“What about parties? Or dinners?” Enzo asked me. “He must’ve taken you out with him on occasion to show you off if he was hoping to marry you off to one of his business associates.”
I thought back. My fatherhadtaken me to a few dinners once I became of age, nothing so big that I’d have a chance to wander away on my own. I tried to think if there were any names I could remember who’d also attended those get togethers. Particularly anyone who had appeared to be working with my father. Again, I shook my head. “He dressed me up and took me out sometimes, but nothing too elaborate. Just small dinners.”
Luca and Enzo exchanged a look.
“I was usually the only woman there.”
“Did these dinners consist of other mafia men?” Luca asked.
“Not always. Sometimes there were politicians or other city leaders.” I twisted my hands in my lap as I tried to think. “I’m sorry, I never really followed that stuff. I don’t remember their names.”
“Let me try something,” Enzo said. “Luca, may I borrow your laptop?” When his boss gave him the go-ahead, Enzo got up and took it from the desk and brought it over to where we were sitting. With a few taps on the keyboard, he brought up some photos of city officials in the Dallas area. He set the laptop on the table in front of me. “Do you recognize anyone here?”
I leaned forward and studied the faces in front of me. “This one.” I pointed to a picture in the top row on the far right, then one farther down on the screen. “And this one.”
“Good girl.” Enzo turned the laptop around and showed Luca the two men I’d pointed out.
“Excellent,” he told me. “Thank you, Sera. This is just what we were looking for.”
He spent the next hour showing me more photos and grilling me on any small details I could remember. I told him everything I could, even if it was something as minor as to who sat next to each other and who appeared to be in a good or bad mood when they left, including my father.
When I couldn’t think of anything else, he sat back, a thoughtful expression on his handsome face.
“As you know, Ciro knows we have you,” Luca told me. “And Luigi, my father, has managed to somehow talk him into giving us a few days before we hand you back to him. We’ll use those days to gather all of the information we can that would incriminate your father.”
I felt like Luca wasn’t telling me the whole story. “How did your father manage that?”
“I’m not sure,” he told me.
Bullshit. Luca was the underboss. Of course, he knew. He didn’t get as far as he had by being left in the dark. “I don’t believe you.”
He stilled in his chair and pierced me with those sharp, blue eyes. “It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, Sera. Just be grateful we have these days.”
“I apologize,” I told him immediately. “I was out of line. I’m just…nervous.”
“Luca.” There was a warning in Enzo’s tone.
I immediately put my hand on his knee. “No. He’s right. I shouldn’t have questioned him.” I turned back to the underboss, knowing he held my fate in his hands. “I am grateful for everything you’ve done for me.”
He gave me a nod. “Let’s move on, shall we?”
“Yes,” I agreed.
Luca looked at Enzo. “Do you want her in here while we discuss this?”
His words rankled. What they were discussing involved me. My life. But I knew the rules in this world. And unfortunately, those rules didn’t give a shit about me or my feelings.
“No. There’s no need.”
Luca got up from his chair and walked around his desk. “You may go, Sera,” he told me as he took a seat. “Thank you for your help. I may need to ask you again in the coming days.”
I got up to leave. I waited to feel the sense of disloyalty I should be feeling right now by telling my father’s secrets to men who, if not his enemies, were definitely not his friends. Just a pinprick of guilt. Something. Anything.
But there was nothing.
“There’s just one thing I need to warn you about,” I told Luca.
Two sets of eyes turned my way. “What is that?” Luca asked.
