“Think that would work?” Michael asks, seeming to come around to my way of thinking pretty quickly. “Trouble has a way of popping back up.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t speak to Leandro about this,” Michael says. I don’t want my heart to sink with disappointment, but I can feel my body caving. While I would prefer not to avenge Aricia alone, I’ll do it if I must.
“Understood.”
My mind churns with possibilities forhowI can get what I want without Michael. My efforts to hide my disappointment clearly are not entirely successful. Michael polishes off what little remained of his beer. I haven’t made much progress on the wine.
“I did not say that I wouldn’t help,” he says with a sigh, as if I regularly burden him with this type of shit. “What’s this woman’s name again?”
“Inessa Dabrowski.”
“What is she, Polish?”
“Or Ukrainian.”
“I don’t like the idea of leaving this matter open,” Michael says. “Even if Leandro doesn’t approve… Perhaps I can find a way to convince him.”
“Great. Think it would help if I talked to him too?”
I built up some good will with my Uncle Leandro by finding the law firm and getting us to the point where Gino most likely won’t see a day in court.
“No. Keep Aricia distracted. She’s a lawyer with a fiduciary duty to report the type of work we get up to if she becomes aware of it.”
Keep Aricia distracted… It sounds like an easy enough mission. She’s pregnant with my child, I love every second I spend with her, and I want what we have to last for the rest of my life.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gino
A Few Weeks Later
“You want me to whack a chick?” I can’t believe Peter’s asking me this considering I barely made it out of the trial with my freedom, and I have to admit that it might be a test. If it’s a test… pretty fucked up. And why would he bother asking me and not Renzo? I’m not exactly the type who makes chills run down women’s spines…
“Can you shut the fuck up?”
“You never had to see a day in court thanks to Aricia Plant. You owe her something.”
I take the first shot to break apart the balls and none of the balls sink. Peter calls solids since I put the purple one close to the edge of the table.Fuck.
“I thought we paid her a couple hundred grand,” I remind my cousin. “And I already got in trouble doing this sort of shit for dad. I need to lay low for a while.”
Peter sinks a couple balls and sends one stripe into the hole and most of my balls ricocheting across the table. Only a couple shots in and I’m already cooked.
“You do. I understand that,” Peter says. He hits orange and green solids into the bucket. There’s only one more left and the eight ball. Fuck. I shouldn’t even care about this game at all considering Peter’s asking me to whack somebody and this time, I’ll have to actually worry about getting caught because it won’t just be taking the fall for someone else.
Peter’s not done. “I know it’s hard to get respect in this family if you don’t give a fuck about all the politics.”
Everybody misunderstands my concerns. I care about politics, I just realize that the best way to survive in this damn family is by keeping your head down and staying out of trouble. The more you show my father or before he died, my uncle, what you’re willing to handle, the more it comes back to bite you in the ass.
The second I stuck my neck out for my father, I ended up having to sit in one lawyer’s meeting after another. How the hell am I supposed to date when my family is constantly up my ass about one thing or another? It’s… frustrating to say the least.
At the end of the day, I’m still a Taviani. And it’s in my best interests to keep my personal motivations to myself. You let other people in, they can use whatever you tell them against you. Do so at your own risk.
“I’ll help if it makes sense.”
“You mean if I pay you enough?”
