Page 129 of Mercenary
Instead of staying awake, he fought them off in his sleep. Tossing and turning. Saying things I could not understand. Waking up ringing wet with sweat, like he had been to war in his dreams.
His conscience had caught up to him, and the life he left behind never truly left him. It pulled at him like strings to a puppet, demanding that he claim his part again as the puppet master. And his conscience pulled him in a different direction—toward redemption.
“The moon will be full tonight.” I smiled up at him. “The grove will be ours.”
“I look forward to the madness,” he said, leaning down to kiss me. “When the witch comes out in you.”
I laughed in his arms and then sighed. “We will stay out until morning,” I said. “Until we have to leave. Then we will eat breakfast out on the terrace.”
“A new day,” he said. “The weather will be cooler.”
“Is this the ending you imagined?” I pulled his arms even closer, wishing we could walk around as one instead of two. Maybe Uncle Tito was right. We did walk around as one—his body and my heart. Each day I fell harder and deeper in love with him.
A thousand lifetimes wouldn’t be enough.
He took a minute to answer. “No,” he said.
“Papà! Mamma!”
We turned to look at our three children running toward us. Alessandro smiled, and his Ele returned it.
It took her a little time, but her smile was mostly reserved for herpapà.She lived up to her name,light, when she smiled that way for him.
They circled us, showing us the blood orange they had found, how big it was.Alessandro wrapped his arm around Ele. I pulled Alessandra closer. Orlando stuck himself in between, trying to wrap his arms around all of us. He was grunting, trying to make his arms grow.
I laughed, the sound of it echoing around the groves, as a breeze rustled the trees.
My husband looked at me and grinned. “Now it is.”
Extended Epilogue
“You can’t get away from me!” Anna said, jumping in front of us with a camera. “On the count of three!”
“One!” Ele shouted.
“Two!” Alessandra held up two fingers.
“Tre!” Orlando said, reaching for the bucket, which I refused to let go of.
We all looked at the camera and smiled.
“Wait!” Mari said, coming to stand next to her brother, her entire family surrounding her. “Us, too!”
“Alla famiglia!” Anna said, bringing the camera up to her eye once more.
“Alla famiglia!” we shouted before she took the picture.
“Now, let’s eat!” Donatello “Lima Bean” said, passing us by. “I’m starving.”
The End
Yeah, I claimed the name.
Who gives a fuck?
After all, a name is just letters strung together to make a word.
I know who I am.
I’ll always be a Don—the boss of this thing we called our life.
