"Come on. Let's go inside and show Marta the rosemary you collected."
Sofia takes his hand and they walk back toward the villa together.
I follow behind them and watch the way Sofia skips beside him.
The way she looks up at him with trust and affection.
The way he shortens his stride to match hers.
This is what I feared, what I tried to prevent by keeping Sofia away from him for six years.
She's falling in love with the idea of having a father.
And once she loves him, she won't want to leave.
He wants us to stay.
He wants to build a family with a woman he barely knows and a daughter he just met.
And the terrifying part is that some small part of me wants it too.
12
DANTE
The man I’m meeting tonight at a location so remote even I have to use GPS is one of my lower-level contacts.
Someone who moves small amounts of product and keeps his ear to the ground.
His name came up three times this week in connection with Antonelli Gerard.
I need to know if he's feeding information to my enemy or if he's just unlucky enough to keep showing up in the wrong places.
I'm not looking forward to learning I have a mole in my organization, but from everything I've heard, I don't think I'm walking out of this feeling better about things.
"Look lively, boys," I tell Rico and Enzo who came along just in case things go pear-shaped.
I don’t assume I'll need them, but they insisted.
Men like this, who want to protect me at all costs, are the type of men I need on my side and I'm thankful for them.
We park outside the warehouse and walk inside.
It's dark in here, but it's late.
No one works this time of night except for the snakes that slither in darkness, and some of them happen to work for me.
Vittore stands under a single bulb dangling from a chain with his hands folded in front of himself casually.
"Thank you for coming," I say.
"I didn't have much choice," he replies, and he’s right.
When the boss calls, you fucking show up.
At least he's that loyal and hasn’t run yet.
"You always have a choice. You could've run, but you're here, which means you want to explain yourself."
