We all looked at each other before I answered, finger spelling the word because I didn’t know the sign for it.
‘L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-C-Y,’I signed before repeating the word in my head so she could hear it.
‘What does that mean?’she signed, her face twisting with confusion.
“What’s she saying?” Dale asked, going a bit cross-eyed as he tried to follow her hand movements.
“She’s asking what legitimacy is,” Nico supplied, his translating skills rusty from not having to use them for so long.
It had felt like forever had passed since the days that signing was our major form of communication with her. Now that we could talk to each other in our heads, we hadn’t been signing as much.
“Aw, darlin’,” Dale said slowly with a wide grin. “Your granddaddy’s biggest goal in life was to move the Amante family from a bunch of criminals to a legal empire.”
Cini looked at me.‘Is that even possible?’
I shrugged. Truthfully, none of that shit really mattered much to me, but if getting rid of Amante meant Cini would be safe? Then I would kill him a hundred times over.
“Cini says she knows of a way to get into the estate without anyone noticing,” Elio said, folding up the letter and holding it out for Dale to take.
Travis scratched at his silver beard thoughtfully. “The old service tunnels, right? They were put in when the estate was built in the thirties, but that was before our time…”
Cini pointed at herself and a glint entered the old man’s eyes.
“Are you telling me you know where the entrance is?”
Cini nodded vigorously.
“Well I’ll be, that may just work then.” Travis choked on a laugh, taking a large swig of his beer and grimacing at the taste.“When all of this is said and done, remind me to take you out for a proper beer.”
“She wants us to take her with us,” I said, bringing up the conversation we’d been having before our perimeter alerts started going off.
I expected them to reject the idea immediately, but instead they looked at each other with raised, bushy eyebrows before Dale spoke up. “And? What’s the issue? We can keep her safe in the car. So, teach the girl how to shoot a gun and call it a day.”
Elio bristled at that. “You three must be as crazy as they say you are. I am not putting my wife in danger just so she can show us some tunnels.”
I opened my mouth to stop him, knowing he didn’t fully understand what he was saying, but Travis held up a hand to stop me.
“We may be crazy, pup, but we’ve been around a hell of a lot longer than you. This little lady here may have grown up to be a caged bird, but the moment you married her and you took her out of that damned gilded cage you put her in danger. Even the prettiest birds need to have talons. So put a gun in her hand, teach her how to fire the damn thing, and let’s topple the whole damn empire.” Travis’s voice was cold and emotionless as he spoke, uncaring about whether or not he was offending us.
And, somehow, I found myself agreeing with him.
‘Come on,’I said to Cini, my inner-voice full of resignation as I also signed the words for the sake of keeping our mind-conversations a secret.‘Let’s go show you how to hold a gun.’
Cini’s expression brightened as she nodded.
“Dante—” Nico began but I just shook my head.
“Travis is right. Besides, would any of you be comfortable leaving her here by herself? Or even being the one to stay behind while the rest of us go and fight?”
They were silent.
“Good. Now we don’t have a lot of time. Ranieri, coordinate with my dads and figure out a game plan,” I glanced over at Howard who had been quietly watching the show playing out in front of him. “You got any of that C4 shit you like so much?”
His smile was slow and dangerous and he nodded.
Suddenly, a plan was forming, and for the first time since we’d gone on the run, I could see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Twenty-Seven
