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“It was ten years ago, Leo. Can’t you try and move on?”
“Not until Paolo pays for what he did to us.”
She picks up the file, pointing the photo at me. Anna’s eyes capture me again. Intelligent, sure. But also innocent.
“Marry her,” Bea says, breaking into my thoughts. “Make Paolo pay with his daughter. His only heir.” She raises her eyebrows. “Look at it this way. When he dies, she’ll inherit. You take it all as her husband.”
A dark laugh escapes my mouth. “Never thought you’d want me to marry a Caruso. Especially not your old friend.”
“I want to keep my house. Don’t want to see you and Barb on the streets and I definitely don’t want to see Don Caruso getting everything our father worked so hard to claw back. Besides, I haven’t spoken to Anna for years. We’re practically strangers now. I couldn’t be friends with a member of that family after what happened.”
“If I do this, I’ll break her. Crush her. Destroy her. You can live with that, can you?”
“When the alternative is losing everything, yes, I can.”
I pick up the phone on the table beside me, pressing zero.
It connects at once. “Mr. Barone?”
“Connect me to Paolo Caruso.”
“One moment, Sir.”
The line clicks twice and then rings. I look across at the photo again, remembering the crash, the slurring of Paolo’s speech as he staggered out of the wreck of his vehicle, his nose bloody, his immaculate hair a mess for once.
“Nothing I could have done.” The words echoed through my soul. “They pulled out in front of me, Officer. I swear it.”
He plowed into the back of us doing ninety. Sent us spinning into the guard rail, engine catching fire at once. Didn’t even try to save anyone. Just stood and watched as I had to make an impossible choice between saving my mother or my baby brother. In the end, I lost them both and Don Caruso got away with it. Told anyone who’d listen that it was our fault. Stuck to that story all these years.
There’s no slurring of his speech when he answers the phone today. “Don Barone,” he says, the fear evident in his voice when I announce myself. “It’s been a long time. May I be the first to offer my most heartfelt condolences on the untimely passing of your father. I am certain you will make a good Don in his stead.”
“Both dead now,” I reply. “Both parents gone. You happy about that? Still drinking, Paolo?”
He inhales sharply. “I am truly sorry for that unfortunate accident all those years ago, Don Barone. You must know there was nothing I could do. Your father drove poorly. That is not my fault.”
I note he’s still calling it an accident. Like the universe got him drunk and put him in the car, got him doing three times the speed limit, like he had no say in it at all.
“I’m not ringing you to discuss your cheating justice. I’m calling to tell you I know about the five hundred thousand dollars your Capos stole from our casino. You’ve forty-eight hours to pay it back alongside another five hundred thousand in interest.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Save the lies. I have the footage and the figures. We’ve been watching for longer than you know. You will have a million dollars ready for me when I come to see you or I kill you and your entire family.”
“Please, Don Barone. Have mercy. You’ve got to give me more time.”
“You can’t find a million in two days? Have your finances fallen so far?”
“It’s all tied up in a deal with Amato. Give me a week and I’ll give you two million. Let you come in on the deal.”
“You’ve got two days.”
“Two days isn’t long enough. Have mercy, I beg you.”
“Mercy? Did you have mercy when you walked away from the crash and left my mother to burn to death? When I dragged Antonio from the wreckage only for him to succumb in the hospital? When you attacked two of our bookmakers while we were burying him? Was it mercy in your mind then, or was it business?”
“Please, I can’t find that kind of money in two days. You’ve got to give me more time. I can’t get to it until next week.”
“What about when you paid off the investigators? The cops? The judge? Plenty of money then, right?”
