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“They’re searching for the Burke sisters. They want to settle the score of the boy.”
“Is that really all they want? I can’t help but think they want more than that. They want to provoke us, and the question is, why now? We’ve been killing them off for months. Why are they escalating now?”
“Maybe they smell an opportunity. There’s a dead body and a witness who can point the finger at the family.”
I nodded. “Exactly. It seems like someone smarter has taken over Castillo operations. They might be emerging as a real threat, and we don’t take real threats lightly.”
“I’ll step up surveillance on their areas. Maybe we can get a face for this new mastermind.”
“Once we do, we stop holding back. How are the other plans coming?”
Elio sighed. “If you’re asking how your fiancée handled her dress fitting, badly would be the answer. I don’t think you’re going to have a smiling, blushing bride tomorrow. It probably wasn’t a good idea to invite so many prominent people.”
“When the head of the family gets married, everyone should know. Take plenty of pictures for Salvatore to frame back in Napoli.”
Elio chuckled. “If you’re planning on long wedding toasts, I’d dial it down. She might actually stab you.”
I nodded. “She might, but then she’d be the one responsible for patching me up, so I’m sure she wouldn’t do anything too terrible. She values human life too much.”
“Even yours?”
“I’m willing to bet my life on it.”
Elio grinned. “Literally, in this case.”
“How are the renovations coming?”
Elio grimaced. “The nursery is proving tough. It could use a woman’s touch. This house doesn’t exactly lend itself to baby colors.”
“Get Carmella’s help. And the master suite?”
“The walk-in closet is done, and the bathroom.”
“Very good. You know, if this gangster thing doesn’t work out, you can always take up a side gig as a contractor.”
“With all due respect, fuck you.”
“Apologies. You know I’ll never let you work a side hustle. We’re too old for that. What about the other thing? The college thing?”
Elio blew out a long breath. “Giada inquired. Apparently, she can change her program into a full-time one, even at this late stage, and finish it up quickly. After that, she’ll be placed in a hospital. Giada can make sure she ends up at St. Roberta’s, not far from here. Twenty minutes max.”
“Okay. You can go.” I turned to my laptop and opened the lid.
Elio headed for the door. He paused on the threshold. “You’re in a good mood today,” he observed.
“Am I?”
He was quiet for a moment, and his tone was curious when he broke the silence. “Are you really going to let her finish school?”
I shrugged. “Why not? She’s a capable, intelligent woman. Why deny the world that? As long as she’s coming home to me, I don’t care. And as long as she works with a protection detail in the hospital, then what’s the harm?”
My mother’s face ran through my mind. She’d had so much to give, and instead she’d wasted away. The world had been darker without her light. My life had been darker. My sister, too, an artist who had nearly faded away in the jail-like environment my father had fostered in Casa Nera. A little bird with clipped wings, flapping in her cage but never breaking free, not until she’d met a man who would have died to set her free. A man who had broken every single rule there was to save her. My brother-in-law was a lot of things, but no one in their right mind could deny his devotion. I understood him better than I’d ever understood my father.
When something was precious, you took care of it, and people were the most precious, irreplaceable things of all.
Elio frowned at me. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were actually falling for this woman and not just solving a problem.”
“Psychoanalyze me on your own time. Get back to work.”
