Lothario was even quieter when Luca called all his brothers to come to the stage and stand around him, along with his sons, which told me a great deal. Lothario had his chance to shake Luca’s hand and give a short speech himself, but he held his place in the crowd.
Accepting this for what it was with a subtle nod, Luca wished the guests a good time and made a toast to a hundred nights as spectacular as this one.
A chorus of “Saluti!” went up, and then the music began, and people started to dance in earnest.
“Lothario didn’t make a move,” Scarlett muttered, her eyes like stone on the stage. “What—” She swallowed hard. “What is he going to do?”
“You would know better than me,” I said with a sigh.
I had a feeling she did, if the tremble in her hands was anything to go by, and it was.
“Come.” I led her into the crowd. “If this night’s going to hell, we might as well dance before we get there.”
“Da—”
Her reply was drowned out by the music as I slid between people on the dance floor, moving her in rhythm to the fast tempo of the song.
Luca seemed to approve of this. He swung Maggie Beautiful out, the crowd parting for the new king and queen, and my brothers followed not long after, but I didn’t miss the looks they shot me.
The night was going to be long for us.
Scarlett mentioned the situation with Lothario a time or two as we danced, not able to truly feel it out, and she started to get frustrated. Since danger didn’t seem to be imminent, though, I told her to just enjoyme. Using her own words against her.
We danced well into the night.
Luca cut in, so did my brothers, Uncle Tito, and her father. She was the most popular woman on the floor. When Mitch cut in on a fast song, claiming she had danced with everyone but him—Is it because I stink?—Maggie Beautiful appeared and took the whiskey out of my hand. When a slow song started to play, she pulled me out onto the dance floor.
“Remember when I taught you how to dance?” she asked, blinking up at me.
I nodded. “Hard to forget when you tried to teach me how to dance to George Michael.”
“What’s wrong with George Michael?” She burst into laughter. “He’s the perfect mix between fast and slow. But I gave in! You were taught the proper way of things.”
“Yeah, it worked out.”
Her laughter tapered off as we swayed. She stared up at me, not releasing me from her intense gaze. She opened her mouth to speak, shut it, and then seemed to stand taller in my arms before she softened and sighed.
“Brando…” She seemed to be struggling with whatever she needed to say. She sighed again, this time long and heavy. Her breath was laced with something lemony. “I want you to stay away from whatever is going to happen tonight.”
We stopped moving, but she urged me to move again, not wanting to attract attention. She glanced at Luca to make sure he was occupied. He was moving Carmen on the dance floor.
“This discussion come up with him—?” I nodded in his direction.
“No.” She shook her head. “He doesn’t know how I feel about it. If he does, he doesn’t agree with my feelings. It’s bad enough that he’s in this deep. He refuses to see that this family canstand without the criminal side of things. It was the way of his father, his father’s father, and so forth. He can’t change, but you can.”
“I’m not him,” I said, my voice almost too harsh. “But I’m in too deep.”
“Never!” she hissed at me, her hands holding on tighter. “I fought for your freedom. I knew—I knew what his life had been, what it would always be. I actually wished, each day, every night, that you’d be a girl. I didn’t want this for you. I haven’t been the best mother, Brando. I know. But I gave him up. I did. For you. I stayed away from him so his family couldn’t use it against me to take you. It’s all I could do!”
“Until I was old enough to stand on my own two feet?”
She bit her lip, actually looking embarrassed. It was a rare look for her. “I couldn’t stand the separation any longer. No matter what he’s done, what he’ll do, I love him, Brando. I love him despite it all! It’s the kind of love a man like you should understand.”
“I do,” I said, meaning it. “And it’s not your fault. You’re right. You did right by me. You did the best you could.”
“Listento me,” she said, her eyes as fierce as her tone. “Stay away! Do you hear me? If not for me, if not for you, for the sake of your wife and children. Your wife needs her husband. Those babies need their father. Don’t you dare leave them like he left you.Thisis not worth it. I know what you did, for Scarlett, up in those mountains. That was justified. But you’re his son, and once you start, it becomes a craving in the blood. Do you hear me? It’s something not even he can control anymore. No one should know a man better than his wife. I’m his wife, and I know your father, son.”
She lifted her hand to touch my face. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. The wordpleaseseemed to be frozen on her lips, but not spoken aloud.
