“Things were operating just fine before Cassandra arrived. I trust you’ll be able to manage without her.”
“So what, you’ll fuck her for three months and then hand her back to me like a used-up plaything?”
Rocco goes deathly still. It’s the only telltale sign of his anger. “Are you really willing to lecture me about secondhand goods, Lazzaro? May I remind you that what I’m offering may well be the difference between your miserable life and a miserable death?”
An old kind of fury rears its ugly head within me at their words. It burns bright and hot as I will myself not to interfere, not to protest the way they’re talking about me, as if I’m not even here.
I almost break at the look on Claudio’s face.
He’s not angry, or sad, or even scared. He looks speculative. Hopeful even.
“And you will write off the entire debt.”
“On the condition that she stays with me until the hundred and one days are up.”
Claudio shakes his head in disbelief. “You really want her that badly?”
Rocco looks over at me carelessly. The way his eyes rake over me feels so dangerous. He’s exposing his feelings completely, and displaying his intentions for the world to see. “I think the real question is, do you want her enough to deny me?”
I swallow hard, knowing in my heart what Claudio’s answer will be.
“Mister Moretti, I accept your offer.”
And the tiny shred of hope that Claudio would even try to fight for me completely dies. I feel foolish for it, for even thinking he was capable of being half the person he pretended to be when we first met.
But that sweet, attentive man who whispered about the wonders of the world in my ear had never even existed.
Hell, I don’t have any idea who he is anymore. If he’s been running theCandelabraon Rocco’s behalf, taking sizable loans from this ”guild”, there is a very real possibility that Claudio has been a part of the mafia himself from the very beginning.
Was everyone at theCandelabrasomehow involved with this? Danny and Teresa had been there the other night, too.
My blood runs cold.
Mia.
No, she wouldn’t have lied to me…would she? Yet she knew about Rocco and warned me to stay away from him.
Which means, at the very least, she knows about all of this. She knows who Craig is, too, and said nothing to me.
How many more lies will I have to endure from people who were supposed to love me back?
A hand gently grabs my neck, and I realize I must have been spiraling for at least a minute.
Claudio hunches over the desk, signing some kind of paperwork, and Rocco…Rocco is standing behind me. His thumb gently strokes at the parting gift he left me the last time we were together.
“Don’t be upset,Angioletta.You’re in safe hands now.”
I want to laugh loudly and bitterly. What does safe even look like to a mafia don?
“Come,” he says simply as he leads me to his seat behind the desk. “You must be tired of standing.”
It’s only when I’ve sat down that I realize my legs are shaking.
All of this is really happening.
“It’s done,” Claudio announces, slamming the pen on the desk.
“Excellent.”
