“Our job there was done. It was time to come home.”
“Can I ask you something? And I don’t mean to offend you. I’m just curious.”
Emilio laughed, “Go for it.”
“How did you get the scar over your eyebrow?” The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to run my tongue along the mark.
Emilio smirked as he looked up to the ceiling while the event must have played through his mind again. “I was being accused of something I didn’t do. The made men of Chicago back then handed me over to a NY family like I was leftover trash. I meant shit to them. I could have been killed that night, but I wasn’t. I had my first encounter with a Consigliere face-to-face. Seeing the respect they got and the power without the responsibility of being the boss changed my perspective. He may have given me this scar, but it became more than that. It was the turning point when I decided I needed more in life than what I had.”
“Why did he let you go free?”
He glances down at me, “Because of you.”
Chapter 25
He glances down at me, “Because of you.”
“Me?” I questioned in surprise.
Emilio nodded his face, and his eyes went back up to the ceiling. “The night of the incident I was being accused of was the night I first saw you.”
I couldn’t remember what he was referring to. The only memory of meeting Emilio was when Luca brought him around.
Sensing my lack of memory, “You were barely a teen. You and your friends stole Skittles or something stupid from the bodega.”
I laugh, “My god, I forgot about that.”
“You better pay for that!” the cashier yelled as we tried to leave the store.
“Put it on our tab!” Tiffany yelled as we dashed out.
“If I go to jail, my parents will KILL me,” Natasha freaked out.
We thought we were badasses for stealing candy from the little bodega. As we ran, the cashier came out and started yelling at us.
“Damn, kids!”
Laughing, we turned the corner, and a few men were hanging around a car. We slowed to a walk and giggled until the cashier made his way around the corner and started yelling at us.
“Hey, Hey. Bernie, Relax,” one of the men said, calming the cashier down. He spoke to the cashier, and whatever was said made the cashier return inside.The man turned to us as we stood there like deer in headlights. “What are you girls doing?”
“None of your business,” Tiffany spat out.
The man overlooks her and makes eye contact with me. “You’re Marco’s little sister.”
I nod my head.
“Sorry for your loss. Marco was a good guy.”
Swallowing hard at the thought of my older brother, whom we buried just a few weeks ago, I mutter, “Thank you.”
“E!” a piercing voice screeched. A petite blonde approaches us, “Is that the little DeCarlo? Ask her about Gio. Maybe she knows something.” She sounded worried.
He looked at her; they had similar facial characteristics. “Cass, relax.” He turned back to me. “Hey, if you could ask Luca to give Emilio a call. It’s important. He’ll know who I am.”
“Sure.” I wasn’t sure if I should trust him. What if he told Luca I was stealing? I wouldn’t hear the end of it.
Sensing my concern, he assured me, “I won’t rat you out but don’t pull that shit again. Next time, Bernie will pull out his gun, and he never misses his target.”
