Page 54 of Bene

“Exactly.”

“A lot more.”

Perfect.

To her, that spelled bad things. More risks she would have to take, and time spent with Bene. Not that time with him bothered her, as it was quite the opposite. The more time she had with him … well, the stranger her feelings about him became.

Playing with fire, Vanna.

“Has the twin figured out who you are yet?” the detective asked. “Because that would be bad, and you’d have to step back immediately. If he does, tell me. I can get you into a program, as long as we have enough information to lawfully go against the Guzzi organization, that will keep you safe. It could mean starting over … from everything, including Camorra.”

Yeah.

He’d made that offer before.

Did she want to take it?

“He hasn’t figured it out, right?”

Vanna pushed away from the wall. “No.”

“Then, you’re all set.”

Was she?

Vanna didn’t know about that.

She left the detective sitting alone on the bench.

Her thoughts kept her company.

Bene’s father had a habit of calling his men together just to remind them that he could do it, for no other reason than he wanted to. Oh, sure, business was always had at these meetings with Gian leading the conversation, but it was more a flex of his father’s power and position as the Don of the family than anything else.

Sometimes, Bene had attended the meetings before just because he could, or his father extended an invitation. Now that he was made, however, he didn’t have a choice but to attend even if he was supposed to be across the city, picking up payments for a Capo.

While his father chatted on with one of the family Capos, discussing the recent takeover of yet another maple syrup farm that they would use to launder money, as well as make money, Bene stood between his brothers. He stayed quiet because he didn’t have anything to add to a conversation he didn’t know very much about, and like the other made men around his father’s office, he hadn’t been invited into the discussion.

Between Mafiosi, it was all about knowing one’s place.

Respect was most important.

“How’s Beni doing in Chicago?”

Bene tipped his head sideways toward Chris, an acknowledgement that he did, in fact, hear his brother’s question. “Good, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“He’s busy; me too.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Bene didn’t miss the way Chris’s brow dipped before he shot Marcus a questioning look. Marcus, to his benefit, only shrugged as though he didn’t have anything to say. “Corrado runs back and forth between Vegas and New York every other week, and my wife is pregnant … we still find time to call each other once a day.”

Huh.

It seemed Bene had missed a lot of things happening around him while he was stuck inside his head, trying to deal with his problems. A part of him felt like shit about it, sure, but the other part simply felt like he should just move on, and be done with it. Do better now because nothing could fix the past. Right?

“How far along?” Bene asked.

“Six weeks,” Chris returned.