“She’ll arrest you,” I say.
He smiles. “She already did. I liked it.”
“Keep that to yourself,” I tell him, but I’m smiling too.
He plates for me and eats what’s left out of the pan with a fork. He never bothered getting fancy in this kitchen. He never needed to. We lean on the island. The baby makes a small noise and then settles.
“Roberto tells me you went to Regalia for the memorial,” he says.
“Stopped in,” I say. “Paid respects. Stayed on the wall. Roberto kissed everybody.”
He makes a face. “Of course he did.”
“Francesca didn’t want us there,” I say.
“She threw you out?”
“She thought about it.” I take another bite. The eggs are good. He knows how to do the simple things right. Always has. “But we kept it short. Crowd was big. People loved Sabina.”
“They should have,” he says. The softness in his voice is the old kind, the real kind. He doesn’t use that tone for many. “Francesca think you’re coming to collect?”
“I didn’t go to collect.”
“But she thought.”
“Yeah, that’s why we kept it short,” I say.
“So that means Francesca is taking over,” he muses.
“Not sure,” I say. “I assume there’s a will.”
Luca lifts a shoulder. “Yeah. There’s always a will. And there’s always the rest of it.”
“The rest,” I say.
He glances at the monitor, then at me. “You know how Sabina did business. Straight as she could.”
I nod. “Seems like that follows the bloodlines.”
“No,” he muses. “No, it didn’t.”
“I’ve got it,” I say.
“I know.” He rubs a finger over Alessandra’s tiny sock like he’s smoothing a wrinkle out of time. “When?”
“I figure I’ll wait a few days. Maybe a week.”
“A few days,” he says. It’s not said in a commanding tone, but as the leader of the Conti family, it very much is one.
“A few days, then,” I repeat. “I’ll pay a visit. Just a quiet one.”
I finish the last of my eggs and walk the plate to the sink to rinse.
“Anything else?” Luca asks.
“There’s always else,” I say. “But nothing that can’t wait.”
He nods. “I’ve got to pick my battles while I’m stuck inside the fence.” He twists his foot left and right. The ankle monitor on it flashes green steadily.
