“Words are worth more than money.”
“Words are free, Capo.This is costing me nothing. See? There is no little man running around with a collection jar, screaming, ‘Tab! You have a tab!’ There is no tab for words.”
“Both questions are for me and I’m sure it’ll cost mesomething.”
“You don’t have one for me?” That was about right. He knew everything about me. And what he didn’t? It didn’t matter. I was boring. All I did was survive. I hadn’t even had sex until him.
He studied my face for a moment. “Actually. I do have a question.”
“Just one?”
“Uno.”
All right, I mentally rubbed my hands together like a villain in a romantic novel. I had a bargaining chip. “For your one question, about me, I can ask you more than two, as long as they don’t cross any invisible lines. And I go last.”
“Twenty fucking questions.” He sighed. Then he dipped down and took my nipple in his mouth, and as his tongue did really magical things to me, I pushed against him. My lower stomach contracted, and immediately, the ache between my legs started to make me feel sensitive all over. He bit me, hard, and I pulled his hair. He released me suddenly. “Ask.”
“What?” I panted. “Now?”
He chuckled and told me to stop pouting. “You wanted to do this. Play this ridiculous game of info hunting.”
“I do.” I lifted up, resting on my elbow, facing him. My nipples tingled, craving the friction against his chest, but I soldiered on. “Have you ever been in love?”
“No. Next.”
“Wait. Wait.” I held a hand up. “That’s it? No?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “That question deserves no more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.”
I waved a hand, dismissing his clipped tone. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Gold.”
My questions continued in this vein for a while. I kept the questions basic, because after the first one, I knew he’d say that I tripped some invisible line and use it to get to my question. I was saving the burning questions for last.
After I ran out of the basic ones, I asked, “Is your dad a bad man?”
I had seen pictures of his mother, was told stories of her, but no one had ever mentioned his father. It was like he was a hot subject that no one wanted to touch. I tried to bring him up with the sisters, but they refused to gossip about him, claiming that he was rotten, and that was all I needed to know.
He became quiet. “He’s not a bad man. He’s a bad soul.”
The intensity in his eyes made me turn mine away. I looked at the sheet, picking at nothing. “Is that why you’re so close to the Faustis? They treat you like family?”
What Keely had said to me before the wedding, about how lonely people find criminal crowds to get close to, came back to me. Was that what had happened to him? Was his father missing from his life? Abusive? So he ran to the Scarpone family? Then to the Faustis when that didn’t work out—when he refused to let them kill me?
From what I had learned about the Faustis, their word was as good as their blood, and if they took you into their fold, you were there for life, as long as you didn’t double cross them. They seemed exceptionally close to Capo.
Of course, Uncle Tito shared blood with Capo, and Uncle Tito was married to Lola Fausti, so there was a connection. But it seemed stronger than that. They were loyal to him. Just as loyal as he was to them.
It seemed…a little overkill to me, though. Why go looking for that kind of family, swearing fealty to them, when you had an amazing one, a real one, right at your fingertips?
“Use all of your words, Mariposa, since they cost so little.”
I breathed in and then out. “Do you…do illegal things for the Faustis?”
“Yes.” The word was clear-cut, but far from simple. “I have and I do. The Faustis were there for me during a really hard time in my life. They didn’t have to help me, but they did. I call the people on this land my family because I share blood with them, and they’ve never been anything but good to me and mine. Including you. The Faustis are my family because when I was in the trenches bleeding out, they sat beside the angel and promised me that vengeance would one day be mine.”
“You’d kill for them.”
