I said nothing as I walked up to him, setting my hand on his shoulder, and squeezed. I couldn’t tell him anything because it went against who we were as men, no matter where we were in the world, Italy or not, to lie. If I confirmed what he was thinking, and someone questioned him about it, he could give his word that he knew nothing of the situation, because he fucking didn’t, not for sure.
There was also no doubt when mamma arrived, she was going to feel something, and the first person she’d go to was Marciano. He was a fucking mamma’s man. One scratch of her nails against his scalp and one would think she performed water torture on him.
I took his head in my hand and shook it, setting loose the leaves and shit in his hair. He laughed, raspy and low, just like me. We all shared the same laugh, even Mia to a certain degree. My nephews, her sons, did too.
“Fuck you, Mari,” he said.
“Fuck you, Marci.”
“You know I fucking hate when you call me that,” he said, all melancholy and shit.
My brother, even being a fucking tank, was a good man with a loyal heart one woman would be lucky to have someday.
“Come on, brother,” I said, directing him to my truck by his neck. “We have personal business to attend to.”
He perked up at this.
“I’ll fill you in on the ride.”
He knocked grass from my hair. “All right. Let’s ride.”
Just like that…all was squashed between us, and our world was set right.
Marciano turned the dial on the radio, and Cash sang “Bad News.” My brother sang along with him. Every so often he’d grin at the lyrics.
A cloud of dust ate the truck as we traveled down the old dirt road Jack, the guy we’d met in town, lived on. The weather was somewhere between warm and chilly. The windows were rolled down. Marciano and I had our arms almost hanging out of the truck. Angelo was sitting in the back, his face as hard as mine.
All was well between him and Marciano, but he was steeling himself for this visit.
So was I.
Marciano turned the music low and pointed in the distance. “That place is…” He rubbed a hand over his arm, meaning it didn’t sit right with him, and it was making goosebumps rise on his skin.
A fork in the road led to an old barn. It looked picturesque on the property, even though it probably should have been condemned years back.
It felt off to me too, beyond the look of it. It was the fucking feel of it, like it was immersed in dark winter, even with the sun hitting it.
People called our mamma touched, our sister as well. Even though none of Scarlett Fausti’s sons spoke about it, we were all a little touched too. I hadn’t realized how much until Sistine came into my life. Whatever extra sense I was born with woke up when my heart did.
“That the Rattler property?” Marciano’s eyes were narrowed underneath his sunglasses. I could tell by the set of his eyebrows.
I narrowed mine, which were covered in sunglasses too. “Yeah, that’s it.”
It smelled like herded cattle. Fear and shit.
My eyes glanced in the rear-view mirror. Angelo was quiet. Pensive. His shades were dark too. He hadn’t caught any punches to the face, and I knew Marciano had done that on purpose. He didn’t want him to look back years from then and see a black eye, bruised noise, or busted lip on his wedding day. Angelo was limping slightly, though.
Once we were in front of Jack’s tiny place, I hit the brake and put the truck in park. Before we could step out, Jack came out of his place. He narrowed his eyes against the glare, even wearing a cowboy hat. He took a sip of his coffee, his boots clacking against the wooden porch, coming to stand against one of the pillars. He lifted his coffee to us when he realized we were friendlies. I took that as a sign of our welcome.
My boots landed in a muddy puddle when we all stepped out. Two horses were grazing, and I ran my hand up and down both of their muzzles, up to their foreheads, after they set them down for me to touch.I met Jack on the porch after, Marciano and Angelo on either side of me.
“Jack Nelson.” He held his hand out to me.
“Mariano Fausti.” We shook. “This is my brother.” I nodded to him. “Marciano.”
He nodded. “Knew you men would be around after our meeting in town.”
Marciano and Jack shook, followed by Angelo, after I introduced them.
