His hand closes around my wrist.
Right under the bracelet.
The contact is firm, controlled. Not painful. Worse than that, it’s electrifying.
“You’ll do no such thing,” he says. “The cops will be of no help to you.”
I don’t tell him that I know that. That I’ve already tried to get them to help me and failed so miserably it still burns. “We’ll see about that.”
“They’re in our pockets.” His tone doesn’t waver. “Mine. Moretti’s. Neri’s. Lucchese’s and Romano’s too.”
My breath stutters. “What?”
“You heard me.”
My head is spinning. No one says something like that unless it’s true. And yet, no regular person could simplyownthe cops. “Just who the hell are you?”
He releases me and leans back, like he’s decided it’s time.
“Don Giovanni Gallo,” he says. “Of the Gallo family.”
The name lands all at once.
The rumors. The looks. The way the room always seemed to bend around him. I’d heard whispers, but I hadn’t wanted to believe them. They felt too surreal.
Suddenly, Izzy’s voice rings in my ears.
“You’re on the mafia table again. Fun times.”
Mafia.
It was true. All of it was true.
Giovanni Gallo is mafia.
It suddenly dawns on me that I’ve been sitting here and drinking bourbon with a mafia Don.
10
GIOVANNI
Amber sits back down.
She does it slowly, like the chair might bite her. Like she’s not sure whether she’s making a smart choice or a stupid one, and she’s too proud to let me see her hesitate.
Good.
Anger suits her. Suspicion suits her. Fear doesn’t.
I watch her hands as she grips the edge of the table. Her bracelet catches the light when she shifts—coral and amber beads. I wonder if it has a special meaning. She’s worn it every day I’ve watched her, so it must.
I keep my eyes on her face instead of where my attention wants to go. “Rose got mixed up with people she didn’t understand.” My voice is steady. “People who don’t take no for an answer.”
Amber’s jaw tightens. She doesn’t speak, but the accusation is written all over her expression.
I don’t blame her.
In her eyes, men like me are all the same. The difference between a stalker and a Don isn’t obvious to civilians. Power looks like power from the outside.
