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“You love her already, don’t you?”
I stare at him. I am not discussing my feelings about Sinead with Cormac O’Rourke.
“You don’t scare me, Gabe. You haven’t since the day I met you. You may be bigger than anyone but Sergei, but I remember before we all became what we are now. Back when we were just kids.”
Sergei Andreyev is the bratva leader’s cousin and head of their intelligence gathering. The Russians have an official position for that, whereas Carmine just wound up as ours. Sergei’s what most people would consider a meathead. We have that in common. No one ever believes either of us have Ivy League educations.
“You were a nice guy for way longer than the rest of us. We all come from a fecked-up life and live in a fecked-up world. None of us like Sinead being involved in this, but she was long before she met you. She’s kept her distance, but if it hadn’t been your case, it could have been another. If it were anyone besides you— another Mancinelli, a Diaz, or anyone else —we’d step in. We’d keep her from the guy one way or another. But we trust you with our childhood friend. Disappoint us, and your little stay in Napoli really will look like a vacay under the Tuscan sun.”
“You need to learn geography.”
“Deflect all you want. Protect her and make her happy. Fail, and we will kill you.”
“Do the same. Keep Duffy away from her and out of her life. Fail, and I will destroy everything, then I’ll kill all of you. Slowly.”
He has the audacity to grin.
“We know. That’s why we trust you with her.”
“Are you going to find out Duffy’s informant? Watch out. Stand in Duffy’s way, and he’s likely to turn on you and use that informant against you.”
“We know. We’re working on it. If we find out, we’ll let you know.”
I stare at him again, and he grins even wider.
“Don’t worry, Gabe. We don’t expect you to reciprocate the favor. She still has a lot of housebreaking to do with you. You can barely do better than not pee on the rug.”
Insulting my manners aside, this has actually been the most productive conversation I’ve had with Cormac since we were eleven. We stole Misha Andreyev’s soccer cleats before a game against our team. That’s when Cormac and I discovered Sergei’s overprotective about his little brother. We had matching black eyes for two weeks.
“Keep me posted, Cormac. I’m serious. I don’t give a shit whether you want me dead or alive. If you know something that endangers Sinead, and you don’t tell me—”
“I know. I know. Destroying my world and torturing me. I get it. Fecking finish this shit, so you can take her out to a nice dinner.”
I watch him get back into his car, and I wait until he leaves the parking lot before I walk back around to see Sinead sobbing in the car. I wrench the door open and lean in to unfasten her seatbelt. I pull her into my arms as I squat beside her.
“Oh, thank God. Gabe, that took forever, and I couldn’t see you. I didn’t hear any shooting, but I didn’t know if I should check to make sure he wasn’t killing you some other way. How am I going to do this? How am I going to survive when you have to go to that place where I can’t call you? Worse. How am I going to survive when you can’t go to that place?”
“Shh,piccolina. I’m fine. I’m going to call Mario. He lives near here. He’s going to take your car back to your place. We’re going to go home.”
“Home? Your place?”
“Our place, Sinead. At least for now. If you want us to live in your place after this is over or you want somewhere that’s new to both of us, then we can do that.”
“I— Somewhere new? I can’t— I have student loans.”
“I know you’re a successful lawyer. Your money will go a lot further when you don’t have that noose. But even if you became a managing partner at your firm, you won’t make as much as I do. Between the stores I own, my investments, my moving companies, and my legal practice, I’m very wealthy. Very, very wealthy.”
“Your place speaks to that. But I don’t want to have to—”
“If you say rely on me, I will spank you. We can sort out our finances when we need to. If you want us to share things, fine. If you want things to be separate, fine. If you want a prenup, fine. Whatever you want. But we rely on each other. Flat out. You can depend on me, Sinead. And I know I can depend on you.”
“Prenup?”
Fuck me.
“That would be the one word you caught.”
I run my hands through my hair.
