“No.” She bit her lip and shook her head. “I needed some space.”
“There’s enough of that between us.”
“You’re not mad that I left on my own?”
“No. I’m not mad.” I rolled my teeth over my bottom lip. “I’m livid.”
She watched me for a moment. The sun fell on her just right, and something in my heart twisted again. Her sweater showed the bulge of her growing stomach. I swallowed hard, ignoring the fact that my throat strained.
“You’re owed that,” she said.
“But nothing else.”
“No, that’s the problem. You’re owedeverything.”
I took a step toward her. She didn’t move. She stood her ground while my entire world rocked.
“You owe me nothing,” I said.
“Not even loyalty?”
“You give it if you want to.” I took another step toward her. This time she went right, toward the steps, and after I took a step up, she looked down at me. “I refuse to accept anything that’s not given anymore.”
“From me?”
“Only from you. I’ll take what I want from the rest of the world and not give a fuck. But you, if it’s good, I want you to give it, and once you do, never take it back.”
She nodded. “I didn’t come here to see—”
“It doesn’t matter.” In that moment, it didn’t. Being close to her again felt like living to me. Her absence in my life felt like death. True death. I knew the difference.
“It doesn’t?”
I stopped when I was right below her and fell to my knees on the steps. “I don’t bend. I don’t fucking break. I kneel for no mere man on this earth.” I didn’t look at her, so I used my fingers to guide me. I took her hips in my hands and rested my forehead against her stomach. “Except for you, Mariposa. You can bend me. You can break me. You are the only woman who has the power to bring me to my knees. I need your mercy.”
“You wounded me deep,” she whispered, a tear slipping down her cheek, landing on my arm. It wounded me deeper than the scar around my neck. It broke the heart I’d had no idea I had until her. “You should’ve told me. Why didn’t you?”
“This.” My voice was shredded. I held on to her tighter. “Us.”
She ran her hands through my hair, kissing the top of my head. “I love you, Capo. I’m so in love with you that it’s hard to breathe sometimes. You…crash into me and I want to be swept away. I don’t care if I drown in you.Per sempre. And I don’t love you because of loyalty either. I love you because I…just…love you.”
I looked up at her, and her eyes were so damn sincere. It wasn’t easy for her to say those words, but she did with a honeyed tongue. Maybe she thought she was hurting me again. Or maybe she was trying to heal something no one else ever could.
“I didn’t come here to run away from you, Capo. Keely wanted to give Harrison a gift that has been in her trunk for too long. I went inside because I had to use the bathroom. The baby.” She touched her stomach. “That’s it.”
“Have you seen that car before?” Her friend appeared from the side of the house, looking toward the street.
Mariposa and I both looked at the same time. It was a typical car, meaning nothing stood out about it, except for the tinted windows. I stood, keeping Mariposa behind me.
“No.” Mariposa peeked around me. “I haven’t.”
“I have,” Keely said. “It’s passed a few times.”
The window started to roll down.
“Down!” I roared. I pushed my wife to the ground, but her friend froze, watching as the gun pointed toward the house, about to spray bullets all over the front porch.
I jumped on her, bringing her down just as the first spray of bullets crashed into the house. From my place on the ground, I pulled out the gun from behind my back, aiming for the tires.
