We did something called a do-si-do that made me feel like I was on an alien planet. But from the smile Rae couldn’t keep off her face, I wanted to do it again and again.
“You’re just figuring that out?” I teased.
Rae just laughed lightly and shook her head. We moved like two people who’d been dancing together for years, and I was struck with how right it felt to have this woman in my arms.
But the song ended all too quickly.
Which meant it was time to get to work.
“Stay close to Luigi and wait for me,” I whispered, leading her off the dance floor.
Rae’s spine snapped straight. I felt her questions but shook my head slowly.
Untangling my fingers, I forced myself to walk away.
I was already behind schedule thanks to Elliot Marvin’s stunt. Hurrying to the men’s room, I pushed inside, relief washing over me that I wasn’t too late. Luigi exited a stall, gave me a short nod, and left the bathroom to stand guard at the door.
Pulling a quarter from my pocket, I opened the only closed door.
Alfonso looked up from his phone. His face contorted in rage and disgust at the interruption.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted.
Because I was holding my breath to keep from smelling the result of the spiked cocktail that loosened his bowels, I didn’t answer. I slid the syringe from my breast pocket at the same time I grabbed the front of his dress shirt.
The capo batted at me, swinging wildly.
My thumb flicked the cap. I stabbed the needle in his neck and plunged the depressor. The chemical compound from Brando Zorzallo worked instantly. Alfonso shuddered. His bellow cut short. Air failed to fill his petrifying lungs.
Exiting the stall, I pocketed the needle and flipped the quarter. It smacked against the back of my hand. Tails. How fitting. I strolled out of the bathroom.
Luigi gave me a sideways look. “Elliot’s in the trunk.”
That fucker was going to pay for talking to my girl at the bar. For spiking her drink? I would delay his death for days.
“Good.” We went down the hall to the main event. “Don’t have too much fun with him before I get there.”
Luigi scoffed. “Now would I do something like that?”
“Oh, never.” I grinned, but the good feelings disappeared a moment later. “Merda.”
The don barreled straight toward us.
“A word,” my grandfather snapped.
Mannaggia!“Si, signore.”
Luigi shot me a smirk before I followed the don toward the exit. Standing in the atrium, the noise of the party as a backdrop, I waited.
“How dare you rub your mistress in your fiancée’s face?” the don chastised.
Clasping my hands behind my back, I rocked on my heels. “I’m not engaged.”
“Semantics.” He waved his hand. “You willneverbring her in public again. Have you learned nothing? A mistress stays in the shadows. You take her to a poker match, fuck her in the hotels, but you never, I repeat never, bring her to a family event.”
“The woman I was kissing?” My voice dropped to a scary volume. I let it slither out, strangle around the old man’s throat the way my hands would if it was allowed. “She is not my mistress.”
“Plaything, flavor of the day, whatever you young people call it,” the don seethed. “I don’t give a fuck. She stays private. You keep your affairs discreet!”
