante.
“Tony,” Alessia hisses. “Howdareyou behave like this in our home.”
“What’s the matter with you?” Uncle Leo snaps. “What’swrongwith you, Tony?”
“Look at her…” Dad turns to Uncle Leo, and he’s got that look on his face again, his lips twisted in a“pity me”way. “This is clearly some little scheme. This is like a Broadway show or something, Leo. She’s acting like I have goddamn sores all over me.”
“To me, you have as well have!” I snap.
He wheels around to me, that look of rage in his eyes, but Dante still stands there. “Why is he still here?” Dad snaps. “Eh, Leo? Why is the running boy still hanging around? He’s the one who let my daughter get kidnapped in the first place.”
My chest drops when I see Uncle Leo’s face twitch. It always goes this way. It’s always somehow possible for Dad to talk his way out of and into things despite how pathetic he is. “Well?” he goes on. “Danteis the one who let my friend die.”
“Your friend… my stranger husband!”
“That’s sick, Tony,” Aunt Alessia says.
“She’slying,” Tony snaps.
“Why would she lie about that?” Dante snarls.
Tony laughs as though in disbelief, shaking his head and looking over at his friend, the man standing there like a bizarre extra piece. He’s tall and wide, with slicked-back hair and a nasty way of looking at me. A small smile. His eyes… There’s something about his eyes. If I had to paint him…
“Why are you talking to me, lad? You should be delivering the potatoes around the back.”
“She has no reason to lie, Tony,” Alessia snaps. “Itoldyou, Leo.”
“Alessia,” Leo says tightly.
“The way he talks… There’s nolovein him for his own daughter.”
“Why would she lie?” Leo snaps, glaring at his brother.
“They’ve cooked up a scheme,” Dad says, gesturing at me and Dante. “Maybe Dante’s trying to make a play. He’s gotten into Mia’s head. Maybe he arranged the whole thing. Hell, I don’t know. What I do know is that Mia’s lying. I wouldn’t force her to do a goddamn thing.”
“Where are the texts?” I snap. “The call history between me and Vito? Whereisit, Dad?”
Dad leans against the wall, laughing. “You think it’s rocket science to delete some calls and texts? Please, Mia. Everybody knows you and pretty boy here are doing some, let’s say,veryindecent things together.”
Dante flinches. I know he’s probably thinking of his ma, but I hope part of him is thinking about me. But we can’t get clear on that. How much loyalty will we give each other, and for how long?
“You think you’re the only one with cop friends?” Dad laughs meanly, in that mocking way he has of making a person feel about two inches tall. “They were texting each other, Leo. Dante, the known loner, suddenly started textingmydaughter. In fact, thefirstthing the rat talked about was Vito, telling Mia they weren’t in love.”
“So he twisted her mind throughtext?” Alessia snaps. “He somehow turned her against her long-term, long-distance lover? By texting her?”
“Young women are impressionable,” Dad snaps.
“I neverknewVito,” I hiss.
“And just by coincidence,” Dad says, “somebody clipped Vito and took Mia. Leo, you’re making yourself look like an idiot.”
Uncle Leo puffs himself up, looking ready for a fight, even at his age, in his casual housewear. He glares at his younger brother. “Remember where you are.”
“Everybody knows—Luca, Elio, even Colt, that hanger-on. That’s why I sent Ritchie. He was going to snap some shots of the big man in a mask, pretending to be a hostage taker.”
“What are you babbling about?” Leo snaps.
“Dantetook Mia.Danteclipped Vito. Just think, brother, please. Jesus. It’sobviouslyDante.”
