Page 55 of By Blade, I Love
“Everyone wants a place where they belong,” I said.
“Well, I’ve always been a lone wolf,” he said. “Until I found the first member of my pack.” He set his glass down and gave me that serious stare, claiming me with just a look.
The name Barsetti felt familiar to me the second I’d read it, but I couldn’t figure out where I recognized it from. But watching him drink the white wine in his glass helped me figure it out. “There’s a family in Tuscany with a pretty well-known winery called Barsetti Vineyards. I wonder if there’s any relation there.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me if there is.”
“You could learn more about your mother since you didn’t get that opportunity to do so yourself.”
He shrugged.
“Do you have any pictures of her?”
He shook his head.
“You might be able to find some?—”
“Baby.” He leaned slightly forward over the table and looked me dead in the eye. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I don’t need to connect with strangers to feel a sense of family. I don’t need to chase the memories of a ghost to know where I belong. You’re my family now, Francesca. My wife. My businesspartner. My boss. The mother of my future children. I don’t need anything else when I have you.”
Cristo, he made me melt into a puddle of tenderness. “Wolfe…”
He continued to stare at me with that look he never gave anyone else, like he could really see me, all of me, front to back. Everything else became a blur to him, when I was all that mattered. “I know how important your family is to you, but when your dad said his piece to you about me, you never turned your back on me. You didn’t even hesitate. He said he would never approve of me, accused me of being a rat, so much more…and your commitment never faltered. That kind of loyalty doesn’t come easily in life. It means the world to me that you always stood by me, when anyone else would have walked away.”
I didn’t have a doubt because he was the love of my life. He felt like family even when he was a stranger. He felt like home even when mine had been destroyed by gunfire and violence.
“You’re the only woman I could ever love, and that’s how I know God made you for me. You’re my ride-or-die. Toughest bitch I’ve ever met. Fearless and strong and passionate, and not to mention, fucking fiiiinnnneee as hell.”
He’d already made me cry earlier, and somehow he’d topped the most special moment of my life.
“I’m not angry at Don Russo anymore. If he hadn’t dismissed me, I wouldn’t have ended up here, and I wouldn’t have met my wife. It was meant to happen. I’m not the kind of guy to believe in bullshit fairy tales and nonsense like that, but I was meant to find you, Francesca Mancini. You’re the only family I was meant to find.”
16
WOLFE
We got the guns loaded into the back of the truck and then left the warehouse to deliver them to our buyer half an hour away. The drop was scheduled to take place in a warehouse.
I took my Range Rover, and Leo climbed into the passenger seat.
I followed the truck, and the two of us sat in silence. Another SUV was positioned in front of the truck, full of more armed guys to make sure we made the drop without interception.
It was the first time I’d been alone with Leo in a while, and even with the music coming from the radio, it was awkward as hell. Leo had tried to get into the other SUV, but he was the least popular guy at the vineyard, so he was shooed away like a stray dog that no one wanted.
I decided to be a nice guy and let him ride with me.
He hadn’t said more than a couple words to anyone since Francesca had let him come back. He knew how unwanted he was, but he continued to work there, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me. If it were me, I would move on to something else,make a new start. If he went to any other business in Sicily, they probably wouldn’t hire him because of what he’d done to his own father. Maybe that was why he continued to skulk around.
Halfway there, he said something. “You and my sister are engaged?”
I drove with one hand on the wheel, my other arm resting on the center console. “Yeah.”
He nodded and continued to look out the window.
I hoped that was the end of it.
“Congratulations.”
“Yeah, thanks.” It was the most half-assed congratulations I’d ever heard.
