AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hey,” Nino called, voice close behind me, making me realize he’d someone come back in and approached without me hearing. “I can practically see the guilt dripping off of you,” he said, reaching out, grabbing me, and pulling me down onto the couch with him. “I know there’s no rationalizing with it sometimes, sweetheart, but this is not your fault. If anyone is to blame, it’s me.”
“That’s not—“ I started.
“Yes,” he cut me off, “it is true. My profession got us all into this mess. And my inability to stay away from you did too. But I’m going to fix it,” he told me. And something in his tone had me stiffening.
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
“Not for long,” he said, wincing, and it was clear he felt bad about leaving for even a minute.
“But, you said…”
“I know I did. And I stand by that,” he said. “I will take you to your mom. But I need to have a face-to-face with someone first. Luca needs me. But it won’t be long. An hour, two tops.”
An hour or two?
Short in the grand scheme of things.
But really, really long if something bad was happening to my mom.
Still, if him leaving would lead us closer to finding her, I had to understand that.
“Okay,” I said, nodding.
“That’s probably Dante and Santo,” he said as his phone beeped. “Bringing the stuff my mom picked up. And scooping me up. For just a little while,” he added again.
“Okay,” I agreed, nodding as he got up.
I was feeling a little numb right then, and I figured maybe that was the survival instinct in my body, shutting things down before it all overwhelmed me, made me completely immobilized with it all.
Nino gave me a look that said he wanted to stay, wanted to at least wait until I was in a better headspace about it all, but there were some things that were out of his control.
So he went to the elevator, waiting for his brothers, then dropped the bags inside the door. All the while, I stood with my arms wrapped around myself, feeling almost nothing, detached from it all.
“I won’t be long,” he insisted, caressing my arms, then placing a kiss to my forehead.
Everything about him said he didn’t want to go.
But he had to.
So he did.
I watched the door click, felt the sound kind of reverberate through me, but I must have stood there a while longer before I was snapping slightly out of it.
I went to the bags, placing them on the island, and methodically going through them.
There were snacks and fresh food ingredients. All completely unnecessary since there was a giant insulated bag full of tins with frozen meals in them. Easy to pop in the oven and eat while you’re staying at the safe house.
I couldn’t help but wonder how many times his mom had been through this. Watching the men she loved have to flee and hide out to stay safe. Because someone wanted to kill them.
How did a wife and mother to mafia men keep themselves from crumbling into a pile of anxiety all the time?
It seemed as though maybe Nino’s mom took all that anxiety and harnessed it, used it to power through and do what she could. Cook. Shop. Assist.
There was no mistaking that the men were strong.
But I had a sneaking suspicion that it was the women who kept the family going.
Aside from food, there were bags of clothing for me. All in my size. And, almost unbelievably, all in my style as well.
