AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A passerby argued heatedlywith the guard at the Russos’ front gate when Sofia and I returned to the house. Lorenzo opened his window, but I shook my head. We needed to get Sofia inside first. Once through the gate, he stopped the car just long enough for me to hop out and stroll to the entrance.
“I am to hand this envelope over to Ginevra Russo personally,” the man cried. He was short, swarthy, dressed in slacks and a vest, with a newsboy cap tilted at a jaunty angle on his head.
“What seems to be the matter here?” I asked, nodding at the guard.
“Roberto Morelli told me to hand this to Ginevra Russo and no one else,” the man explained in a huff. “Since when do the Russos turn away members of the community at the gate?”
I looked him up and down. “Since the Russo girls were fired upon yesterday, at the port.”
The man’s eyes widened. It surprised me the news hadn’t spread, but perhaps the Russos’ soldiers were more discreet than the Irish.
“But Roberto’s wife saw Ginevra eating lunch with her boyfriends today,” the man protested.Boyfriends.I liked the sound of that.
Lorenzo arrived to smooth the situation over. “Tom,” he greeted the man, shaking his hand. “This is Liam,” he introduced me. “One of Miss Ginevra’s boyfriends.”
The man winced. “No disrespect intended, sir.”
Lorenzo jerked his head toward the pedestrian entrance, and the guard opened it for us. We walked in together. I stopped before we got close to the house and held out my hand for the envelope.
Tom clutched it to him.
“You may watch me open it, but I will not allow that package into the house without an inspection.” My voice was hard, even though I suspected I knew why he was there.
The man handed the manilla envelope to me. I pulled a knife out of my pocket and slit the edge. It was cash. I thumbed through the stacks of hundreds and handed it back to the trembling man. “Let’s go.”
Liam: Ginevra, someone from the Morellis is here to see you.
Ginevra: Right now?
Cormac: She’s busy.
Liam: Right now.
Ginevra met us at the front door, kissing Tom and Lorenzo on the cheeks. I pulled her in for a kiss that left her breathless. The other men looked on with amusement until I pulled my knife out of its sheath, flipping it end to end as I stared at them.
My girlfriend—I decided I liked that word, too—led us to her father’s study. She turned to Lorenzo. “Is Luca around?”
Lorenzo shook his head in the negative, then smiled. “You’re in charge, Ginevra.”
When Cormac would have followed us in, I barred his path with my arm across the door. “She needs to do this on her own.”
His eyes flicked to mine, and then he grinned, pulling me in close so he could whisper in my ear. “I’ll make you pay for that.”
I laughed. “I’m counting on it.”
Ginevra charmed Tom. It was a side of her I hadn’t seen yet, and I admired the way she gently put him at ease, asking about his family—Roberto Morelli was his cousin—and catching up on the last ten years of harmless gossip.
I brought over two glasses of Antonio’s expensive whisky, one for Ginevra, and one for her visitor.
“Miss Ginevra,” Tom said, “Roberto wanted me to give this to you.”
He handed her the well-worn manilla envelope. Her eyes flicked over the cut I’d made, then up to me. This was a down payment on the money their family should have been paying for protection these last few years. Ginevra had made quite an impression on Tina Morelli at lunch.
She frowned, then set the envelope on her father’s desk. “Please offer Roberto my gratitude. Do you have Tina’s phone number?”
Tom shook his head. “The boss’s wife? Not on my life. I’m just a runner.”
Ginevra laughed, the sound genuine, as it tinkled through the room like fucking wind chimes. All of a sudden, I wanted to hear that sound again. She rooted through her father’s desk for a pen and paper, and wrote a quick note on a piece of paper, folding it in half. “Please give her mine, then. I’d love to have her over for lunch. And please, save it in your phone too, in case you ever need it.”
