I join in with the laughter but, once the fun has passed, I remember that both Gia and Matilde are leaving tomorrow and Sofia will leave before long as well. I can no longer relish the warmth of this golden day. I can only feel the invisible bars of my golden cage surrounding me, the cage that will be considerably lonelier once these girls are gone.
26
Alessio
Armando revs the engine of his Charger, answering the challenge of the kid beside us at the traffic light. “Ignore that pussy. It’s late and I want to go home.”
“Thisisthe way home. I can’t help it if we’re heading the same direction.”
The light turns green and Armando floors it, leaving the souped-up Kia in our dust. My best friend chuckles to himself for the first time in days. “Good to know you haven’t lost your competitive spirit.”
“It wasn’t much of a contest but no, I haven’t. So, are you still in trouble with your wife over Matilde leaving?”
“Mind your business and watch the road.”
Caterina had been unhappy over the new arrangement for Matilde. I’d made the mistake of dismissing her concerns when she’d been waiting on me to get home that night. An argument had soon begun. “As long as he lives, my father makes the decisions for Vegas. What do you want me to do, go againsthim over a girl we barely know? Do you think your brother will mistreat her?”
She knows better than that. She just wanted Matilde to stay, but the other girls will have their own lives to live.
Meanwhile, every day, my father grows more impatient over the fact my wife has no bruises and doesn’t tremble in fear every time I walk into the same room as her. I defy him for her. I can’t risk defying him for others. If he imagines I’m not as ruthless as he is, he might decide I’m unworthy to be his heir. He might decide to send someone to me. Not one of his favorites. Maybe my bastard brother, Nerio. He’d probably do anything the old man asked of him to advance himself. Or, it could be a friend, a man I trust. Fuck, it could even be Armando. It’s foolish to trust anyone completely in the mafia. And, if that should happen, then what would happen to my Caterina?
Her so-called silent treatment over our fight the following night had lasted approximately five minutes until I had her on her hands and knees as I ate her out on the floor. She came, of course, but she was still angry with me afterwards.“This is all you want from me. You don’t respect me,”she’d accused.
How can she say I don’t respect her when I’ve killed two men simply for speaking disrespectfully of her? Not that she knows about Lorenzo at all or knows the exact reason I decided Beso must die. But, I have tried my best to treat her with honor and protect her, haven’t I?
“Hell, she wears Beso’s fucking tooth around her throat as a warning that she will be brutally defended so long as I draw breath,” I grumble as we tear down the road toward home.
“Have you told her that in those terms?” Armando asks.
Women and words, they want so many of them. “Just fucking drive.”
My wife would be even more unhappy with me if she knew why my father had sent Matilde to Chicago.“Since you're strangelyreluctant to cooperate, I’ve decided there’s more than one way to get to Nico Morelli. The hand that rocks the cradle,”he’d told me, ominously.
I’m not sure what the hell he thinks the little mouse is going to do. The girl is no more a spy than she’s capable of hurting little children. And Nico is no fool. Father’s likely sent Matilde on a suicide mission and doesn’t even care. All he wants is his twisted version of revenge. Why should girls be made to pay for Nico’s act? And why does the thought of skinning Caterina’s big brother no longer hold the same appeal for me?
“Have you heard from your sister?” Armando asks, pulling me away from those thoughts.
“Which sister would that be, Armando?” He grumbles under his breath at my taunting. “No, I haven’t,” I finally answer.
I have known Armando nearly all my life, and he has never asked about any woman half as much as he’s asked about Gia since she left. I’m not going to call him out but, whatever was happening between them before she flew back to Chicago, it’s better that it’s ended. He’s an excellent soldier, and I will make him my right hand someday when I’m Capo, but my father would call it betrayal and put him down like a rabid dog for dishonoring his daughter. Then, he’d probably tell Barzetti about it so he could punish his wife.
I close my eyes as the lights of the Strip continue to whip past us, thinking of that night with Caterina. How her eyes sparkled seeing the fountain and then the stars. Something about being with her, I’ve never felt such peace.
As we get closer to home, I focus on business and think over this evening some more. There was a meeting with all the Trio’s underbosses and the captains in our territory and a later one for the very top men, my father’s inner circle. He isn’t happy with me, and he made that evident to everyone tonight by pointedly not inviting me to that second meeting. I went anyway. I’m stillhis heir. The fact that I’m not torturing my wife as he wishes doesn’t change that fact.
“If only Bibi would slip a little arsenic into his coffee,” I muse.
“Alessio…”
“Yes, I know. I’d be forced to punish her.” I detest Bibi but killing a Capo brings harsh consequences, and I don’t wish to kill her any more than I want to look at her. “How was Caterina earlier when you saw her?” I ask, hating that Armando has seen more of her lately than I have.
“Too much time by the pool left her sunburnt today.”
“You’re not supposed to notice my wife’s body.”
He smirks before sobering again. “She’s still sad.”
It’s like a blade in my guts having my friend confirm what I knew. My wife is lonely and misses her companions. Sofia left for New York the day before yesterday to spend time with the women of the Vicini family before the wedding this Saturday. Gia and the little mouse are gone and Frankie’s still in Reno.
