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Luca lowers his voice even more. “Come on, Ritchie. When people talk about the big bad wolves of our world, what do they say?”
“On the West Coast, they say Dante is the devil. One of our couriers once saw him on a job. After, when they were waiting for cleanup, they saw him reading a book.Inferno. He called him the devil, but in a good way, like a fierce, righteous thing.”
It’s what Vito called me. I thought he was just being smart.
“See, Dante?” Luca looks at me. “Everybody knows who you are. They know you deserve respect. They know they can’t take what’s yours.”
Luca looks at me meaningfully; somehow, I know he’s talking about Mia. He can see the possession in me. He’s trying to give me a message. Maybe he’s telling me I could be out in the openwith Mia, and my name and reputation would be enough to carry me.
Ritchie relights his long-forgotten cigarette. He turns away, pacing up and down.
Luca walks over to me, lowering his voice so only I can hear. “Is she worth it, Dante?” he says.
“What—”
“Don’t bullshit me. You’ve always been a good man, but I need to know. You and Mia… Is it worth it? A possible war?”
I almost lie to him as a reflex. I never wanted to find somebody. I never wanted to care. “It’s just been a couple of days,” I say quietly.
“Don’t give me that,” he snaps. “You know who you’re talking to. I knew from day one.”
I swallow. “I don’t know how to answer that. I want her, but I can’t have her. I can’t have a wife. I can’t have a family. So I don’t know what it means.”
“What if another man wanted her?” Luca snaps. “What would you do then?”
I look at him coldly. “That would bring out a bad side of me.”
Luca nods. “That’s what I thought. You’re just trying to fight it, pretending that you’re, what, destined to be cold and alone forever? We’re all risking a lot.”
“I know, Luca, and I’m thankful for everything, but I don’t know how to explain. It’s just… It happened early for me.”
“What did?”
“Becoming dead inside.”
“Come on, brother. Don’t give me that. All of this wasn’t for nothing.”
“I had to do the right thing,” I say quietly.
Ritchie has wandered almost over to the other side of the lot. His cigarette smoke trails after him.
“He was going to hurt her. I could never let that happen. The second I saw her?—”
Luca grins like agotcha. I shake my head. “It’s not like that. Anyway, what am I supposed to do? Marry the mafia princess?”
“Would you want anybody else to?”
I curl my hand into a fist. I want to shoot my gun to release tension and relieve some of this fire. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
Luca shakes his head. “Yeah, okay, Dante. What’d you think I am, an idiot?”
Before I can reply, a car pulls up with tinted windows. Colt steps out. Luca turns toward his car. “I’ll get the cash.”
I wander over to Ritchie, standing close by him, watching him as he watches Mia climb from the car. Ritchie gets a sick, slick grin across his face like a twisted version of Vito returning from the grave. He leers at her as she approaches Luca.
Luca walks over to the tall, masked, dark figure of Colt and hands him a suitcase. Mia walks toward us as Colt turns away and gets into his car. I notice Ritchie twitching like he had a lot planned in his head, a bunch of grand schemes, but he gave uphis gun because he’s a coward. He looks at me, then motions to Mia with his eyebrows.
“We have a history,” he says with a smile. “Me and Mia. You’ll probably hear about it soon.” He smirks and then walks toward his car. “Meet at the house!” He calls out. “Tony Marino wants to see his kid.”
