He raised an eyebrow. “I know Max is fucking weird.” He shook his head. “Dad’s been amicable with them in the past, but obviously things got muddy once the Costas were involved. Why?”
“Something Denise told me isn’t sitting well.” I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair a little. “Apparently, Carmine Skully is Illiana’s right hand.”
Even Arturo, who remained mostly uninvolved in our lifestyle’s politics, leaned in with his brow furrowed. “What?”
“Yeah. It’s not just me, right? That’s abnormal.”
“She’s the most paranoid person around. She’d never let someone outside her pure family do it. The information is wrong.” He scoffed. “It’s Denise. She’s already trying to pull one over.”
“She’s not trying to pull one over,” I said. “She has no reason to lie about that. It doesn’t benefit her. Evenyouare smart enough to suspect that something’s off there. She wouldn’t be dumb enough to lie about it.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. Why would Illiana have Carmine and not one of her kids?”
I scratched the back of my head. “I don’t know. Denise was surprised by it too. Carmine probably had to actively vie for that position, and if Illiana gave it to him, there has to be a reason.”
“A lot of chatter going on in here,” my dad said as he came stomping into the room. “Ash, is that plan done yet?”
“I’m working on it, but I’m stuck.”
He scoffed. “Stuck? What the fuck does that mean? Just get it done.”
“It’s not that easy. I’m trying to make sure it’s fool-proof, but something Denise recently told me is causing me to hesitate.”
He tilted his head to the side. “She’s already being problematic?”
“No. Not like that.” It was so infuriating that both my dad and Arturo seemed committed to finding something wrong with Denise at every possible juncture. She wasn’t stupid enough to ross the Carducci’s when it’s the only thing keeping my dad from just killing her. I wished they would just trust my plan for a second and be more useful than harmful. “She told me that Carmine Skully is Illiana’s underboss.”
“It can’t be. Illiana’s not that dumb,” my dad responded.
“I know that. That’s why I’m hesitating.” I tapped at my keyboard, trying to force my brain to land on any logical explanation, but no matter how hard I tried, it just didn’t make sense to me. “She’s up to something. That’s the only thing I can think.”
My dad shrugged. “Or he is.”
“What do you mean?” Arturo and I asked in unison.
“That’s Illiana’s whole thing, right? That she thinks she has those kids under her thumb. What is Carmine’s actually working Illiana on behalf of his family and not the other way around?”
That was an oddly solid explanation from my dad, who was known for being more of a meathead. “Denise turned on her as soon as she found out about her creepy seed-children plan. Maybe Carmine did too.” I shook my head. “If that’s the case, though, that’s not good. Carmine will be highly suspicious of Denise, and if their paths cross in the wrong way, he could kill her.”
“If she can’t keep herself safe, that’s on her,” Arturo spat.
“Unless she rolls on us first,” my dad growled at him.
“Exactly,” I replied.
Arturo’s jaw dropped. “So you agree that she’d do something like that? This woman that you trust so much?”
“I believe that if Carmine Skully held a fucking gun to her head and told her to give up everything she has or lose her life, she’d be smart about it, and I wouldn’t blame her. She has no allegiance to anyone but herself at this point. No one’s really fought all that hard for her, so if she’s put in that position, it could be bad for all of us.”
My dad crossed his arms. “You need to get more information about it from her.”
Though I didn’t entirely intend to scoff, I did. “What do you expect her to do, go ask? The more questions she asks, the more suspicious she looks. It’s gonna take more time.”
With a couple of thundering steps toward me, my dad leaned down over me. “You just gave me a whole spiel about how you don’t think your little girlfriend would keep us secret if it would take her to the grave. To say I’m losing confidence in this plan of yours would be an understatement. On a good day, I’m thinking I should just kill her and get it over with. What do you think, Ash? Is she too much of a risk, or can she do the job we put her in the Costa household to do?”
My jaw hurt from how hard I was gritting my teeth. They were so ambivalent about what happened to her, which was why Denise was the way she was. If a single person in her life had stuck their neck out for her or been loyal to her, she’d be much less of a wild card. People like my dad and Arturo weren’t the type to negotiate, though, and if I wanted Denise alive, we were going to have to be a little more direct.
“She can do it,” I grumbled out through my clenched teeth.
