“If I recall, the only danger she’s been in was your fault.”
“She was perfectly fine on the boat.”Perfectly fine out of the boat, too.Until Dianora’s cousin went looking for me.Which, again, wasn’t exactly my fault.He wouldn’t have been looking at all except I had to rescue Mario from his stupidity.That left his wife exposed.“No one put a gun to your head and said ‘go stick your ass in a noose.’”
“And I explicitly told you to watch my wife.”
“I don’t take orders well.”
“Obviously.”
It was funny that we ever became friends.“You’re going to be my best man, right?”
His soft expletive told me he was surprised I asked.“Do you have date set?”
No, that was Ellie’s job.Except she wasn’t doing it.“Maybe your wife can make a suggestion?”
“She’d plan the whole thing.”
That would be great, except… “I was kind of looking forward to wearing a costume.What do you think, would I be a vampire or a phantom like you were?”
He laughed once.“Allie liked the mask.”
“You kinky bastard.”I chuckled.Despite being so far apart, he was still my brother.
“Can you wait nine months?”
I froze.“No shit?”
“Perhaps.We are— hopeful.”
I let out a breath.A kid would change everything.My smile fell.“We need to get you out.”
Mario was silent.
“Brother?”
“If I leave, Don Manca will be short-handed.Where does that leave you and your plans?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to quip, “I’ll be better off without you.”But that wasn’t true at all.We were a great team.Take one of us out of the equation and the whole thing crumbled.“What does your grandfather say?”
“He doesn’t know yet.”
Well.There was that.“He’s not getting any younger.”
Mario snorted.“We have enough time with him yet.”
True.“Congrats.”
“Hold onto that for at least two months, yes?”
I could do that.“Has she talked to Ellie about it?”
“She knows.”
How?She lived right under my thumb for the last week plus.Surely, I’d have suspected something.“Wait, twin talk.”They had a whole vocabulary of weird phrases and inside jokes to rely on.One they’d built their entire lives.Kind of like the family language.Except only those two understood it.Maybe Kat did, too, being one of the rare people in that circle.
“Sì.”
We were fools, outwitted by double trouble.
