“I saw the way you looked at her. Honestly, I’m not really into redheads. So you can have her,” he says with a knowing smile.
“Shut up, asshole,” I mutter, lightly punching him in the arm. Even so, he’s not wrong. She’s beautiful.
“I won’t say anything to Gino, I promise. You guys have been friends way longer. It should be you who tells him.”
“Gee, thanks,” I say sarcastically.
I drop Gabe off at his place, then drive home, my mind already spinning. If Gino really is related to this Vanessa girl, I need to figure out how the hell I’m supposed to bring that up.
I unlock the door to my apartment and step inside. The moment I do, my phone starts ringing. It’s Gino.
I answer. “Hey, man.”
“Hey, you alright? I heard there was a pretty bad shootout and that Alonso got hit,” Gino says, concern in his voice.
“Yeah, he’s at Summerstone General right now.” I run my hand through my hair. “I didn’t sign up for this. I’m the lawyer of this whole operation, not your personal shooter.”
“I know, man. I’m sorry. I just don’t have a lot of people I trust right now. Come by the house in a few hours. I’ve got another job I need you to look into.”
“You got it. I’ll be there at eight.”
“Please do, and take a shower. I don’t want you stinking up my house,” he snorts.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
“See you in a bit.”
“See ya.” I hang up the phone.
Gino and I have been friends since we were in diapers. He’s two years older than me, but my father was one of his father’s top lieutenants, so our friendship was inevitable. We were always meant to end up at each other’s sides.
Gino is a hard-ass like his dad, but he’s not much of a killer. For the past two years, he’s been working relentlessly to negotiate peace with other Mafia families.
So far, that hasn’t been going well.
After his mother was killed when he was four, outside a restaurant at the hands of the another Italian Mafia family, my parents became second parents to Gino while his father was away. When Antonio finally returned, he was worse than before. Angrier. More volatile.
Antonio died two years ago, and everyone expected Gino to go to all-out war in retaliation. To everyone’s surprise except mine and the rest of our friends, he didn’t.
I head for the shower, scrubbing the blood from the shootout off my skin. Once I’m clean, I start digging into Vanessa Esposito.
Now that I’m alone, my thoughts drift back to her. The way she looked in pink scrubs. No makeup. She’s effortlessly beautiful.
Her green eyes stand out against her light skin, freckles dusting her face and giving her a natural glow that’s impossible to ignore. Her hair was pulled in a bun on the top of her head. There was a confidence about her that made her even more attractive.
After getting out of the shower, I head over to my laptop and start looking her up. She has both Instagram and Facebook profiles. Her Facebook profile picture is a graduation photo of her, Kevin, and I’m guessing his wife, Lucy. HerFacebook is mostly private, so I switch over to Instagram instead.
Jackpot.
There aren’t any photos of her with Antonio, but there are plenty of pictures of her doing things she clearly loves. The beach. Running. She ran cross-country in high school. She graduated from Carter State with a nursing degree and now works at Summerstone General Hospital. According to her profile, she’s been there for the last two years.
She’s smiling in most of the photos, but it never quite reaches her eyes. Especially in the ones where her father should have been there. Her graduation photos, taken just two days after Antonio was killed. The medal pictures from her cross-country days.
The smiles are there.
He isn’t.
Still, I don’t have much to go on. Just her last name and a college graduation post that reads, “NYC, here I come.” Not exactly helpful.
