Page 28 of King

We sit down on the sofa with our glasses of wine once I have the chicken and the rice cooking, and both of us exhale loudly, putting our feet up on the coffee table while I call up some nice music on the speaker system.

"Tell me about your day," she says and takes a sip of her wine.

"The usual bullshit,” I say.Then I stop.Of course, it's not the usual bullshit.I wish.Instead, it's stuff I would never wish to have to deal with."That's not true,” I say."I met with Ryan the other day."

Natalia raises her eyebrows.“You never told me you met with Ryan.What's up?"

I sigh.“He was trying to convince me that Tommy is involved in my father's death.He told a really convincing story, and to be honest, part of me wanted to believe him.Ryan has always been very avuncular, while Tommy has been more reserved.I could believe that it was Tommy who had my father killed if either of them did.Not Ryan.It hurts to even think of it.But now that I know what I know, it's really hard to sit and listen to him lie to my face."

Natalia takes a sip of wine and shakes her head.She takes my hand and squeezes, and just that show of affection and the fact that she understands how I feel and what I'm facing makes me feel so lucky that we met, even if it was under the particular circumstances.

"The two of us," she says and shakes her head.“What fucked up families we have."

I kiss her hand.“Ain’t that the truth?"

"The problem is, both your uncles have ties to Andropov," Natalia says.“That makes it all harder to figure out which one betrayed your father.The one thing you know is that it's only one of them since they're each trying to implicate the other.I know you love your Uncle Ryan, and you never felt that way for Uncle Tommy, but sometimes people are reserved for a reason.Sometimes people are good at playing up how much affection they have for you when really, they're just using you.That's something I've come to learn lately, only two painfully."

"You and me both," I say.

We spend the next hour while the food cooks, going over each of our days.Finally, the food is ready, and we sit at our dining table and eat.It's surprisingly good.The more experience I get cooking, the more I enjoy it.

“This is really good,” Natalia says.“You can cook this more often.Maybe you have some Greek in you on top of the Irish.”

“Well, the Romans did come all the way to Britannia back in the day.Some of them might've had Greek blood, so maybe I come by my ability to cook Greek food honestly."

We smile.It's moments like this that make me so happy that I married her.I'll do everything I can to make her happy because when she smiles, I smile.

We discuss the meeting with Ryan some more, and I feel bad that we have to focus on this instead of just relaxing and enjoying a game on television or listening to music.

“If Ryan has some business with Andropov, that might explain his willingness to betray your father.Maybe he was upset that your father was trying to get out of the underworld, because that would mean he would have to choose sides.”

I nod.“It’s something I’ve already thought about.My father did want to get out of the Mafia, and I thought that Ryan agreed, but perhaps he was just going along, biding his time until he could get rid of my father, and hopefully, convince Ethan to continue.Then, Ethan died…

“I wonder, did Ryan know that Ethan wanted to leave the family business and start something on his own?”

“Maybe,” I say, and remember Ethan and my conversation before the bank heist.“He might have had misgivings and voiced them to Ryan and Tommy.Maybe Ryan felt he needed to be taken out as a result.”I shake my head, a sick feeling in my stomach that Ryan might have betrayed both Ethan and my father.

“Family,” Natalia says with a sigh.“It’s everything, like my father said.But at the same time, it probably causes most of our problems.”

“That it does,” I say and take her empty wine glass out of her hand.“Enough talk about family.We can deal with that tomorrow and every day after.Tonight, I want us to enjoy our time together.Tell me about the good parts of your day.The non-family, non-Mafia, non-FBI parts.There must be something good.”

She smiles and shrugs.“It was the usual.”Then, she tells me about the medical part of her day, being careful not to reveal anything about her patients, but giving me the general drift of psychological problems her patients are facing.

It makes me thankful that both of us are — so far — handling the problems we are facing.

We must be strong for each other, support each other.

It’s the only way we’ll get through the next few months.

Later,she stretches and yawns.“I’m tired,” she says and lays her head on my shoulder.“I’d like to have a bath, but I think I’m even too tired for that.”

“You may be too tired to run it, but not to lie in its comforting, warm, soapy embrace.Let me go start it for you.”

“If you insist,” she says.“I’ll finish up down here.”

With that, I get up and head for the stairs to the master bedroom and our ensuite bath.

I start the water, pour in Natalia’s favorite bath soap, which creates an instant mass of scented bubbles, and go to the bedroom while the tub fills.I remove my shirt and start to undress.Finally, when I’m nearly naked, she comes into the bedroom after switching off the lights in the upstairs hallway.