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“You are. For instance…” I turned to Bastian, who stared at me with such an intense look in his eyes, I had to look away. “Your brother, who is a big stubborn meanie—”
“I know.” She finally gave me a tiny smile. “He’s the biggest meanie, but I love him.”
“Well, you got your big, meanie brother to wear a unicorn tattoo on his face. I think that makes you the coolest girl ever, and if I could hang out with you every single day, I would.”
She gave her last sniffle. “Do you mean that?”
“Yes.”
Her shoulders straightened. “What about in outer space?”
“Duh.”
She held her head up and widened her eyes. “Underwater?”
“Of course.”
“At the movie theater?”
I quirked my head to the side and admitted, “I’ve never been.”
“You’ve never been to the movie theater?!” Her small gasp hitched on a hiccup, and my lips quirked up at the sound.
“Nope, but I’d love to go sometime. With someone special and as cool as you.”
I nudged her shoulder with mine, and her smile took over every inch of the room.
Bastian took that as his cue to walk our way.
Our eyes met as he took a seat on the other side of Tessie, his body brushing against my arm as he grabbed Tessie’s hand and intertwined his big fingers with her tiny ones.
His eyes said the words he’d never say out loud.
Thank you.
A temporary truce.
One more destructive than any fight we could ever have.
Chapter
Thirteen
Of two duties we must choose the greater, though of two sins we must choose neither.
RICHARD BAXTER
BASTIANO ROMANO
There weren’t too many people in the mafia community.
I lived in a big city, but my world was small. Though I didn’t understand normal, I understood this little world like the back of my hand.
My mom had never physically hurt anyone. Not with her own hands, at least.
But she’d been an absent mother at best and an unfaithful wife at worst.
She’d turned a blind eye to the countless number of times her family had harmed, injured, and killed people, regardless of whether they’d been guilty or not, and had even encouraged—though not ordered—a death or two.
