My eyes narrow. “I have some ideas.”
“Excellent.” He brushes past me, heading for the stairs. “Let me know when we’re leaving, won’t you?”
I resist the urge to snap back at him as he jumps the steps two at a time. Alessia’s laughter trickles down to us before a door slams upstairs.
“My mother returns in two days.” Luc gets to his feet as well. “That gives us two days to pull everything we need together. Work on the details.”
“I need Cat for a few hours tomorrow afternoon.” Dom’s face doesn’t change when I turn, but he crosses his arms. “It’s not negotiable.”
I scan his face. His gray eyes deepen as he meets my look with a steely one of his own. “Not negotiable.”
My lip twitches upward. “Okay, then.”
Everyone disperses, but I watch as Luc sits down on the step again. When I approach, he doesn’t look at me. “I left her behind to face that, Cat.”
“She made a decision,” I say softly. “She knew what she was risking, Luc, and she made the choice anyway. There was nothing you could have done that wouldn’t have ended up with all three of you paying the price.”
Luc and Alessia would not have gotten out if it weren’t for Amie. And I am grateful, more grateful than I can ever form words for, that she made that choice rather than risk their safety.
“Sometimes,” I study the floor. “I wish we could just… go. Leave it all behind, Luc. The fighting, the politics – just fuck it all and go somewhere peaceful, where the Cosa Nostra is just a story.”
His attention lingers on me. “Is that something you want?”
“It would be easier,” I admit. “But the people we would leave behind – the fighting that would break out. I couldn’t do that to them. But we can be better, Luc. The Cosa Nostra used to stand for something more than just a power grab.”
Family. Loyalty. Honour.
“A better world,” he murmurs. “How altruistic of you, little crow.”
There will always be power. But what you do with it – how you use it – thatmatters. More than I ever realised.
“That’s what I want,” I say quietly. “A better world.”
18 – Dante
Ilay on my back, staring at the ceiling.
Soft, sniffling snores fill the air, and I look down at Alessia. She curls against my side, her face hidden by her wild curls and her thumb slack in her mouth.
I thought I knew what this would feel like. WhatIwould feel like, when I finally laid eyes on her. But this feeling – it threatens to overwhelm me, even now.
The only thing missing is Cat.
I trace my finger over her hair. “Your mother is the most stubborn woman in the world,tesoro mio. Always making me hunt her down.”
Careful not to wake her, I slide my hands beneath her sleeping form, lifting her into the cot Luc and I put together. I take a moment to fiddle with the screen next to it, slipping the monitor into my pocket.
The house is quiet as I move through. Dinner was subdued, all of us lost to our own thoughts. Even Luc was silent, his face grim as he ate before excusing himself.
This war is taking its toll. Continues to take it, even now, when we are back together. When Cat is back.
I search until I reach the small set of steps on the far side of the courtyard. They stagger down, leading directly into the sea.
And several feet out, Cat is floating, her hair a halo around her as she stares up at the sky.
She knows I’m here. I can tell by the stiffness of her expression as I toe off my shoes. My clothes.
I leave my underwear on, wading into the water.
