I pause outside of the car. He watches me carefully. “You did good work. I asked a lot of you recently.”
“Happy to do my part.”
“How much responsibility would you say you have right now?”
“Probably too much.”
“Good answer. I’m making you a full-on Capo. You’ll take over Matteo’s territory.”
For the first time, Prime looks surprised. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“You better earn. Don’t make me regret this.”
I get into the back seat. Prime’s left standing on the sidewalk, watching me with a mixture of horror and joy on his face.
I have no doubt he’s going to get into serious trouble. I’m almost excited to find out how.
The driver takes me back to the house. These days I’ve been working less than I have in the past. There are perks to being the Don. I’ll take meetings downstairs and I’ll likely be on the phone for a couple of hours, but otherwise I’ll be able to spend time with my wife.
After nearly losing her, I make sure I don’t miss a single opportunity.
“Hello?” I call out, stepping in through the front door. “Where’s my beautiful Kira?”
“In here!” She’s laughing about something and I don’t know what. I find her in the kitchen with Gem, struggling to open a bottle of champagne. The cork comes out suddenly and both girls crack up together as Kira pours two glasses.
“What’s going on?”
“Celebrating!” Kira gets a third glass out and shoves it in my hand. “Today’s a very good day.”
I look at Gem, totally bewildered. “What happened?”
“I got good news.” Gem sips her glass and wrinkles her nose. “Huh, that’s good.”
“Don’t pretend like this is your first time drinking. And you’re only having that one glass.”
“Bottoms up then.” Gem takes another sip.
“Okay, you’ve got good news. What exactly happened?”
Kira leans herself against me and kisses my cheek. She throws her arms around my neck and squeezes me tight.
“Penn,” she whispers.
“No way.”
“Yes way,” Gem says, refilling her glass while Kira can’t see. She shoots me a wink.
“I’m incredibly not surprised and so happy I could scream.”
“She got into Penn!” Kira shrieks. Which means Gem isn’t leaving the city, since the University of Pennsylvania is right across the Schuylkill River over in West Philly. “We’re not losing her!”
“We’ll drink to that.” I raise my glass. “Cheers to you, Gem. Congratulations. You earned it.”
“And cheers to Kira. I wouldn’t be here without her. No, seriously, I know how much trouble you went through just to keep the lights on, and I love you so much for it.”
The girls hug and drink. I watch them, feeling a glow of pride in my chest.
I get it now. Why Kira nearly killed herself making sure Gem had everything she needed. That girl is a genius, straight up. If I had my way, I’d stick her in an office, give her access to my family’s financial accounts, and I’d tell her to make us all rich.
