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Penelope smiled. “About Paradiso. How beautiful the entire casino is, and how fun it is.”
I couldn’t lie about it. It was one of the most stunning places along the strip, next to Portofino. The bar was so exclusive, you had to have a special ticket. If it was golden, it was lifelong and had to be transferred at the time of death or it wouldn’t be valid. A regular at Dynamic, who loved Vinny, left it to him when he died.
Vinny said the entire place was too rich for him and let us use the card whenever we wanted to. I’d taken it, planning to stop at the bar to see Georgia’s husband, Joe. I thought maybe he could talk me out of what I was going to do, or at least prepare me. He lived the life of a mobster.
I’d seen him with another woman, though, and that was when I left. It felt like a best friend’s code to confront him, and a silent woman’s vow to tell Georgia, but she knew. She was totally blasé about it. I left it alone, but it still pissed me off. I was going to live the same life, and I hated it.
“Leo? You have the ticket?”
Snapping out of my brain fog, I dug in my bag and handed the card to Rocky. “Full moon tomorrow night…be extra careful out there.”
I wished I had something like a full moon to blame my wild night on.
“Leo.”
I turned at the sound of Georgia’s voice. She was sitting on a barstool prop, sewing what looked like a ripped skirt, and she looked ghostly. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the light made it more apparent. She was losing weight. Her bones pressed against the underside of her skin. Georgia was beautifully full figured, and I had no idea why she would want to lose any of herself.
She set the skirt over her leg. “Where did you go last night?”
I leaned my weight against the wall and sighed. “I had to know, Georgie.”
“I told you to leave it alone.” In all the time I knew her, I’d never heard a growl in her voice aimed at me. “And now what?”
“Now I owe Mr. Big.”
“Joe told me. Fuck, Leo!”
“I know! I know!” I wanted her to tell me how wrong I was, but then again, I didn’t want to hear it. I was fine being in denial for a couple more hours. “I’m in my own version of hell anyway, so I won’t even recognize a difference. Except for the car with an air conditioner that he bought for me. It probably has about a million dollars’ worth of emotional interest tacked on it, but…at least I’m staying cool, right?”
“I don’t know all the specifics.” Her voice was so low, it raised goosebumps on my arms. “But I know if you had listened to me, you could have avoided all of this.”
“What are you talking about?”
She sighed, picking up the needle and thread and looping it through the rented fabric. “Tullio Bigatti doesn’t allow his men to sell drugs. He might have known that Jerry broke Angelo’s arm, but he had no idea who Angelo was or why Jerry had done it. He started to become suspicious of Jerry only recently. Nothing done in the dark ever stays hidden. Your visit probably confirmed Bigatti’s suspicions. If he hadn’t found out not long before. These are all recent developments. Like…if this news was a body, it would still be warm.”
“Angelo was delivering…”
“Yeah, he was.”
I knew Angelo wanted to help me, like Phoenix had said, but it seemed eerily like how my dad got into the game. Then he started using.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Back up a few words.
Big didn’t give me all those specifics. He alluded that he knew, but the asshole really didn’t. He let me believe he knew what my brother was doing.
I was starting to become very confused very fast about his intentions. Okay, I stole from him, and he felt he was owed, even though I didn’t see a penny of it, but why all the fucking drama?
“Am I paying you to sit around and chat with Georgie?” Vinny appeared out of nowhere.
“You’re not paying me to fix your costumes, but here we are.” Georgia looked up from what she was doing. “Consider it swapping my talents for a little of Leo’s time.”
Vinny mocked her, grumbling her words out. “She stays until you’re finished! That’s it. She already owes me for bailing her out.” He left, mumbling to himself.
Georgia lifted her eyebrows.
“Oh, you didn’t hear about that, social butterfly of the mob world?” I said. “But you heard about my unfortunate meeting with Big?”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
