These men were always at war with unknown powers. I was always at war for my husband’s soul.
I’d be damned if I’d lose.
I stared at my husband hard enough that he was forced to look away from his brother to meet my eye. He nodded at me once, and I narrowed my eyes in return.
It wasn’t the time for me to truly feel him out, though. My mind was going in a few different directions, and I hoped he could follow my trails.How did Ettore slip past so many men? Who the hell hadlethim in?I had a hunch that it was someone in our group. Someone the other men took orders from.
“No one can absolve me of the sin—” Ettore reached in his pocket and used the clean side of the soiled rag to dab at his lips.
I wondered if I was the only one who noticed the crimson blossom beneath the folds? Smell the tang of iron in the air?
“— of killing my own father. For this, there is no penance. But I have come here today in peace. There is still no love lost between us, nephews.” He gave Brando a hard look. “The day will come when one of us will die at the other’s hands. That day is not today.
“Today we have forces that are threatening the very heart of the Fausti family. Throughout history, a few have tried—though never succeeded—but only when we had a weak head and heart. We must rise now, as a unit, as a ferocious body, and rip the heart from our enemies. We must make examples out of them.”
Uncle Tito’s eyes flicked to Brando’s. It was so subtle that only I had caught it. Brando stilled for a moment, absorbing Ettore’s words, his hands steepled underneath his chin, then they came to rest against his lips.
Finally, he sat back, opening a drawer in his desk, retrieving a manilla envelope. He slid it along his desk. Donato took it and handed it to Ettore. Brando was purposely not getting too close to the man—I knew if he did, things were going to take a turn for the worst, and fast. I could feel his limits as well as he could.
Ettore wasted no time in opening the folder. He pulled out a few black and white pictures, studying them. From what I could see, it was an older man, late sixties, with a paunch belly, giblet chin, built like a raging bull, with salt and pepper hair.
Eunice knocked once and then came in holding a bowl and a spoon. Mia noticed and started makinghah hah hahnoises, dancing in my arms.
“Here,” Eunice said, handing me the bowl. “I’ll take her.”
“No,” Ettore said, not even bothering to look at Eunice. “You will not. Her mamma will feed her.”
Eunice pursed her lips and looked at Brando. He nodded, and she did as she was told, leaving so quietly that the door made no noise as it closed behind her.
Mia settled in my arms, content on eating her sweet treat. She hummed when she ate something she particularly loved, her entire body full of beatific energy. Her face too.
Ettore lifted one of the pictures. “Giulio Cesare’s father. You have not gotten too close to Giulio himself? The man who threatens your wife?” Ettore looked up, meeting Brando’s eyes. “The lion did not kill him during theLudi. Now he is challenging you because he feels you are the next leader. If he takes your wife from you, the Fausti family will be defeated. We will not recover from such a thing. As it is, we will always have a stain on us from what happened in Sicily, when Giovi took her.”
“He will not take my wife from me,” Brando said, his voice deathly even. The vein in his head swelled.
I looked at Brando too. He hadn’t told me that he had found a name to go with the man who had sent the box to Burgess’s bar. The man who, apparently, wanted to strangle me with a rosary before burying me with roses. I almost wanted to send a note back and say,take a number, but I didn’t think that would go over so well. My husband was about to have a coronary as is.
Why hadn’t Brando told me he had found the man? Or had a name? Why did it matter if they had a picture of the man’s father? My brain was working too fast for my feelings. I realized, a beat too late, why it mattered. Someone in the Faustifamigliahad killed him in retribution for the threat on my life.
The steel hand was back, squeezing my throat and heart. Mia made noises at me, urging me to feed her more, and it took me a second to be able to.
“This is the first step,” Ettore said, handing the pictures back to Donato. “But for every one we kill, he will attempt to kill two.”
“Ew, ew, ew,” Mia sang, kicking her feet and attempting to put her fingers in the bowl. At this point she was done, only a bit of melted gelato left to lick, which she would, if she could get to it.
“We will discuss this in more detail next time,” Ettore said, rising with my arm in his hand. I had to rise too. He nodded at Brando. “Same as before. Your wife will walk me to my car.”
“Let me give Mia to Brando,” I said.
“No.” Ettore shook his head. He eyed the room. “You will both walk me out.”
He stuck the gun to my back again. “I did not want to do this, but I see the demons in your eyes, nephew. They will not rest until I am gone. Your wife and child will be my assurance that you will not kill me. Another time, ah?”
“I gave you my word,”Brando said.
Despite his words, we all saw it. His eyes were dilated from suppressed rage.
Ettore became very still for a moment, as still as cunningly calm water that hides a monster in its depths.“No,” he said at last. “Not even your word is enough to save me from the rage you are feeling. Your wife and child will come. Now you all must go out first, and we will follow. Once we are to the kitchen, continue outside, and then wait a safe distance away.”
