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He rolls his eyes. After all, Charlotte is two years younger and Robert probably doesn’t share her enthusiasm for bird’s nests. But he gets to his feet and follows her to the corner of the yard.
I watch as Charlotte hops up and down and points excitedly. Robert humors her by peering between the branches.
Then Lita calls my name. A chill tickles the back of my neck. Part of that extra sensory twin talent perhaps. In any case, when I turn toward the patio, I’m unsurprised to see that some new guests have arrived.
One is Gage Silvestro. He stands with his arm slung protectively around his wife.
The other man is barely recognizable. Like his big brother, Estes was always strong and physically powerful. He now looks positively shrunken beside Conner. He still resembles my father, but it’s the version of my father that I last saw in the grey setting of a prison.
“Marino is breathing on me, girls.”
Lita waits uneasily to see what I’ll do.
She doesn’t need to worry. I stand up, brush the grass from my legs and walk with confidence, my head held high.
Estes Marchenko leans on a thick wooden cane and watches me with zero reaction.
I slip my hand into Conner’s and deliver a cool nod in my uncle’s direction. “Let’s go talk in the house. Lita, you should come too.”
Estes struggles with a limp that is obviously painful but he doesn’t need to walk far. We take seats at the kitchen table. I sit across from him, between Lita and Conner. No one sits at the head of the table.
My uncle’s expression has often been inscrutable. He might be thinking about what he’ll eat for dinner tonight or he might be plotting ways to disembowel someone who has annoyed him. Never can tell.
“You look like shit,” I say because it’s true and because I don’t have much appetite for useless small talk with a man I don’t trust.
The hollows in his cheeks are deep. He grins. “You’ve looked better yourself.” He glances at Lita, then back at me. “Damn, it’s nearly impossible to tell you two apart until you open your mouth.”
“True. I was always the bitchier twin. What do you want, Estes?”
He leans back in the chair with a grimace. A joint pops. He doesn’t seem insulted by the question. “Just wanted to check in with my family. What’s left of it, anyway.”
“As you can see, we’re healthy enough around here.”
“Heard you got bit by some snakes.”
“I did. One of them is dead and the other one will probably be dead soon. That’s what happens to snakes that bite.”
He nods. “Those two were always bad eggs. As for Desmond, someone ought to just put him out of his misery. You agree?”
“I don’t care. I’m out of the family business.”
Lita quietly rises from her chair. She heads to the kitchen and I assume she plans to offer our uncle some refreshments. I would have told her not to bother. The sooner he’s out of here the better. But she starts rummaging through a drawer beside the sink.
Estes clucks his tongue. “That’s too bad. I would have given you all of Essex Street.”
“No thanks. Maybe you ought to go back to the hospital. I could swear you’re about to pass out.”
His cough sounds dry and painful. “Still have some metal in my body. But now that I’m back in the states I’ll be getting that fixed. It wouldn’t be smart to bet against me, girl. And you were always smart.”
“I won’t bet against you. I won’t be betting at all.”
Lita returns and retakes her seat before holding her hand out and dropping an object in the center of the table. It’s an insignia ring, with a thick M that trails off into a snake head. A gaudy emerald squats in the center.
“Sophie had it,” she says. “But Gage took it back and gave it to me.”
Estes picks the ring up with thin fingers and examines it. “Never thought I’d see this again.”
“It’s been through a journey.” I watch him slide the ring back on his finger. It’s too big now.
