“If you’d shown more patience, you’d have seen me bite his ear off, Miguel!” Kitty scowled at the man who sauntered past her sisters and toward us. “Instead of cleanup of gang roadkill on aisle two.”
“I’m sure you would have succeeded,gattaredda.” Kissing her forehead, and beyond proud of her fire, I held her tightly then studied her sisters, who hovered under a marble arch, neither fully in the room, just on the outskirts.
One of them smiled coyly at the ‘watchdog,’ while the other looked like she wanted to crawl into a bed and hide for a year.
“Now what?” I directed at Martinez.
“You’re lucky that my husband doesn’t find you impolite, Custanzu,” Eva growled. “But you’re grating onmylast nerve. Watch your tongue.”
Kitty stiffened. “And you are?”
“Higher up the ranks than you.”
“This is my wife, Eva,” Martinez inserted with genteel courtesy. “I am Martinez.”
Kitty absorbed that then, to Eva, exclaimed, “Firstly, I’m not in the ranks. Period. If you know who my brothers are, then you should also know that. Secondly, you’re the woman I spoke to on the phone.”
“Correct.”
“My wife is a woman of few words. Now, ladies,” Martinez inserted, “who do I have the honor of meeting tonight?”
His charm offensive pissed me off, but it seemed to reassure the coy sister, who giggled.
But it was Kitty, ever the mouthpiece, who stated, “The giggler’s Neev.”
That made sense. She was the youngest and the one most likely to piss off Kitty.
Martinez probably had a point about the babies of the family always being trouble.
“I’m Kitty.” She pointed to the anxious one. “She’s Róisín, but you can call her Raisin.”
Martinez rubbed his chin. “Raisin? Like the dried fruit?”
“Ma gave up on the Gaelic names after me.” Róisín graced our hosts with a small smile that broadcast her fear to the chamber. “That’s why Neev is spelled N-E-E-V and not N-I-A-M-H.”
“Ah, the Irish and their colorful placement of letters.” Martinez beamed like the magnanimous host he wasn’t. “You’re certain that we can call you… Raisin?”
The younger woman gave him a weak nod. “We’re among friends, I hope.”
“We are indeed.” He clapped his hands. “Now, we eat.”
“But it’s one AM,” Neev chirped.
“And you’ve drunk more than is wise. I’m sure you could use something hearty to soak up the alcohol.”
Martinez held out his arm, and Eva slipped hers through the crook of his elbow. He tugged her close, graced me with a knowing look, then strode off.
“What’s going on here?” Kitty hissed.
Uncertain of how to answer, I muttered, “Like I said on the phone, we should have informed him that we wanted to enter his territory.”
Before she could ask more questions, I mimicked Martinez’s stance.
She frowned but quickly settled into my side, like Eva had done with Martinez, as I urged her forward.
“We need to comply with their requests for the moment,” I told her sisters as we walked past them. “Lest they become orders.”
Wide-eyed, they gawked at me until I angled my chin toward the doorway where Martinez and his wife had disappeared.
