Page 109 of Mafia King
“Don’t you think you’ll be a little busy?” He glances at me, then back at the road. “Someone put a flea in my ear”—he winks—“that there are two people sitting next to me?”
My giggle is only half fake. “Well, it’s early, but… yes!”
“A wedding and a baby! We are truly blessed.”
“Yep.” It’s really easy to sound chipper and excited as long as I focus on my baby and not Gia’s wedding. This whole thing’s going to be a piece of cake. “So she brought a lot of things back?”
Marco blows his cheeks and exhales, flipping his hand up. “I’ll tell you one thing. She’s already got spending her husband’s money down to a science.”
Good for her.
We’re at the light before we turn onto the bridge when Marco curses. “Cazzo!”
“What?”
“You don’t happen to have the brooch my wife gave to you?”
“It’s home.”
“Gia was very clear. She said she wanted you to bring it for her ‘something borrowed,’ and I forgot.Che stupido.”
“We can grab it on the way back.”
“Yes. Good.” He seems to wave it off, then reconsiders. “I don’t know. She’s been so emotional. Paola says so. Crying over everything like it’s the end of the world. And she said clearly to bring it, but… nah. She has to toughen up.”
Even though I know the marriage will be out the window by tomorrow, I don’t want Gia to accept things she doesn’t want, ever. I also don’t want her to be upset or distracted while I do my song and dance.
“Let’s go get it,” I say. “We have five minutes to spare.”
* * *
When we getto the gate and it doesn’t open right away, I remember Armando is gone. I can either lean over Santino’s uncle and punch the keys, or I can tell him the code.
“Keep it running.” I’m out of the car before he even says a word. “It’ll take a half a second!”
I run around the front and punch in the numbers. The gate opens. As I run down the driveway, the sound of the Buick gets quiet in the distance. If he even puts it into park, I don’t hear it in the time it takes me to put in the door code and run into the house, up the stairs, and into the room I keep as my own, even as I sleep in Santino’s. I open the top drawer of the ugly dresser that was owned by an ugly man, and I dig around for the brooch, then remember I left it in the bathroom.
I slap open the jewelry box in the bathroom. Find the brooch face down against the green velvet lining the drawer.
Wouldn’t it be nice if she saw it on me? And I offered it before she asked? No matter what happens after that, we’ll have a moment where we both wanted the same thing and I gave it to her before she asked.
I swing open the gold latch behind the pin, and before I have a chance to lift my head, a voice comes from behind me.
“Happy birthday.” When I look in the mirror, I’m face to face with Damiano Orolio. “If I were you, I wouldn’t move.”
But he’s not me, and he’s not supposed to be here. He’s supposed to be at the River Heights house, so I turn to him. I don’t make it all the way around before he has me painfully by the hair, driving me to my knees.
“I told you,” he says.
“Let me go!” I drop the brooch and clutch for the place where my scalp feels as if it’s being torn off, but he’s shaking me so hard I can’t get a grip.
“Sure.”
I’m launched into the bedroom. Sliding over the slippery floor, my lower back smacks into the corner of a bed leg. The pain is a wake-up call. I need to be faster, stronger, and more afraid.
“I’ll let you go.” I start to get up, but he throws me down, pressing his knee to my back. “When I have what I want, I’ll let you go to the bottom of the fucking river.”
He tugs at my left elbow, and for a second, I can’t figure out what he’s doing. Then I realize my arm is under me, and his weight on my back is keeping it there.
