Pulling out his phone, he held it up for all to see. “I have a recording of a message left for my father. From Boston Billy.” Tapping his phone screen, he played the message we found last night. When it was done, he slid his phone back into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He didn’t explain what the message meant. There was no reason to. Everyone there could interpret the true meaning behind it.
Luca turned to look at Marco and Tony. “I assume you two knew absolutely nothing about this?” he asked them.
Marco met his stare. “No. Of course not.” But I could smell the sweat running down his spine. “It’s a shame, what happened to your father,” he told Luca. “A damn shame. May he rest in peace.”
A few men made the sign of the cross. No one else asked any questions or made any other comments. The pieces of what happened the night before fell into place, and everyone would assume that Luca had done what he had to do to protect himself. No one would blame him.
One of Gino’s sons spoke up from a table near the back corner. “What about Luigi’s new wife?”
Turning my head, I stared at him through my sunglasses as adrenaline began to burn through my bloodstream. To keep myself from going for the gun I had strapped to my calf, I laced my fingers together on top of the table.
“What about her?” Luca asked.
“She’s missing, ain’t she?”
“Yes,” Luca told him.
“She was staying with you for a while, is that right? Did she know about this?” he asked. “Because I’m thinking that maybe she was in on all of this, and it would be nice to know where she is now.”
“Was she planted in your father’s house by you?” Gino added.
Luca stared at him for a long moment, and I knew what he was thinking. How the hell did these guys know Sera was at Luca’s house? Did Luigi tell them? Or her father? “My father’s widow is completely innocent,” he told them. “She knows nothing except that her wedding night was ruined.”
“Then she’s a witness,” Gino said. “And now she’s disappeared.”
Marco turned to me. His eyes fell to my injured hand, and I flexed my fingers. “Do you have any idea where Serafina is?” he asked. “We know you two were…close.”
I smiled, but it was cold. “I fucked her, Marco. More than once. That’s it.”
“She never mentioned anything to you? Nothing personal at all? Any friends in the area?”
“It was kind of hard for her to speak with my cock stuffed between her lips.”
“Serafina will not be a problem,” Luca told him.
“If she’s a witness, then she needs to be dealt with.”
The room came alive with murmured agreement.
Luca waited until things died down. “I’ll deal with my father’s widow. She won’t be a problem. My guess would be she’s not exactly heartbroken about the turn of events.”
“But now she’s a liability,” Gino’s son said. “She could be out there talking to the cops right now.”
I couldn’t keep my mouth shut anymore. “Sera won’t talk.”
Gino narrowed his eyes at me, his distrust of me clear to read. “How do you know? You just said you only used her to warm your dick.”
I gritted my teeth at his disrespect, but I kept my tone even and controlled. “Because she grew up in this world. And she’s not stupid.” I didn’t have to say the rest, that she knew if she talked she’d be the next one taking a long nap in the dirt. “Besides…” I allowed my gaze to roam over the room, meeting the eyes of everyone there. “Luca said he’ll handle her. So consider her handled.” Even with my sunglasses on, most of the men fidgeted nervously when my attention was on them.
“Shall we move on?” Luca suggested. With a nod at Marco, he handed the floor over to him.
“All right,” he said. “You all know how this works…”
The vote didn’t take long, and Luca was officially put into the position of Boss. It was a close call, however, between him and Gino, and the latter wasn’t taking the loss well, although he tried to put on a nonchalant face.
We talked about some other matters and agreed to meet there again after the holiday. Then the Capos were shown out to go spend time with their families—after all, it was Christmas day—while we waited to hear from the police that Luigi’s body had been released.
When everyone was gone, I rubbed my eyes with my uninjured hand, trying to ease the ache behind them. But it was no use. “Whatever you feel you need to do to me, do it,” I told Luca. “I deserve it. If you want to take me outside right now and put a bullet through the middle of the head, I won’t try to run. All I ask is that you take care of Sera.”
