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“I think you’ll learn to live in a world without him, and it will be your new normal, but when you stop to think of everything you’re missing without him, it’ll never feel okay.” I turned to him and stepped between his legs. “But that’s okay. It’s part of the grieving process.”
He placed a hand on my lower back, just above my ass. “What about you? Have you grieved your mom?”
The answer came instantly.
“No. It’s why I want you to grieve Vince because torturing yourself like I do… it rips something from your soul.” I didn’t want the pain I felt for Bastian. I sighed when I remembered the drink I had to get Renata. “I’m supposed to be grabbing the Macallan.”
Bastian pressed a kiss to my lips before releasing me. I dug through the bottles for the Macallan, and by the time I found it, he was gone.
I took it up to the bar, poured Renata a glass, and slid it to her. She tipped me six one-hundred-dollar bills, then wandered down the bar as Damian walked in.
I forced my breaths to level as he approached me, settling in the gap between a bulky enforcer and an overly made up mafia wife.
“Ms. De Luca. Penny for your thoughts?”
Hearing him say our last name so casually had me coiled for a fight. Goosebumps dotted my skin. The hair on the back of my neck might have been raised.
My limbs had tensed to the point where it was difficult to move.
I ran a rag across the bar top then poured him a beer on tap, though he hadn’t ordered. I just needed something to do to expend my nerves.
“I like to think they’re worth more than that.”
“A barter it is.” His voice dipped lower. “I’ve had one hell of a month or two. Giovanni Romano has been asking about a girl poking around his territory. Imagine my surprise when my last name slipped past his lips.”
Gio had been asking about me?
I dug my heels into the ground, doing my best to force my anxiety out of me. “It’s just a last name.”
“Cut the shit, De Luca.” He had a hard glint to his eyes, one that didn’t surprise me in a man who’d dethroned his own father. “You share my last name, yet I’ve never heard of you. Why is that?”
I worked my mind for a way to deflect. He’d basically just warned me Gio had asked around about me, so I latched onto it.
“Why would you give me a heads up about Giovanni?”
“Answer the question, or I’ll answer it for you, and you won’t like my answer.”
The enforcer to Damian’s left shifted, and Damian turned to glance at him. Renata and Damian made eye contact past the enforcer.
I shifted my eyes between the two of them, knowing this was my opportunity to slip away to the other end of the bar.
My eyes caught Monica at the door as she waved at Dana’s oblivious replacement. I couldn’t catch a fucking break.
Bastian stared at me from his booth, so I bit back my curse and smiled at him. He studied me for a moment longer before turning back to answer something Asher had said.
I racked my mind for a way to play damage control as Monica strode right to Lucy’s table. She sat in the center with her best friend Aimee and Niccolaio’s girlfriend Minka.
I couldn’t hear what she said from here, but Monica waved her hands in wild gestures, her angry eyes squinting and her blonde hair falling from her top bun.
This would escalate before anyone even noticed she was here. Instinct made the decision for me.
I slid out from behind the bar and sped my way to them. Monica was raising her hand, and I caught it just before she slapped Lucy.
The silence descending on the bar unnerved me as I released Monica’s wrist. We had everyone’s attention.
Every dangerous mafia caporegime.
Every enforcer.
