“That sounds so…I don’t even know, coming from your mouth.”
“That’s your name for it.”
She had names for just about everything. Who the fuck knew where they came from? Some of them were out there, no doubt their origins from the deep recesses of her imagination.
She shrugged, whether from my comment or what she did next. It was a riddle that was entirely hers. I gave her direction as she climbed onto the handlebars, her back and ass toward me. She laid her hands over mine once she was settled. I took off, and she gave awhoop!as we flew underneath the canopies of trees.
Her laughter seemed to reverberate once she relaxed some.
“Let go, Mariposa,” I said to her. “Spread your arms.”
Once she felt secure enough, slowly, hesitant at first, she opened her arms like she was flying. She laughed, but this time a little lower, almost like it was hers alone to keep. Something to remember if she ever found herself where she was before. Amid a battle for her life.
It was fucking heartbreaking.
I couldn’t promise her this. Life was unpredictable, especially the one I lived, and the most I could vow was that she’d always be taken care of if something happened to me, in a monetary sense.
As the trees opened and the forest spit us out, we could see Rosaria in the distance, close to the house.She held her phone in her hand, pointed at us, and when we were close enough, she brought it down.
Moments later, Mariposa got a text message, and a huge smile lit her face when she checked it. She showed it to me: the two of us exiting the woods, the butterfly before me learning how to live—how to use those growing wings.
Rosaria nodded at me, and I nodded back. Then she and her sister, along with the three men, boarded their yacht.
“What now, Capo?” Mariposa was breathless.
“Get dressed,” I said, nodding toward the house. “We’ll have dinner over the water tonight.”
12
MARI
As I sunk down into the deep tub, I wondered how many properties the Fausti family owned like this. How many yachts. How many cars. How many planes. I didn’t think it was a big secret about the yachts, cars, or planes, but what about secret places like this one? I had a feeling the knowledge would come at a high price, and not in the form of money. Their places were probably like all the sunken treasure beneath the sea—they existed, but the knowledge might be worth a life.
I had no idea what Capo did for the Fausti family, but I could easily guess if I wanted to play that game. I didn’t.
It was easy to tell that Capo and Rocco were somewhat close, and I really liked Rocco. His wife, Rosaria? Not so much. She’d always been friendly to me, but there were times I saw judgment in her eyes. Like she was comparing us and wondering why he’d married me. Then there was the way she looked at my husband.
She wanted him. Her sister did, too.
A fire that had nothing to do with the temperature of the water burned me from the inside. I wasn’t jealous of Rosaria, but her blatant staring pissed me off. It was rude, and I was relieved when they left.
The picture she took made a smile come to my face, though. I was going to have that one framed. I was thinking about where to put it in our place in New York when the song I’d been listening to on the yacht started playing again. I stopped scrubbing my skin with the soapy loofah and leaned a little to the side.
Capo had taken a shower and was in front of the mirror, towel around his waist, combing his hair back.
A smile I had no control over cracked my face. Earlier, his attention seemed to be elsewhere, and I had thought it had to do with Rosaria showing up unexpectedly. But before my bath, he’d said something to me that answered the riddle after I put the clues together.
“Why would anyone want to live forever?” he’d said to me.
My fingers had stilled on the hook of my bra. I was about to take it off. I’d met his eyes through the mirror.
“Um…because life is so good that it seems like a good idea?”
“A good idea,” he repeated, an intrigued note to his voice.
It was like the thought had never even occurred to him—that someone might not want to die. Or that accepting death was as easy as accepting the fact that we all had to breathe to live. It was just a part of life. I mean, I knew death was a part of life, and I had never even considered wanting to live forever, either, but lately…I could see why someone would want to.
“Yeah,” I said, removing my bra. “Maybe if you find something or someone worth living for…why would you want life to end?”
