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When we get back to the cottage, I put my camera inside while Salvatore gets a fire going. I grab a couple bottles of water and some blankets before heading back outside.
The flames are dancing in the breeze as I hand him his water and blanket before sitting beside him in one of the chairs by the fire.
“You know, you and I spend a lot of time together but you haven’t told me anything about your family. I know I met them, but we didn’t really talk about anything serious while I was there.”
Salvatore passes me my burger before grabbing his own out of the bag. “There’s not that much to talk about. We’re Italian, we’re criminals, we have connections to the FBI.”
I roll my eyes and take a bite of my burger. “That’s all stuff that’s easy enough to find out through a quick internet search. Tell me something about your family that’s real. Something that nobody knows.”
“What if I tell you something that there is a lot of speculation about but only the family knows the truth?” Salvatore looks at me, fine lines appearing at the corners of his eyes when he smiles.
“You’re going to trust a woman you’ve only known for a little over a month with a family secret?” I shake my head and take another big bite of my burger. “Who are you and what have you done with Salvatore Russo?”
He shrugs. “It might be a family secret, but even if you were going to go around and start running your mouth — and I don’t think you will — nobody would believe you.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“You may be a lot of things, Brielle, and I still haven’t decided whether or not I can trust you, but I do believe you will keep your mouth shut. After all, you’ve been keeping secrets of your own for a very long time. Hell, I’m sure that you have more secrets you aren’t telling anyone.”
I wave my burger in his direction. “We’re talking about you right now.”
“Alright, well, for a long time there have been claims that my nonna used to be a famous bank robber. Of course, she doesn’t have a criminal record and there’s never been any solid evidence, so the cops have had a hard time proving it.”
“What about alibis?”
“She’s always had them. Plenty of them. Hell, she could point to five people on any given day who had been with her when the robbery occurred. The police used to bring these people in for questioning and all of them would tell the cops the same story.”
I lean forward, finishing my burger. “So, if she has a bunch of alibis that all match, why did they still suspect her?”
He shrugs. “Wouldn’t you suspect the wife of the man running the criminal underworld in the city? Our nonno was a very powerful man, though he could be controlling at times.”
“What does that have to do with the story beyond giving them reason to suspect her? Even that doesn’t seem likely. They should suspect him if he’s the one with the criminal record.”
Salvatore smiles. “That’s where the story gets interesting. The cops thought that it was her because she liked to play mind games with them. She would say something in passing at the local diner, nothing that was an admission of guilt, but something that was a little too detailed for someone uninvolved to know.”
“Wouldn’t they be able to bring her in on that alone?”
“They tried. However, at the time, she was friends with several of the officers’ wives who were working the case. They used to go to the salon together. Nonna would stir up shit between all of them, placing doubt into everyone’s minds about where she got the information from. Since they couldn’t nail her with any proof, they couldn’t arrest her.”
I lean back in the chair, pulling the blanket a little higher. Sparks fly from the fire, drifting higher in the sky as Salvatore pulls his own blanket over his lap.
“So, did she do it?”
Salvatore shrugs, his smile growing wider. “What do you think?”
“It feels like there’s something you’re not telling me about all of this. How is it that she’s walking around the city, saying all this shit that she shouldn’t know, and getting away with it?” I shake my head and prop my feet on the edge of the chair, clutching my knees to my chest. “It feels like there is something I’m missing about all of this.”
“My nonna was doing all of this to keep suspicion away from my mom. Mom was a teenager, but she had been involved in the family business for a long time. Dad took over from her father when he got old. Mom was out robbing banks and Nonna was fucking with the police officers’ heads.”
“Please tell me that I get to meet your nonna one day.”
Salvatore laughs and stares down at the fire. “Nonna died a few years ago. Nonno passed away and she went a few months after that. Died of a broken heart. At least, that’s the story that the family likes to tell. I’m sure it’s true, though. They loved each other more than anyone else I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m sorry that she died. Were you close to her?”
“Yeah. I used to spend a lot of time with her. She was the only one who really seemed to give a shit about me when I was growing up. I don’t mean that in a melodramatic way. Mom loved me and I’m sure that my father liked me, but Nonna was the only one who cared aboutmeand not what I brought to the family.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, I give a shit about you.”
