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“Territorial, Nicolo.”
“Very, Tizio.” Nicolo sniffs the air. “What’s that? Is that romance I smell in here?”
“It’s eggs, you fuckin’ idiot.”
I turn on the stove, the oven, and heat the pan.
They continue ribbing me as I cook the eggs the way Nadia did, and then I transfer them from the pan to the oven to continue cooking through. I fry up some bacon, and when it’s done, I dump it on plates and then shove one at each of them. “Can you shut up now?
Tizio starts tucking in. “You’re the one with a secret hot number hiding away.”
“I plead the fifth on account I’m in love with the world’s most beautiful girl, so . . .” He takes a forkful. “Damn, she can make a mean breakfast.”
I steal some bacon and roll my eyes. “I did fuckin’ just cook that.”
“Yeah, but . . .” Tizio spreads a hand in the air to take in his plate, “you’re just the line cook, and she’s the chef. Where is she? Chase her away?”
I pull out a chair and collapse in it. “I don’t know, man. That would be for the best, but . . . shit . . .” I look at them. “How’d it go?”
“Nothing that revelatory.” Tizio takes some bacon. “The kid’s fucking right, though. You gotta don your work suit while we get him out. Might take a bit. A few visits. Get the best deal for all.”
“Yeah.” I sigh. “Make sure there’s nothing to bite our asses and keep them on side.”
“That about covers it. You’re right, too, bro. It’s best we get him away from here.”
“He has to come back to Nadia. He’s got fuckin’ parents.”
“Shit parents,” Nicolol says with a shrug, but his tone’s hard. “You didn’t convince her?”
I look at them. “I’ve known Nadie since she was a stick of a twelve-year-old. You don’t make her do anything.”
“Drastic measures?”
I glare at Tizio. “The only ones this time would be drugging her, knocking her out, and kidnapping her. So, no.”
“Real history, then,” Tizio mutters.
“Yeah.” It hurts to say it. “Ever since she was sixteen, I’ve had a thing for her. From eighteen to nineteen, she was mine, but life doesn’t work out. Her . . . shit, her family sucks, man. When we were together, I knew she wouldn’t leave her dad, and she certainly wouldn’t leave her little nephew.”
“The parents?”
I shrug and drop my voice. “More interested in themselves and their lives. And why not? They had Nadie. Thing is, she wouldn’t go, I had to. This place was killing me.”
Nicolo points at me. “You were a punk when we met you, man.”
“Things . . . things got bad, and I got in trouble.” Took on trouble, but I don’t know if she’s listening, and none of us in this room believe in self-pity. Pick up, improve, and keep growing. Own your part in any shit that goes down. It keeps us honest. Sharp.
“There was a threat made against her, and, fuck, I don’t know, we were fighting a lot. We were young. She was too young, way too young for any of my shit.”
“So, you broke it off.” Tizio wipes his plate with a scrap of bacon.
I breathe in, then out. “I stomped on her heart and left. I was twenty- three going exactly nowhere, and she should have known me better than to buy into shit.”
“After you stomped her heart.” Nicolo raises his brows. I think of smashing his face, but Avah won’t like it, and I like Avah.
“She didn’t defend, do anything, so I left.”
“So . . .” Tizio takes me in, face blank. “Wanna explain what it was she didn’t defend?”
