Page 58 of Thin Lives

It didn’t make it better.

Calisto took another step backward.

“Wait,” Emma pleaded.

“I have to go.”

“You told me you would always stay if I just asked, Cal. I’m asking. I asked once before and you didn’t stay then, either. Something terrible happened. Please just wait.”

He couldn’t.

He’d made a terrible mistake.

“I’m sorry,” Calisto said before he turned on his heel.

He couldn’t get out of the house fast enough.

Calisto buttoned his blazer as he walked past the well-dressed man holding the restaurant door open for him. Inside, a waiting woman offered to take his things and check them into the coat room, but he refused her offer. With Ray at his back, and Wolf Puzza—one of the only Donati Capos that Calisto actually trusted—behind Ray, Calisto strolled further into the restaurant until he was standing in front of a woman with a tablet in her hands and a Bluetooth ear piece attached to the side of her head that she was chatting into.

He waited her out, but couldn’t help the restless feeling settling deep into the pit of his bones. While a part of his mind was on his uncle, another part of it was somewhere else entirely.

Somewhere it shouldn’t be.

Emma.

Ray stepped up beside Calisto, offering a pointed look at Calisto’s drumming fingers. He stopped the fidgeting almost instantly, not wanting to give away his inner turmoil.

“Sir?”

Calisto’s head shot up at the young woman’s question. “Yes?”

“Donati, right?” she asked.

He wasn’t even surprised that she had been forewarned he was coming with his people. This meeting had been a long time coming, and Affonso had purposely avoided it as much as he could. Despite their Cosa Nostra family being steeped in tradition, Affonso greatly disliked working with other syndicates.

Sometimes, shit just couldn’t be helped.

The Donati family wasn’t the dominating family in New York. That wasn’t to say they didn’t have power—they did, to an extent. But there was always someone bigger and better waiting in the wings.

Everyone answered to someone else in this world.

Affonso Donati was no exception.

“Yes, that’s me,” Calisto told the woman.

She offered him a thin smile and a wave as she stepped away from her podium, a finger pressed against the Bluetooth in her ear. “This way, please. The Marcellos are waiting.”

Wonderful.

Calisto took the lead as he walked behind the woman, letting Ray and Wolf trail behind him once again. He wanted his position when ranked against the other men he had brought along to the meeting to be known as the highest position.

There was no need to confuse anyone, or lead them on, for that matter. He didn’t think the Marcello family would appreciate having to deal with wondering which one of the Donati men was heading the family while their boss was in recovery. It was never good to play those kinds of games, after all.

Affonso was down and out, and so, Calisto took the lead.

For now.

After a short walk through the main section of the restaurant where the rest of the patrons were enjoying their meals, the woman guided Calisto and his men into a private area where four men, and surprisingly, a woman, was waiting. The moment Calisto’s arrival was announced, the woman who had directed them to the room, turned on her heel and left without so much as a word.