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LA is only getting more and more dangerous for people like us.
“Anyway,” Anna-Vittoria goes on, patting my arm, “I will be able to tell her at her next visit that I took her advice.”
“Her next…visit?”
“Yes.” She looks steadfastly ahead. “Her next visit, in about two months.”
I say nothing, just walk on with her. As far as I know, the Boss has no idea his mother will be in town two months from now. And he has no idea that Anna-Vittoria and his mom have been meeting together.
Talking.
I want to ask what, exactly, they’ve been talkingabout, but that’s a non-starter.
“Thank you, Maestra,” I say at last. “But I have to ask—is this Esposito business?” Because I’m still bound by my word to keep quiet about Esposito doings. And for Bricker’s safety, I intend to keep that promise.
“It is Esposito business,” she says, and my heart drops until she goes on. “But it is Castellani business, too, I think. Don’t you?” She looks at me again, a bright smile on her face. “Though you certainly did not hear it from me, Massimo. And now we should get back to the party.”
* * *
Come Monday morning, I’m standing out in the backyard next to the hot tub with my coffee, looking skeptically up at the sky. It’s blue and fine, but the weather’s been changeable lately. Much like the underworld scene in LA.
“Max, come on,” Bricker says anxiously from behind me. “Breakfast’s ready.”
With a sigh, I head back inside for Bricker’s bacon and eggs. Once I move in here permanently, we’re going to have to have a talk about nutrition.
Once I move in? I smile to myself as I take a seat. I’m already here most days, and definitely each night. Bricker also bullied me into giving his smart home a voice sample, so now it obeys me like it obeys him, even though I feel stupid calling out instructions to an inanimate object.
The other thing is, Bricker’s place is closer to Redwood, which makes it a shorter commute. I’m just waiting for the lease on the Glendale place to run out later this month, and then I’ll quit pretending I’m not living with the guy.
Because I do love living with him. I never thought I’d be great at co-habitation, but it turns out, I’m not bad.
Plus I get breakfast made for me most mornings.
“You ready for your first day back?” Bricker asks me, digging into his food.
“I am,” I admit. “But I’ll miss you Espositos, too.”
“But duty calls, right?” Bricker says with a grin. “Hope it’ll be a nice quiet day for you.”
It won’t be. But I’ll deal with that when I get there. “You, too. Tell the crew I said hi, will you?”
Bricker even fusses over my tie and shirt collar before I leave the house, and I let him, before pulling him into a long kiss. “Love you,” I murmur into his neck afterward.
“Love you, too.”
Neither of us tell the other to stay safe as I leave. That’s what I appreciate about Bricker. He understands my work. And I understand his, including the demands that will be made of him, not just as Capo, but as the future Don of the Esposito Family.
I wave from my car, drinking in the sight of this Mafia prince standing there in the doorway in his pajama bottoms, hair tufted and messy, smiling and watching me right back.
I’ll always see him like this, no matter how old he gets. No matter how oldIget.
And I’ll always love him.
I blow him a kiss, overcome all of a sudden with sentimental feeling, and then I get in the car and drive away, instantly missing him.
* * *
It’s good to be back at Redwood. But I’ve only been here a few minutes, and I can tell already, just like I thought, it’s not going to be a quiet day. Raffi DeLuca has something on his mind, and there’s a lot I’ve missed while I’ve been away, based on the brief he sent me last night.
