AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sandro doesn’t smile back. “Think it over, Jack,” he says. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“You’re goddamn right about that,” Jack says, but it lacks the vehemence it once might have had. The two of them seem to have reached a new state of being over the last few weeks. They’re not as close as they once were, but they’re no longer enemies, either. I like to flatter myself that I might have had some small part in patching things up between them, but I’m not sure it’s true.
I still like to think it, though.
“Is that it?” Jack almost-snaps, and at Sandro’s nod, he stalks out.
I wait patiently to be told to leave the room, but Sandro isn’t done with me yet. “Julian,” he says at last.
“Sandro,” I say back.
“Have you considered that this new shadow might be connected to your vendetta?”
That’s not what he wants to talk about, I can tell, but I play along. He has given me permission to look into my mother’s murder—a vendetta, he calls it. Repaying like for like is what I call it. “It’s a cold case,” I say. “Takes a while to investigate. But I gave you my word I would not kill anyone without your approval. I haven’t. I won’t. Except this tail,ifit’s a Bernardi.”
“I don’t like how things are escalating.” He says it almost under his breath. “The docks went our way, but they might not have. And one thing a cornered dog will do is bite. So watch your back.”
“I always do.”
He gives a nod, but moves on at once. I was right. It wasn’t my investigation into my mother’s death that he wanted to discuss at all. “This dinner…” he begins, and trails off.
I put my hands behind my back, raise my eyebrows, and let my mouth show a slight smile. I’ve seen waitstaff wear expressions like this, and I believe it’s supposed to suggesthelpfulness.
“I thought you might bring your Esposito lover,” Sandro says slowly.
“My Esposito…? Oh, you meanVincenzo?”
“Yes. Vincenzo Esposito.”
“But I haven’t seen him since—well, you actually viewed our lasttête-à-tête.”
Sandro puts a hand over his eyes. “I have been trying to forget. And I hope you have stopped that particular habit.”
After Sandro saw the video I made of Vincenzo and me—just an insurance policy, you understand—he told me I wasn’t allowed to keep collecting that kind of compromising material on our enemies. Sandro is very different from our father. The new Don has rather high standards and insists on such useless things such as honor, discipline, trust.
“I haven’t,” I tell him, quite truthfully. “Don Castellani ordered me not to. And I follow the orders of Don Castellani.” I’m notreallymocking him, but he takes it that way.
“Let’s get back to this dinner,” he says, changing the subject with irritation. “Teddy didn’t want you to feel like the fifth wheel.Ifyou come. And if Miller will agree. And…”
“Yes?”
“AndIwould like you to bring the Esposito.” He gives me a steady look. “You understand?”
I certainly do. Sandro is trying to crack the hard nut that is the Esposito Family. Insular and standoffish, they don’t work with outsiders. They barely eventalkto outsiders. Except for Vincenzo, who spoke to me.
And then we didn’t have much need for words at all after that, once we got into bed.
“I’ll ask him if you like,” I say, “but I must warn you, he’s not all that bright. You might think that’s a good thing, if you only mean to use him as an in for Anna-Vittoria—“ Anna-Vittoria is the woman who heads up the Esposito Family “—but he’s not close to her, despite being a cousin. She’s smart enough to keep her plans from darling Vincenzo. He has very loose lips when he’s on the edge of orgasm.”
“Still,” Sandro says doggedly. “It is an opportunity I’d like to explore.”
“You know I’d doanythingyou commanded, brother dear.”
With a grimace, Sandro flicks his hand toward the door, an invitation to get myself out of his sight. “I’ll tell you the date when I know it.”
I back away from him with a deep bow, my eyes on the floor as I make my way backwards to the door, murmuring platitudes to his greatness.
It really is too much fun getting under Sandro’s skin sometimes.
