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Sabina must have craned her neck around too because she gasped. “Is he pulling a gun?”
“Hush. They’re not going to hurt you.” He dropped her hand, but only so that he could slip an arm around her and pull her tight to his side. That was why they’d all looked familiar. Strange what made it click—but he’d definitely seen them before, and the taller one had made that same move the first time.
They hadn’t been in Little Italy, though. He wondered if Manny knew the woman came here, spoke to his daughter. Went into his church.
Of course Manny knew. How would Manny not know what his own mistress did? He was the one paying for the goons, after all—no doubt they reported to him.
Still. Something didn’t add up. Manny’s goons shouldn’t be fingering guns around his daughter. He was missing something.
And Sabina was clearly on the verge of panic. Her breath came too fast. She shook against him. Of course she did—she’d been involved in two gun fights in the last week. How would she not be ready to fly to pieces at the thought of someone pulling a pistol on her in the park?
He could only think of one thing to say to calm her. “They’re your father’s men.”
“They’re—what?” Her gaze flew to his face. He could feel it boring into him. “How do you know that?”
“I’ve seen them before. Once or twice. When I was with Tony and Joey.”
There, her shoulders eased a bit against him. “You’re sure?”
“Completely.” No doubt if he looked over his shoulder again, the woman would be chiding them, reminding them who Sabina was. They’d beat a hasty retreat, not stick around to try to intimidate them away.
Sabina sucked in a long breath and expelled it slowly. “All right. Though if they’re Papa’s men, I don’t know why they’d act like that.” She sent a teasing look up at him, or a weak version of one. But he gave her credit for trying. “You must look really threatening today, Enzo. That bandage, I suppose.”
“Must be.” He flashed her a grin and steered her toward the park entrance. “And I don’t think that crew is usually in this part of town, to know who we are.”
If she gave it more thought, she’d probably realize the men were with the woman, and that would make her wonder who the woman really was—questions he didn’t feel equipped to answer. He didn’t want to fall into the old trap of protecting her too much, but he also didn’t want to have to be the one to tell her this particular detail.
He’d slip into church on his way home later and pray for guidance on that one.
For now, he would try anything to bring the light back to her eyes. “I’ve always been the intimidating brother, you know. That’s really why I had to bow out of the business—I just lit too much fear in everyone.”
She laughed, and it tied a pleasant knot in his stomach to hear it. It had been too long since he had. “That’s my Enzo—the brute of the Capecce family.”
He grinned and led her to the exit onto Loomis street, content to let the familiar sounds of the city put distance between them and the scene behind them. And he left his arm around her shoulders—something he hadn’t dared to do before. There came the awareness, yes, but far stronger was the desire to help, to give comfort. It wasn’t, he realized with both relief and joy, about him at all—it was about her.
“If Joey had lived,” Sabina said quietly as they were turning onto Taylor Street, “do you think he would have stayed in the business? Or gotten out?”
Thoughts of his oldest brother always made Enzo sigh. “I don’t know. Isadora wanted him out, so he was looking for honest jobs before he signed up. But it was for her, not for him. You know? I’m not sure it would have stuck when things got tough.”
“Mm. I feel so bad for her. Losing him, then her mother’s illness—she hasn’t caught a break in years. But she’s always so…peaceful.” Her brows knit. “I envy that about her. I say all the same prayers, I do the same things—but I…I’ve been so empty, Enzo. Since Serafina died.”
“I’m so sorry, Bean. I should have been there for you. Talked to you about it all. I know talking through it with Judah helped when Joey died.”
She tilted her face up toward his and looked deep into his eyes. “Did you struggle like this? With feeling empty?”
“For a while, yes.” But he hadn’t told her about that—that’s no doubt what she was thinking. He’d turned to his cousin but not to the woman he loved, who had suffered so similar a loss of her own. His breath gusted out now. “It helped to realize that the words of the prayers, and even more the sacraments…they can do their work in us even when we’re too numb to realize it. Because those words are meant to remind us of how we should be inclining our hearts. And those actions—they are God working, not us. Whether we feel it or not, whether we are aware of it or not, He’s there. He’s present. He’s pouring out His grace on us.”
Contemplation settled on her face, drawing a sweet little pucker into her lips, but before she could say anything more, someone shouted, “Bina!”
It was Little G, though Enzo had to crane his head around before he could be absolutely sure—his voice was deepening to match his height. He still looked like the little boy Lorenzo expected him to be, though, when he came barreling toward them, waving a book in the air. “Bina, look what I did today! Max let me do the whole thing—set up the press, run the pages, and even do the binding on this one.”
He reached them, his chest puffed more with pride than running. “Look, look! It’s not perfect, but I’ll get better.”
“G, it’s beautiful!” Sabina took the book in her hands, running her fingers over the crooked spine and the gold-stamped letters that weren’t quite square. “And the foil stamping? You did that too?”
“Yep.” He grinned, turning it to Lorenzo too. “Pretty neat, huh? Max says I’m a natural at setting the type. This is just the proof, see—we have to check it over, make sure all the plates are right before we run the whole order. I told him I’d check it tonight. I have to go through every page.”
“Cousin Max must trust you implicitly.” She smoothed his hair back from his forehead and smacked a loud kiss onto his cheek. “I’m so proud of you, G. To think my baby brother has made a whole book!”
