Page 126 of Thin Lives

Calisto didn’t even turn to greet Giovanni as the man climbed inside the SUV, and slammed the door shut. He just kept tightening his hand around the steering wheel, glaring out the windshield, and forcing back the urge to do as much violence as he could to quell the raging torrent of emotions eating him from the inside out.

“Still nothing,” Giovanni said. “But hey, no news isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Calisto. He’s not getting out of this city without somebody seeing or knowing something.”

The man lit up a cigarette, and smoked silently. Calisto took the time to think about where he wanted to go from here or what he could say to Giovanni.

“I came to you for a reason,” Calisto said. “The Marcellos know if someone shits on the sidewalk across the city, but you can’t find a fucking man as well-known as Affonso Donati?”

Giovanni sighed, and snuffed his cigarette out before it was even half finished. “I get you’re pissed—”

“Fucking right.”

“Don’t interrupt me, man, or this will end quickly.”

Calisto tampered down his attitude. “Sorry, I’m just … edgy right now.”

“When John went missing, Lucian was borderline psychotic. Not a lot of people knew what was happening, and we pretty much had him located by morning, but that night …”

“What about it?”

“That night was a scary time for anyone within a five foot radius of Lucian. So what I’m trying to say is, I get it, Cal. Just chill out and think about what you know regarding Affonso, because right now, that’s what we’ve got to work with. You know the man, you know what he’s like and what he’ll do—so where the hell is he, and what is he going to do?”

Calisto took those words in, and chewed them over. It took him a few minutes to settle himself with the fact that Giovanni was probably right.

But he still didn’t have answers.

“About the whole paternity thing,” Giovanni started to say.

Calisto didn’t react outwardly, but inside, he was at war. “What about it?”

“I’m not even going to ask why, man.”

“Good, because I wouldn’t explain anyway.”

Giovanni chuckled. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. My point, though, is that you need to make sure you protect her and that baby after this. People are fucking terrible—cruel, even. It’s like they’re just waiting for a reason to fuck you up in Cosa Nostra. They’re waiting for that mistake.”

Calisto swallowed hard. “This—the affair and Cross—was a big mistake.”

“Yeah. We take that oath for a reason, right? The last thing you need is for people, your men, to know you broke it without a care. I didn’t tell Dante or Lucian what little you did explain to me about Cross and Emma.”

“Thanks.”

“But that’s only because they wouldn’t understand—they’re old school, and I respect them for it. I think had I told my brothers the entire truth, they would have been a lot less amicable to helping you here. So we’re back to protecting what matters to you when this is all over.”

“I’ll figure something out, but that baby … and her … they’re mine, Giovanni.”

Giovanni nodded. “I can see that, but maybe start working on figuring out a way to keep them as yours without outing something that might hurt you all when you’re not looking, huh?”

For a long while, Calisto just sat silent and still in the driver’s seat.

Finally, Giovanni broke the calm. “You know him better than anyone—where would he go?”

“I don’t know, Gio.”

“You do. Some part of you does. You lived your whole life under his feet, right? What are you missing here?”

Calisto’s chest constricted with pain and memories flooded his mind. Without even knowing it, Giovanni had hit a nerve that Calisto didn’t like to show all that much.

A nerve that was still raw to the goddamn touch.