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I laugh at him.
“So… my life aside, we’ll be away until Tuesday, and as yourconsigliere, I didn’t want to go without seeing you first. Didn’t want you brewing by your lonesome with shit on your mind. I know the checks on the Bratva guys came back clean.”
I take out the humidor and hold it out for him to take a cigar. He does and lights up.
“Pa’s furious as fuck that I want time to think. To him, I’m pussyfooting and stalling.”
“Are you?”
“I don’t know. The crap with Mark didn’t help one bit, but that’s no excuse for me to stall on something that could change our lives.”
“Vin, I know you. You don’t just stall.”
“I know.”
“Anything else happen?”
“Dmitri came to see me the other day.”
Salvatore raises his brows. “Did he now?”
“To his credit, it was a decent visit. He even suggested coming here for a drink.”
Salvatore sighs and bites the inside of his lip. “You still feel the same?”
“Yes,” I confess. “I’m still wary.”
“Tell you what. Invite them to the fundraiser. That will smooth things over with Pa. In the meantime, we’ll do some extra digging, when I get back.”
That’s a good idea. I feel like I should hold off telling him about Gibbs because I don’t want to seem paranoid, but there’s no point asking him to be my consigliere if I’m going to keep secrets.
“I like those ideas. Um… this is off record, so please don’t say anything to Pa yet or anyone. I got Gibbs checking things out too.” I lean forward.
“You have my word, brother.” He nods once.
“Thank you.”
The bedroom door opens, and Ava comes out with the sheet wrapped around her. Her eyes grow wide when she sees Salvatore.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize,” she stutters. “I just … I’ll come back later.” She backs away, going back into the room, her face flushed with embarrassment.
When I look back to Salvatore, I see he’s already looking at me.
“You like her,” he states.
“Do I?” I take a draw on my cigar, avoiding his stare.
“You do, and that’s a good thing. It’s a healing step in the right direction. No matter what happens.”
Maybe he’s right.
What might not be right, however, is me entertaining what I’m starting to feel for her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ava
We got home later in the day, and I didn’t know what was going to happen.
