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3
Luka
“Luka, so good to see you. You're looking fit, healthy even.”
I sat down across from my lawyer, a sleazy man named Richard that we kept on retainer. There was always somebody in jail in my family, or some FBI agent coming after us for money-laundering or something else that they thought they could tie to the family. But they never could. Richard may have been greasy and a little bit disgusting, but the man knew how to do his job. He was excellent at hiding secrets, a perfect lawyer for a mob family.
“I'm good, Richard, but a little confused. What the hell are you doing here?”
“Well, you know the little side project you've been having me work on for you, the one I'm not supposed to tell your father about?”
I sat up a little bit straighter in my seat. If he was coming here with information, I was ready to listen. “Yeah, what about it?”
Richard hunched over a bit, his tie touching the table. He looked both ways before speaking. “I found her. She's working at some little diner on the other side of town.”
Vienna.
A sense of calm washed over my body at the thought of her face. Those beautiful doe eyes, her flushed cheeks in the neon glow of the club. The way I remembered her. “She's in Baltimore? I swore they said they put her in the foster system so they took her out of the city. Witness protection program or some other bullshit.”
He shook his head. “I don't know, man, we never were able to find out what really happened to her. But she's here. I know that she never testified. From the information I was able to pull, she was under the desk the whole time and never saw who the shooter was. Without a witness, they could never make a solid case against her mother's killer.”
I didn't know that. I thought she was taken into witness protection because she was going to testify. “No, I just assumed. I tried to find her after she left, but there wasn't much. My father wanted to take care of her, because even if she wasn’t blood, she was family. He wanted to show her that she would never have to want anything for the rest of her life. But we could never find her.”
Richard nodded in understanding, pressing his lips together in a thin line. “The situation was terrible. It started that investigation against the family, people looking into books that were cooked. I mean, shit did spiral down to you landing here.”
It was true. I had taken the life of a man. He deserved it, though. He came after my family. He ripped Vienna away from me. She was only fifteen when her mother was killed. She must have been thrown into the foster system with no other family to speak of. My family had tried to find her; they didn't want her to feel alone. If there was one thing the mob was good at, it was taking care of our own. If she was placed in witness protection, then she would have completely vanished. There was no reaching her. Even our contacts with the Marshalls had no idea where she was. I hadn’t seen her in a decade.
She had been too young for me back then. I was seventeen and she was only fifteen, a baby. It wasn't right, the way I felt about her. It was one of the many reasons I'd hidden my feelings. But I didn't have to hide it anymore. Now that I knew where she was, I could tell her how I felt. About how I had killed for her. And how I would do it again if it ever came to it.
I wasn’t afraid of death. I couldn't be, not in my family. The only thing that I was scared of was that once I told her what a monster I was, she would reject me. I was worried that she wouldn't think that me taking revenge on the man who had hurt her mother was worth it. Maybe she would think it was the wrong decision. I wasn't sure.
“When is my meeting set with the parole board?”
Richard shook his head. “Still set for next month. Got a great judge on it, so it's going to be easy. And then you walk out of here a free man, with only four years under your belt. That's a personal best for me.”
I smiled at him. “And I'm sure my family will reward you handsomely for that.”
He sat back and folded his hands across his rather large belly. “You have no idea. Your mom misses you the most. But your dad is still running business as usual. Nothing that we can talk about here, of course.”
“Of course. Besides, this is a personal call, right?”
“Yup. I have absolutely nothing to report from the family. Just that they want you home for good. They don’t want you taking the fall for the family anymore.”
“I'm ready for that too. About this little additional piece of information—you keep that just between us for now, got it?”
He nodded. “You wrote the check for this one, kid. I only report to you.”
I put my hands behind my head and thought about it for a moment. Vienna. Back in Baltimore. Hopefully back with me.
4
Vienna
I walked past the empty table and sighed heavily. Leah saw the look on my face and immediately knew what was wrong. She rubbed my arm in an affectionate way. “We all miss him, honey.”
“I know. Just these mornings are a lot harder without him.”
I stared back at the empty table that Mr. Herman had sat in every day for the past year and felt the pain of his loss in my chest. He had been such a kind old man, and made working here so much easier. He came into our diner for every meal and was always happy to chat with all of us. He was like the grandfather I always wished I had. Just last week, he passed away in his sleep. They said it was peaceful, and he felt no pain. At least that was something. Leah and I had gone to his funeral. It was nice to meet his family for the first time. They told us how much they appreciated how well we'd been taking care of him for the past year. But really, it had been my pleasure. That man gave me something to look forward to every day. He made it so I didn't feel so lonely all the time.
