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“You’re a Russo,” I say in a whisper.
“I’m both and neither, I guess.” He laughs but it’s not with humor. It’s like he just came to an understanding. “I guess, all along I was meant to be yours, Lilah. Your first soldier. You’re a Russo and a Carluccio, just like me, and you’re who I serve.”
“I don’t . . . I don’t understand, Marco.” He sighs, rubbing a hand over his face like he, too, can’t quite figure out how to explain himself before making a left turn.
“When I was 20, your mom started getting sick. Think she knew even then she didn’t have a lot of time, needed to clear her conscious, make sure you’d be safe. She called up Alfredo, told him a lot shit about a lot of history. Shit with her and Arturo, her and Turner. Shit she heard about Tony and Carmine. Told him all of her theories, some of them unhinged, some worthy of looking into. She told him Carmine knew who you were, how you weren’t Turner’s. She said you wouldn’t be safe, not forever. Carmine would push one of his men to start something with you. She knew his greedy ass wanted that tie to the Russos, and you were an easy way to get that.” He licks his lips, turning the car onto an unfamiliar road. “I guess it’s a good thing Alfredo believed her. I don’t think he ever bought that shit about a drive-by. It was too clean, no suspects. Still, he wouldn’t have thought it went that deep, a planned killing to get control of a goddamned infant. Even then, even when you were just little, Lilah, with no ties to anyone, he loved you and wanted the world for you. Wanted you safe.”
My heart skips just a bit.
My grandfather loved me.
“He loved me?” I ask, trying to fight the way my voice shakes. “I never . . . He never . . . I thought—” I don’t know how to put my thoughts into words
“I’ll let him tell you that part, princess,” Marco says like he can read my mind, read the confusion there.
“So, princess always had a meaning, huh?” My mind moves to how he’s always called me that and I just assumed it was because he thought I was a spoiled princess, daughter of a mayor.
“Queen, now, I guess. But I think I’ll always be partial to princess,” he says, and there’s a smile on his lips when I look over at him. I give him a small shake of my head.
“So, what? You joined the Carluccio family? To keep an eye on Carmine?” He nods.
“Alfredo sent me, told me to get in deep. Win loyalty, keep my ear to the ground, make sure I didn’t hear anything about Delilah Turner. Not a whisper. Had a friend in the family, and he put in a good word. I got a meeting, did the work. I was made in three years.”
Fast track.
A man unknown to the family, no ties, no nothing shouldn’t have taken three years to be made. Shit, Tino took six and he was a childhood friend of Paulie.
“Who’s the friend?” I ask, needing to know everything.
“So fuckin’ nosey, aren’t you?” he says, and I smile.
“Do you expect less?”
“Never. Look how far that nosiness got you.” He tips his head at my hand where I’m twisting my wedding band around my right ring finger. I just smile. “It was Jason.”
“Jason?” I ask, shocked. If Paulie cared enough about anyone to have a friend, Jason would be his. He’s also Paulie’s stone-faced second-in-command. “Huh.”
“He’s a good guy. Just gambled on the wrong Carluccio to take it all.”
And Marco gambled on the right one, I suppose.
“So, wait. Why were you sent to the family?”
“Keep tabs. Ear to the ground, keep an eye on anything to do with you. Your mom said they were to blame for Arturo’s death, but we weren’t going to retaliate without proof. So we needed an in to make sure it didn’t happen again. To make sure no one knew about you, make sure there were no whispers. But mostly, Alfredo wanted you safe.”
“Great job with Lola,” I say and then cringe and instantly cover my mouth. “Shit, that was unnecessary.”
“You’re not wrong. Had an ear on you, not on your sister. She’s all Turner’s, no connection to the family besides you. I knew you were out, going to galas and shit for Turner, seemed happy. I didn’t expect him to let his shit impact your sister. That man? A piece of shit.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Anyway. I got into the family young, built trust. Kept an eye on shit. Kept my line to Alfredo, but mostly started working with Dante. Things were quiet with you and he had a vision, a vision I liked and could get behind. Tony went away, thought it would be Dante for sure taking the head, thought there was a chance to save this family, but, well, you know how that went.”
Paulie got into the running.
And then I got dragged in.
The way everything is slowly linking together keeps blowing me away. My mind moves over 26 years of life, trying to remember little details I missed along the way, little things that I overlooked because I didn’t have the whole picture. It stops on the day I walked into Jerzy Girls to make a deal. “You were there. That day I walked into Paulie’s office.”
