Nick
We arrive next morning back in New York at my apartment and immediately go to bed. Not for anything exciting, but for the sleep we missed out on over a long night while we took care of Dellacroce. We sleep right through to late afternoon, when I get up and go down to the local deli for a sad dinner of soggy Reubens.
“You gonna check your emails?” I ask Carlo as we eat.
“Uh, I already did,” he replies, looking guilty. “I was hoping I could hide out a little longer, but, well…” He looks down, his face dark, and I know what he’s thinking. That it was dumb of us to ever play at vacationing.
I kick his shoe. “It’s cool, Harvard. You didn’t get to the top of Bianchi and Associates by lazing around on the beach. I get it.”
“I’m not at the top,” he says softly. “Yet.” I look closer at him, wondering what he’s thinking, but he looks back up with a smile. “Anyway, I didn’t miss much of the big stuff. Miranda covered for me. The contracts around that olive oil import business went through without a hitch.”
“She seemed like a shark. Guess she must be if Luca signed those contracts in the end. He was asking about why the supplier’s price was so low, and she didn’t back down. Told him she’d get it done.”
“Yeah, they were really tough to—” I pause. “Wait. When didyoumeet Miranda?”
“I was at the townhouse that day she was there with the contracts. Luca wanted to see me. We crossed paths in and out of his study. You know how he likes to lord it in that study of his. Act like a king admitting his supplicants.” I chuckle, because the truth is, Luca D’Amato is dangerous enough on his own. He doesn’t need all those fancy trappings to make people respect him—not these days. But hell, why shouldn’t he, if he wants to?
“She must have gone with a different supplier if she got the price down lower,” Carlo says, frowning. “The Sardinians wouldn’t budge for me.”
“Does it matter? Anyway, she was seizing the moment and all that shit. Luca was testing her, seeing if she’d fold and let you take over again.”
Carlo is still frowning. “Sheshouldhave told me if she made any changes. I did background checks specifically on that supplier—” He puts down his sandwich. “I should check her file notes.”
“Seriously? You can’t just give someone else a win? You lawyers are fucking cutthroat, man.”
He gives a wry smile. “We have to be, Nicky, working for the Morellis.”
We’re interrupted by the sound of my phone buzzing. I know the number; it’s Teo Vitali. I can’t put it off any longer, so I answer with a grunt, trying to keep the conversation minimal, but Carlo is watching me closely.
“Problem?” he asks after I’ve hung up, his voice too-casual.
“Nah. No problem.” I chew and swallow before I add, “There’s a meeting on tonight. Boss wants me there.”
Carlo runs an agitated hand through his hair. “I don’t like the sound of this, Nicky. You still haven’t told him—”
“Ah, it’ll be fine. It’ll give me a chance to speak to Luca after. It’s past time he knew about…everything. Plus all the intel I’m bringing him? The scales’ll weigh out in my favor.” Carlo does not look convinced, so I lean over and kiss him instead, make him forget all about the meeting. “How about you?” I ask after. “Are you okay to stay here while I’m gone? You’re my first priority in all this.”
“I think I can handle being alone for a couple of hours.”
“Not sure I can handle being away from you that long,” I tell him. “I fucking mean it,” I add, and at last he gets this smirky grin across his face that makes the whole shitshow at Montauk worthwhile.
He gives up on his Reuben and wipes his hands on the paper napkin. “If you’re going out tonight, maybe I’ll spend some time in the office. Catch up on more of those emails I missed.”
“You really can’t stand to let someone else take credit, huh?” I grin at him.
“It’s not about her taking credit. I just need to make sure that Miranda hasn’t inadvertently… Oh, it’s way too boring to explain. But I should put in an appearance, anyway. People at the office hate me enough as it is already without me skipping out for a whole week.”
I know Carlo will bealmostas safe in the offices of Bianchi and Associates as he would be in my apartment, but a protective urge comes over me nonetheless. “I don’t know that I like you going there, Harvard, not tonight. Let me see what’s going down with Luca and the boys first, okay? You can work from home, can’t you?”
“From home,” Carlo repeats, and smiles. “You know, before last week I’d never been in your place at all, and now…it does kind of feel like home.”
I didn’t mean it in that sense, but now that I’ve said it, I begin to think about Carlo being in my place all the time, about having dinners like this with him, waking up next to him, getting annoyed at the late hours he works… I like the thought of all of that. “Maybe once this situation is behind us, we can have a real talk about, you know.” I swallow, a little lost for words.
But Carlo, thankfully, is like me. He doesn’t go for big emotional speeches. “Yeah,” he agrees. “We should do that.”
As long as I can have this smug asshole smiling at me every day when I wake up, I don’t care who I have to kill—or which Mob Boss I have to crawl to. As long as I can have this.
Havehim.
