AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What’s he looking for?” I ask.
Corrado disappears from view, but returns shortly with a fire poker that he uses to break into Father’s locked drawers. Who needs a key when you can just break in?
Corrado looks up. From his angry expression, I take it he’s found nothing.
He marches out of the office. He yanks my mother up and presses her against the door, then backs away, clearly barely containing his anger. I understand him. I do. His brother was almost murdered, and it’s apparent to anyone who bothers to look that Corrado loves his family, particularly his older brother.
It’s also clear he thinks my mother knows something I don’t.
“Where is the Capone family ledger, Maria?”
We have a ledger?
“I don’t know,” my mother lies.
Corrado reaches for his weapon. This man doesn’t bluff, so I scream, “Wait! I’ll find it. Mom, what am I looking for?”
“I don’t know.”
“Damn it, Mom. Tell me!”
“A green leather-bound book,” Corrado says. “Your father carried it to Frenchy’s at the end of each month.”
“I know where it is.”
“Cristina,” my mother warns. “That’s the only leverage we have. They’ll kill us once they find it.”
“They who?”
“The Head Triad.”
I guess that’s what Severio and his siblings are called. The triad. Very fitting considering other criminal organizations are named triads too.
“I’ll give you the ledger if you swear to me you won’t hurt my mother.”
“I swear,” Corrado says immediately.
“He’s lying,” she spits.
“You have my word.”
“No,” my mother says. “I want a position in the Order. I can help clean up the mess, and you’ll need someone local to clean up the mess.”
“I have locals.”
“I know all of Gio’s political contacts. You’ll lose powerful ties when they figure out he’s disappeared. They’ll be asking for me.”
She doesn’t know Gio’s dead yet. I can see Corrado’s calculating now. She wasn’t involved in that, and she’s not lying about her position in Gio’s political career.
Corrado takes a moment too long.
I’m about to lose it when he says, “You have a deal.”
13
COOKIE MONSTER
CRISTINA
