Satisfied with my answer, Dom kissed the back of my hand and winked at me before getting out of the car and opening my door. The friendship was hidden behind the job once more. The toes of his shoes brushed against my heels as we walked up the path to Dante’s house.
Slotting the key into the front door, I let us in. Dante’s home was the only other place beside my own where I felt completely at ease. It was filled with comfort and always had a faint sugary scent to it. It was wholly him.
“It’s probably in the living room if it’s here,” I mumbled to Dom. “They were both in here all afternoon yesterday.” I’d brought Link over to visit his godfather in hopes that it might lift his spirits. My cub worked his magic and I contemplated whether Dante could return the favour when he finished work tonight.
My eyes scanned over the sofa, plucking the cushions away to see if it had fallen behind them.
“Can I help you with something?”
I let out a squeak of surprise and clutched my chest where my heart hammered violently under my breastbone. When I looked up, Angelo looked alarmed and I glanced back to see Dom with his gun out, having not taken well to the sudden intrusion.
“Dom, it’s fine,” I said to him. “No threat.” Dom lowered his gun and put it away as the surprise wore off and he registered our new recruit. My heart stopped its impressive pace as I addressed Angelo, “I don’t advise sneaking up on people while you’re here. Quickest way to the grave.”
“You just broke into my house and I’m being cautioned about the element of surprise?” Angelo raised an eyebrow.
“Firstly, this isn’t your house.” He might have been Dante’s blood but that didn’t give him a right to claim everything Dante owned. “Second, I have a key that was given to me by the owner,” I said, holding it up to him. “So, I don’t think they’re going to charge me from breaking and entering.”
“Is there a reason you and the heavy are here?” he asked, eyeing Dom.
The man who fancied himself as a charmer when I was first introduced to him had disappeared and in his wake stood a man who was rougher around the edges. I hadn’t fallen at his feet, so the niceties had slipped away. I’d met plenty of men like Angelo and I didn’t have the time for them.
“He goes everywhere with me,” I informed Angelo. “And I think I left something here so don’t mind me.” I flashed him a smile, zero warmth behind it, before glancing around the room. “Aha!” Striding past Angelo, I spotted the tiger blanket folded up on the bookshelf.
Next to what I hoped would be my holy grail was a framed photograph of Dante holding Link at the hospital not long after he was born. Dante’s smile was so wide you could see all his teeth and his eyes were crinkled at the corners. I smiled to myself, happy in the knowledge that Dante was the best pick for Godfather, and snatched the blanket from its spot.
“This is it. We’ll let you get back to work now,” I said, waving it in the air.
“Mia,” Angelo called as I walked past him. “About that. Work, I mean.”
“What about it?” I asked, turning back around to face him. If he was about to ask for more money, I could only imagine Luc’s reaction. We were already offering an eye-watering sum to get a lead on where Xavier was. What exactly Luc planned to do when he found him remained a mystery and I couldn’t crack him no matter what I tried.
“I have the bare minimum to work with,” he told me.
“I thought Luc handed you everything he had.”
“Not that work,” Angelo said, referring to the two shootings. “I have plenty. For the other strand, all I have is a name. I need more than that.”
“You’ll need to talk to Luc and Dante,” I replied, eager to get back to Link.
“I’m sure you’re aware they aren’t the most approachable pair.” Between making it clear that Luc would end his life if he tried anything, Dante’s frosty reception and Dom pulling a gun on him, Angelo had been spooked. That alone meant that he had at least half a brain knocking around upstairs, even if he didn’t always engage it when he opened his mouth.
Letting out a sigh, I said, “Okay. What do you need?” I could play messenger if it meant that we would get what we wanted quicker.
“Something more than a name. I’m not a magician.” That last part was muttered under his breath, safe in the knowledge that I was less likely to flip out at him. “A location,” Angelo said clearly. “A list of places. An electronic device? Phone, laptop. I’ll take a fax machine.”
I blinked at him a few times. Angelo had what we had. Xavier had left to do ‘business’ but we didn’t know where and it wouldn’t be smart to give him a list of every contact we had, less for his safety and more for our family’s. Any device Xavier owned or used would have been at a Moretti household, and we couldn’t just waltz in and take it from them.
“Leave it with me,” I told him distractedly as I tried to work out a way to give him more of a lead than he already had. “I’ll figure something out.”
Chapter Nine
Lucas
Mia and I arrived at the church ahead of time. The service wouldn't start for another half an hour but there was something I wanted to do beforehand. I kept an arm wrapped around her to keep her steady as we walked through the rows of headstones, in her heels, navigating the stroller. Link was wrapped in his blanket, nestled in the depths and alert to everything around him. In the crook of her arm, Mia balanced a large bouquet of flowers. When we came to a stop, it was in front of a grave with a tombstone denoting that it belonged to Charles Edward Foster and his birth and death dates.
"Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoings and rightdoings, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Mia read the line that had been inscribed below.
"Dad didn't think the world was black and white," I told her. "Always thought there was redemption around every corner. I think for everything he did wrong, he tried to do something right."
