AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We pulled into the driveway of his manor, and the coursing dread of going back to my room and staring at a stack of papers that meant nothing to me tore into every ounce of my self-control. I stood slowly, and Luca, Alessio and Vincent seemed to not notice as I followed them toward the house. Caterina, on the other hand, came from a direction away from the driveway, rubbing both her palms across her rust-colored pants. Blood, I realized. That had to be blood, though she’d hardly been there for more than a minute of the fight. “I took care of the situation,” she said to Vincent, giving him a nod. He gave her one in reply, and I wondered how it felt to have that level of solidarity. I recalled seeing Caterina during the fight, and her stealth and skill had been admirable. If we weren’t enemies, I would’ve loved to ask where she learned the techniques and how she did them. It would have been interesting to learn what she knew.
“I hope you don’t need me to cover your ass next time,” Caterina said to Vincent. He shot her a look, but she continued, “Don’t get me started on the situation I had to get out of so I could be here and cover your rear. Which, may I add, should have been one oftheirjobs.” She pointed at Alessio and Luca accusingly.
“We assume our boss can cover his own six,” Luca said in a deadpan tone, opening the door to the house as the others went inside. “But when he has a spectacle to look at instead of covering himself, it’s a little more difficult.”
A spectacle? I pursed my lips as I considered the way he drew the attention of the conversation to me. I hadn’t wanted to show off what I could do, but it had clearly become a necessity. It was either that or be killed. I could’ve also kept my mouth closed andnotbegged to get out, but as I strode back into the house, I found an entirely new sense of optimism. Or maybe it was the back and forth bantering between all these people. These friends.
“I can get myself out of any situation you put me in,” Vincent said. “Sometimes it just takes a little more finesse than other times.”
“Is ‘finesse’ the new word for ‘death’ these days?” Alessio asked. Caterina reached past me and gave him a high-five as she chuckled at his joke. There was clearly a lot of fondness among this entire group, but among these two specifically, I saw something…more. Especially as they looked right past me and into one another’s eyes for a long moment before looking away.
I followed them all into a room I hadn’t seen before. A long wet bar rested across the side of the room, and on one side of it, the shelves looked stocked with the best top-shelf liquor. Below it sat some glasses and a stainless-steel ice machine. They each made themselves at home in different places—Caterina behind the bar, Vincent and Alessio at two stools, and Luca in a reclining chair to the left. None of them demanded that I go back to my room, so I lingered behind them, just watching the conversation unfold.
“I want something stiff,” Alessio stated, placing a hand palm down on the bar.
“All of the drinks are stiff,” Caterina said with a roll of her eyes, but she poured an expensive looking bourbon anyways, sliding it to Alessio. “What do you want, Mia?”
It took me longer than I wanted to admit to see the way her eyes scanned my face. I glanced at Vincent and saw the stiff set of his jaw, but I looked back at Caterina when he didn’t say anything. “I’ll drink whatever you’re having.”
Alessio tipped his head back and laughed. It took him a second to compose himself, but when he did, he glanced at me with upraised brows. “I wouldn’t recommend what she drinks. That fruity shit has enough sugar to kill a grown man.”
I smiled. “I like fruity.”
Caterina pointed at me and smiled. “A woman after my own heart.”
I waited awkwardly as she mixed a drink with a handful of different liquors and flavorings, and I didn’t fail to notice how everyone in the room got silent as they looked at me. I wondered how much more bantering and joking would have happened if I weren't here. Everything I’d seen until now had been serious and mafia-related. They’d been all business, and it hadn’t felt so genuine.
If I took Vincent from these people, they’d be devastated. When I’d imagined killing him, I’d imagined him being a man like my father—cold, hard and dethatched. I hadn’t expected people to genuinely care for him. This dynamic between all of them was the last thing I expected to see today. Cruel or otherwise, there was something among these people that felt sacrilegious to destroy. I thought that my father and I had a good relationship compared to many of the other mafia families I’d seen, but it was nothing like this. How many evenings had they all sat around this bar and laughed about life together? How much tragedy would I cause by killing him?
“You’ve clearly done things like this before,” Luca commented to me across the room.
“Drinking?”
He chuckled deeply. “No, fighting.” I froze. I couldn’t explain where those moves had come from, so I remained silent. “Someone like Pete Genovese wouldn’t have his daughter defenseless. You’re too much of a weakness to him that way.”
“Clearly you believe I’m stilla weakness to him,” I said. “Considering you plan to kill me to hurt him.”
Vincent turned and looked me up and down. “Everyone has weaknesses and ways to exploit them. Unfortunately, your father just has far less than the average man.”
Unfortunately.I’d sensed how much Vincent had hated me from the moment I’d gotten here, but to refer to my eventual death as unfortunate said something completely different. I stared at him for a long moment, trying to figure out exactly what I was seeing on his face, but I found nothing but a cool stare.
“Unless you’re willing to share your father’s weaknesses with us,” Caterina proposed with a wide smile, passing my drink to me.
I shook my head, taking a long gulp and nodding in satisfaction. “If I knew of any, I would definitely share. Especially after today.”
“What about the charities he donates to? That usually says something about a person.”
I laughed, but as I looked around the room and found everyone staring at me emotionlessly, I realized that they were serious. “I didn’t realize bosses donated to charities.”
Vincent rubbed his chin. “Are you aware of how much money we bring in,topo?” For once, the nickname didn’t faze me as I shook my head. “Millions. Hundreds of millions in a good year. Donating to different charities gives us the opportunity to clean some of the dirty money we bring in, and it helps us build friendships and alliances with the general population. We need those alliances.” He paused. “We donate to the orphanage in town. Hell, we run the thing. Then our family takes in the kids who age out, and we give them a boost. Some of them stay because of our generosity, and I swear them in as made men. With the ones who don’t stay, we help them make a name for themselves in the world in another way.”
Was he trying to convince me that he was a decent person so I’d narc on my dad? “Why would you let people go?”
“They’re kids. We’re not evil,” Alessio said, mortified that I’d even ask the question.
“If they want to stay, we sometimes fake genetic testing, so they fit into the ‘Italian’ mold,” Caterina stated with a shrug. “If they go, we ask that they return and repay us one day. Some don’t, but we don’t care. Most of them come back for one reason or another. One of our orphans is a trauma surgeon at the county hospital who looks the other way when we bring in guys with gunshot wounds. It all comes back around.”
As she told me this, I noticed something flashing in her eyes—something that I couldn’t quite place. A fondness, maybe? Beyond that, I could hardly believe these people did something so good. So genuine. I’d heard all about them bringing half-breed made men into our world, but now I understood why. They were giving orphans a place to make a home, and I couldn’t fault them for that.
