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“She promised Maria— not you —because you ate all the wedding cookies at Sunday dinner and tried to blame Pia and Natalia because you gave them each two.”
Pia and Natalia are Luca, Marco, Lorenzo, and Maria’s cousins through their dad and Carmine’s cousins through his mom. The girls are still in elementary school. Uncle Salvatore didn’t marry Aunt Sylvia until he was in his late forties. When older members of our branch pressured him to marry and have an heir, he would say God promised him good things come to those who wait. He accepted an arranged marriage because it was good for our branch to keep ties with Sicily. He and Aunt Sylvia hadn’t known each other before she arrived in America for the wedding and fell in love almost immediately. He swears that was what God really meant.
I glance at Sinead as we continue to eat, and she can’t help but smile at the guys’ bickering. I’m only in my early thirties, but could God have made me the same promise, and I just didn’t know it? If I wait, will Sinead be that good thing? I hope so. I know I’m in lust. There’s no point in denying it or calling it anything more than it is. I still feel like there could be way more. It’s a good thing that we can’t sleep together again. I keep telling myself that.
It’s true. And if I have any sense at all, then I’ll appreciate the divine wisdom and use the time to get to know her non-biblically.
“Gabe?”
I’m so lost in thought that I don’t hear Matteo at first.
“Huh?”
“Your phone is vibrating. We can hear it.”
I pull it out and look at the screen. I hold it up for the guys to see.
Carechimba
They know that means Pablo Diaz, but it literally means face of a vagina in Colombian slang.
“Sinead, I need to take this. It’s Enrique’s nephew, his second-in-command.”
I answer it as I step away from the breakfast bar and turn away from the group.
“You saved me the trouble of calling your uncle.”
“Yeah, we already heard. Armando filled us in. He said the attorney-client privilege you have has nothing to do with the charges pending.”
“Fuck him. He might not know what the fuck’s going on, but did you do this, Pablo? Did you bug the suite?”
“No.”
His answer is quick and confident. He could be telling the truth, or more likely, he knew the question would be the next thing I said and was ready.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because we don’t give a shit what’s going on with you right now. Mama’s sick.”
That stops me in my tracks. I’m halfway to the living room.
“Margherita’s sick? As in really bad flu or looking at types of treatment sick?”
“The latter. We found out three days ago Mama has breast cancer. We have more important things going on in the family right now than listening to your lawyer making dinner or ordering take out. We know her reputation. She wouldn’t be discussing a case over the phone in a hotel room after work hours. She might send some emails and shit. Read files. But she wouldn’t meet you there, and she wouldn’t be chatting with anyone about things she can’t divulge. If she’s seeing someone, we don’t need to listen to them having sex.”
“So, you might be off the hook for the bugs, but that doesn’t make you off the hook for fucking me over and framing me.”
There’s no response to that since it isn’t a question. Whether the Cartel is behind the trumped-up charges or not, I’m not wrong. Margherita being sick and the Cartel not being interested in my lawyer’s personal life doesn’t mean the Colombians couldn’t be responsible.
“I just called to let you know we didn’t bug her place, and I don’t know who did. If you want Armando and Manny to look into it, I can tell them to. We’d do it as a gesture of good will since Ms. O’Malley is no longer one of our principals.”
I’m certain Sinead’s firm didn’t fire Enrique’s security team altogether. They just relieved them of guarding Sinead. That’s fine with me. As for a gesture of good will, the Cartel’s been showing us more of that lately than I’m comfortable with. They’re not going soft. Just the opposite. I’m waiting for them to turn it on us and demand something in return.
“If your curiosity won’t let it go, then by all means, go ahead. But I’m not accepting favors from you, Pablo.”
“Consider it a favor to Ms. O’Malley.”
“Nope. You wouldn’t do her a favor unless you believed you’d get something in return from me. You don’t know her. She was your company’s principal for a hot second, so there’s no loyalty or guilt to make you do it.”
