Page 40 of Winter With You

‘I was just leaving,’ Luca said, picking his coat off the back of the chair. He looked at his mother. ‘Enjoy the rest of your evening, Mamma. I’ll call you.’ He looked across the restaurant, saw his sister chatting to some of their cousins. ‘Will you tell Steffi I said goodbye?’

His mother nodded but there were unshed tears in her eyes that he felt some degree of guilt about. He headed out of the trattoria and didn’t take another breath until he was outside on the street meeting the cold air. He slipped on his coat but before his shoulders could relax they were met by another firm slap.

‘You are not going anywhere, kid, until we’ve had a little chat,’ Ronnie stated, his grip harder than before.

‘Leave the theatre alone, Ronnie. All this mafioso bullshit does nothing for me, remember?’

‘Maybe. Maybe not. But how about the people you work with? How do they respond to it? That’s really the question you should be asking yourself.’

‘What?’ But as he asked that question his mind was working to get up to the speed Ronnie’s was travelling at.

‘No one needs to get hurt, Luca. But you need to go and see your father.’

No one needs to get hurt. The metal in Gabriella’s outfit? No. It couldn’t be. It was too far-fetched, too 1980s movie, wasn’t it?

‘I told you I’m not going to see him,’ Luca stated.

‘And I told you, you need a rethink,’ Ronnie said. ‘And if you can’t rethink it, then the decision will be taken out of your hands.’

‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ Luca asked.

‘It means I’m not fucking around,’ Ronnie yelled right in Luca’s face.

As hard as he had tried to maintain his composure, Luca flinched at the bully’s close proximity and threatening body language. But he held his stance, mentally regrouped, stood firm as Ronnie all but bared his teeth. And then the hard man’s demeanour switched up. He smiled and brushed imaginary dust from the shoulders of Luca’s coat.

‘All I’m saying is, kid, you’re gonna be getting an invitation to meet your father in a few days and you will need to confirm that you will be there.’

Luca said nothing.

‘Because,’ Ronnie continued, ‘if you don’t confirm and if you don’t show up, then things will have to escalate. Capeesh?’

Again, Luca said nothing.

‘And it would be a shame to have to visit one of your little friends or… your sister again. Maybe this time I’ll bring something very different to tiramisu.’

Luca balled his hands into fists. This thug would hurt Steffi to make him comply to something? Under his father’s direction? He didn’t really know why he was surprised.

‘Attaboy,’ Ronnie said, patting his shoulder again. ‘Now, you run along and I will head back in and eat your share of that delicious cake your mother has. And… take care getting home, kid.’

Luca watched Ronnie leave, re-enter the restaurant and start conversing with the group like nothing had even happened. But Luca’s eyes then went to Steffi, all bold and confident in that boiler suit but, he knew, when it came down to it, she was still just his dorky, anxious kid sister. What the fuck was he going to do?

26

THE ROYCE HOTEL, MANHATTAN

Gabriella parted the hotel robe she was wearing and looked at the wound on her side in the full-length mirror in her bedroom. It was sore, but she had had worse. The rod had not been spared in the Felix household when they had been growing up and Gabriella had always been the one to take the blame and the resulting hit. She had protected Lulu fiercely from the second her beautiful, fragile little sister came home from hospital wrapped in the best blanket family money could buy. They had been so different, yet somehow also kindred spirits. However, at the end, when it had mattered most, Lulu hadn’t let herself be protected…

There was a knock on the suite door and Gabriella rapidly tied the gown around her again. About time. She was beginning to think that Luca had forgotten his pledge to get her a burger delivered. She rushed to the door, grabbing her purse from the sofa, before they could knock again and inadvertently wake Phoebe.

She opened the door, ready to pay, grab and then share the Loulou burger with Lulu.

‘Oh!’ Gabriella exclaimed.

It wasn’t a delivery guy standing at her door, it was Luca. But he did have a takeaway bag in his hands.

‘You don’t want the burger? I can take it away again.’ He turned like he was about to leave.

‘No! No, I was just surprised it was you and… how did you know my room number? I’m supposed to have strict security. Like a proper celebrity.’