Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“She must be made of something stronger to allow both of her sons to get mixed up with Cosa Nostra.”
“I think raising twin boys has made her realize there’s only so much she can do.”
He chuckled. “Smart woman.”
“Yeah.” I missed her. Missed everyone in Taormina. This place felt like home, but not in the way Taormina did.
“So does your mother know that Edric has joined the Skull King in Florence?”
I gave a slight shake of my head. “I highly doubt it. Not that she would know who that is . . . or what it means.”
“Between you and me, I’m glad Edric moved on to other things. He was always a stubborn hothead. But you . . . you’re easy. Think with your brain instead of your ego. If you say you’re going to do something, you do it. Simple as that.”
I’d started as a low-level henchman when Tommaso first brought me on, but I quickly proved my worth because I learned fast. Showed my value and my loyalty. When our enemies put hits on us, I never took off. I always stood my ground with those who wouldn’t betray Tommaso, and that got me promoted to the top of the organization almost overnight. I even took a shot for Tommaso once, and luckily, it was just a bullet graze.
“You’re one of us. He was always . . . temporary.”
I never said anything bad about my brother, even when he deserved it, but I didn’t get upset when people voiced their poor opinions. To be fair, Edric earned each and every one of them. “I haven’t seen him in a while.”
“Well, I have work for you in Florence, so maybe you should stop by and check in.”
“Yeah? Haven’t been there in a while.” Tommaso deployed me to lots of places—Florence, Rome, Milan, Athens, Paris—all to be his personal liaison when a conversation was important enough but he couldn’t be there himself. All on his dime, so it was a free trip for me. Not that I needed any handouts anymore. My pockets were lined with cash these days.
“You think you’ll settle down someday?”
The question was so random and unexpected, all I could do was stare.
“You know, take a wife.” He pulled a cigar out of his front pocket and lit up.
“I don’t know. Not really on my mind.” Not even in the slightest. And not because Isabella broke my heart, but because I simply lacked the desire. I was just riding the waves of life at the moment, not sure where they would take me.
“You don’t want kids and all that?”
“I don’t think beyond tomorrow, if I’m honest. Why?”
“Well, I think you would be a good match for my daughter, Aurora.”
Both of my eyebrows shot up in shock and disgust. “Isn’t she like seventeen?”
“Jesus, not now,” he said. “But in like ten years. You’ll be almost thirty-five, and she’ll be twenty-five. A good time for a man to settle down. I want my daughter to be with a man, you know. Not a hotheaded fuckboy. Someone who’s not afraid to do the shit everyone’s too scared to do. Someone who will take a bullet for her.”
I didn’t let my reaction get the best of me, understanding he’d just paid me an immense compliment. The boss thought I was good enough for his daughter, thought I was good enough to be his son-in-law. “We’ll see if I’m alive in ten years first.”
Tommaso chuckled, and I successfully averted that awkward crisis. “I think you will, Constantine.”
It had taken me a long time to get over Isabella. It wasn’t until we’d been broken up for eight months that I’d slept with someone for the first time. The heartbreak was hard to carry, because she was the only woman I’d ever loved and I’d really thought she’d be my wife. It wasn’t something you just brushed off like it meant nothing. But as time went on, it got easier . . . and easier. There’d been a lot of different women in my life at that point. Sex had become transactional. Hard to imagine ever feeling that way ever again, and I suspected I probably never would.
The waiter brought our dishes a moment later, and I cleaned one fish and placed it in front of Tommaso before I cleaned mine. Then we began to eat.
“I’m worried Edric is gonna get himself killed over there.” I said it more to myself than to Tommaso. A confession that kept me up into the night sometimes. Cosa Nostra might be a gang of criminals, but they were also a family, a big family business that ran a lot of operations. But their crimes didn’t really have any victims. But the Skull King . . . whole different enterprise.
“You should be worried.” Tommaso never minced words with me.
That was one of the reasons I liked him.