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“What’s gotten into you?” A smile forms against her will.
“Life, Ellie. I was sure that night a week ago would’ve been my last… and not before eight hours of torture first. That fat fuck I pummeled into hell – Tony the Keg – had a ripe appetite for savoring his kills. But you intervened.” I kiss her in appreciation. She looks away in shame, or remorse, I can’t tell. She’s so distant. “I know you’re not a killer, Ellie. It was a tough choice to come back and risk yourself. But this guy right here is happy you did.”
It takes a few seconds, but eventually she eyes me with a shadow of a smile.
“There she is.” I whip her in a circle and turn on Frank Sinatra. The hour is late, and it’ll probably wake Sabrina, but my woman needs a pick-me-up.
To my dismay, ‘When I was Seventeen’ comes on, and she starts balling on the spot. I stop the slow-dance for a tight hug.
“I—my dad used to play this song when we were kids. Me and Marty.”
My lips fold into a line. What am I supposed to do for her? This… comforting thing… was never a forte of mine. But she learned to kill for me, so I have to do my best.
I stroke her hair as her tears wet my dress shirt. “You know, sometimes it helps me to think of all the shit things the person did. Works when I think of my father.” She buries her head deeper in my chest. “Tell me again what he did to your father.”
She sniffs and looks up at me. “He framed him. I know he did.”
“How?” I prod, keeping my ulterior motive close to my chest.
She shakes her head, getting angry. “Same way he almost killed you.”
“Paul?”
She nods. “I only figured it out for sure when I saw him with Marty that night with the Russians. How convenient that the cops knew exactly where to find my father’s gold bars after the heist. How convenient they were there waiting, as soon as the job was done.”
“So, your brother got rich by stealing most of that gold and pinning the job on your pops.”
“The swiftest dollar he ever made, and an automatic claim to fame. Then he took out Uncle Rocky and blamed it on the Lucrazis.”
“That sounds like a stretch. Rocky Rigiano was no dummy.”
“Neither was my brother. Cost him millions to get that hit out. How do I know? He laughed about it to the guy he killed, right before he pulled the trigger. That was the murder I was almost arrested as an accomplice for. That man wriggles out of everything and leaves a trail of gasoline in his wake.”
“Not anymore.”
She frowns, and I want nothing more than to make sure she never looks so torn again.
“C’mere. I got you something.”
“Hm?”
She looks so perfect in her low-cut nightgown. Her breasts bounce just so when she follows me. I hold up my hand for her to stop, and spin around with a bouquet of roses I hid in the cabinet. The bit of surprised joy in her eyes is enough to make me keep trying.
“I’ll be paying you back for a long time, rabbit. And I’ll love every second of it.”
Chapter 20
Donny
A few days later I head back to Iconn Prison far upstate. I hope enough time has passed for the Shadow to cool, because I plan on using every ounce of Ellie’s intel to win him over. Is it a dirty use of her grief? Definitely. But it’s for a good cause.
I go through the process of checking in, and this time I put myself down as E. Rigiano so I can head into the family visitation rights section. No glass partition. No nothing. He can come at me with his straight-edge if he really wants to.
A risky move. But I need to try.
There’s been talk of hits against my main crew, and Sal hunkered himself down into a bunker with an automatic rifle out of paranoia. It’s time to end the chaos. The headless Rigiano family out for revenge… It’s got to stop.
The Shadow’s strutting around in a black jumpsuit this time. His chin is held high, and his nostrils are periodically flaring.
