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“It makes no difference to me what you think you know. Now get out of my warehouse.”
“Youwilllet me in on this deal,” he said, steel in his voice.
“If there were a deal, I absolutely wouldn’t.”
“I’ll be reasonable. I’ll only take half.” He glossed over my words as if I hadn’t spoken.
My lip curved up in an insincere smile. “Enjoy your half of nothing.”
I shoved past him, was nearly to the door when he spoke. “How about Donato? Is he nothing?”
I stopped. “Next time you want something from me, play a better hand to get it.” I pretended as if Donato didn’t factor into anything. We both knew he did. I hated being backed into a corner, but if he continued down this path, it would be a tricky one to get out of.
“There are many, many ways to make him suffer.” His stare penetrated and spoke of something he hadn’t voiced. “But if you work with me, I can make hissituationgo away.”
“If you wanted to make him suffer, you’d have done it a long time ago.” There had been skirmishes over the years between the Salvatores and Angelones, but overall, they had remained remarkably civil. If either of them had wanted to get rid of the other, it could have been done a thousand times over. They weren’t allies, but they benefited from each other’s existence. Donato didn’t want a war, and I didn’t believe Angelone did either.
“Very true, but I’ve refrained. Now I see no reason to.” His finger slid across his lower lip. “But maybe ensuring Donato’s well-being isn’t the right incentive for you. Maybe I should focus on Vivian and that other stunning woman who lives with you.”
The way he spoke of them made me lunge for him. I grabbed the lapels of his jacket and shook. He grinned. I’d shown him my weakness. The number one rule, and I’d broken it.
“It would be a shame to mar either of those pretty faces, but—” He shrugged, and I struggled not to kill him with my bare hands.
“Do not threaten my family.” I shoved him and took slight satisfaction when he stumbled.
“Let me in on the deal, and I’ll owe you.”
That gave me pause. I could do with a man like Angelone owing me a favor. He didn’t hand those out easily. But I was trying to get out of this world. Somehow, I kept getting in deeper.
Besides, didn’t he want in to settle the debt he believed I owed him? This reeked to high heaven. There was only one possible response.
“Fuck you.”
I stalkedout to my car and cursed under my breath. I had a problem. A fucking whale of one.
Chapter Fourteen
Vivian
Present
“They’re so full of energy.”
Kindergarteners buzzed around the playground at Saint Pius while Muriella and I ate our lunch.
“That’s why I like being around them so much.” She gazed over them with a bittersweet smile, longing in her eyes.
“I thought it was to get away from me,” I teased, desperate to do anything to take that look off her face.
She threw a baby carrot at me. “Was I that obvious?”
I stuck my tongue out at her. “Have you gotten used to being the aide for a teacher who used to be your student?”
“It’s weird,” she admitted. “Hard to believe I knew her when she was five.”
The young teacher was right in the middle of her students as they built a castle in the large sand pit.
“They still asking you to come five days a week?” I dunked a slice of cucumber into the homemade hummus. Muriella had been a teacher’s aide at the church school for longer than I’d known her.
