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“Nothing is going to go wrong,” I said. “It’ll be tense, even difficult, but nothing will go wrong, not when you’re walking in there with me.”
Crow turned to me. “Arrogance turns your strength into weakness.”
I held his gaze, unaffected by the insult. “A man without confidence becomes a human target.”
Crow didn’t back down.
“The Barsettis may have a respectable name, but I’m a respectable man. I’m not the kind of person you want to cross. I have connections everywhere from being in the game for so long. The Skull Kings need me. It will be in their best interest to establish peace, at least when it comes to me.” I turned back to my truck, dismissing the conversation. I wanted to get this over with. The sooner we got there, the sooner we could leave. The sooner this would be over and I could make that call to Vanessa to tell her we were both okay. I lived for that moment, looked forward to that moment with everything I had.
Crow said goodbye to his family, holding his wife the longest. It was one of the only times I saw him be affectionate with her, at least in front of me. He cupped her cheeks with both hands and rested his forehead against hers. They didn’t seem to say anything to one another, just holding each other.
I turned away, feeling like I was infringing on their privacy.
When they were finished, Pearl walked up to me. With tears in her eyes from saying goodbye to her husband, she hugged me next. “I need you to come back too, Griffin. Not just for my daughter’s sake…but for mine.” She squeezed me around the waist before she let me go.
The maternal love wrapped around me, made me think of my own mother, the woman whose face I could hardly remember. I never needed anyone until I met Vanessa, but now I felt a strange connection to the woman who killed my father. Vanessa filled the hole in my chest, but Pearl kept my mother’s spirit alive. “I will.” I pulled my arms away from her, uncomfortable touching her when Crow was standing right there.
We got into the truck and pulled onto the road. I was behind the steering wheel, and Crow was in the passenger seat. I’d screwed Vanessa in this truck a couple times, so it was strange to have her father sit there, but I pushed the thoughts from my mind so it wouldn’t be awkward.
It would be a long drive, and I wasn’t looking forward to spending so many hours with this man. I still resented him for what he did to me. I still hated him for the pain he caused. It was strange to respect his wife so much but have so little for him.
Crow didn’t say anything, and I hoped the tense silence would continue. I preferred the quiet over forced conversation.
The first hour was spent driving through the countryside without sharing a single word. We left Tuscany and headed north, taking the shortest path to Milan instead of the most scenic route. He spoke. “If you had it your way, we wouldn’t say anything the entire time?”
I kept one hand on the wheel while my other arm rested on the windowsill. “Yep.”
He shook his head slightly and kept looking out the window. “I’m not much of a talker either, but that sounds boring.”
“I like boring.”
He sighed from his side of the truck. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.” He rested his elbow against his windowsill and propped his head up, enjoying the scenic views in silence. He didn’t try to talk to me again, allowing the silence to become the loudest sound in the truck.
It was exactly what I wanted, for it to be so quiet that I could pretend he wasn’t there at all.
Twenty minutes later, his phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. Once he saw the name, he immediately took the call. With the phone pressed to his ear and his gaze focused out the window, he addressed the person on the phone. “Tesoro.”
My body stiffened slightly when I realized Vanessa was on the other line. I kept my eyes on the road and my hand on the wheel, but my mind became distracted, focused on the conversation they were having.
“Hey, Father.” Her words were audible through the phone, her beautiful voice filling the truck. There was anguish in her tone, tears in her voice. “Are you busy right now?”
“No. Griffin and I are in the truck. It’ll be a few hours before we get there.” He had a distinctly different tone when he spoke to his daughter. Affection mixed with protectiveness, he addressed his daughter like an adult. But there was always an undertone of childlike gentleness, something he didn’t use with Conway. Crow balanced between the two different approaches, treating her like a young princess and a grown adult at the same time.
