She looks at me, then nods. I don’t know what’s going on in her head at the moment, and I could push the subject. I don’t, but I need her to tell me what's going on, in order to settle the doubts praying on her mind.
Taking her hand, I help her off the edge and wrap my arm over her shoulder pulling her closer to me.
“Come on little lamb, fight the world with me.” I kiss the top of her head again, and she leans in closer as we head back down the stairs.
Back in the dorm, the storm moves inside with us. The three of them turn to face me, and they already know something is wrong.
I drop the phone on the table and tell them about the messages.
Marco is the first to talk. “Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“Not sure what part of gone you don’t understand. Gone, like you do.” I’m not sure if I’m explaining this correctly to these two, I mean it’s simple, the message is fucking gone.
“Encrypted?” Milo frowns.
“No idea,” I say. “They vanished like they were never sent.”
“Could be the Irish. Could be someone else,” Marco mutters.
“Or someone on our side,” Rosa adds. “Watching from the shadows, you did say they might ask for a favor, because the family is powerful.”
Now that’s the part that did get my attention, it’s someone who knows the family, but is too scared to come to us now.
“We do have a lot of power not just here, but all around.” Milo looks at the phone to make sure the messages are one hundred percent gone, and I’m not going crazy.
“If you want help, ask for it,” Marco snaps, and I agree with him.
Aoife looks pale, but there’s steel in her eyes. She will become a Messina, and she will show the world she won’t fear anyone. One day they will all know her name and not say a bad thing about her.
“Either way,” I start, “someone just told us they are planning something and to watch our back, and I believe them.”
I have no idea why, but whoever has been sending Aoife messages has always warned her about something and never put her in danger. Now they know who the family is, I don’t think they will risk being in our bad books.
Now we have to wait to see what their move is.
The late morningsun is warm on my skin as we lounge around the sprawling Messina garden. A cigarette burns slowly between my fingers, and laughter echoes under the canopy of vines that have been climbing these stone arches since before I was born.
Remo and Ricci are arguing about whose tux looked sharper last year, while some of the others are trying to convince everyone they have a date lined up for the dance already. Bullshit, of course, but it made for good noise.
“Are you wearing the gold number again, Remo?” I ask, taking a drag from my smoke.
“I looked good in it, admit it,” he shoots back, fixing his collar like he isn’t sitting in a wrinkled uniform.
“You looked like a rich cannoli,” Santino adds, and the garden breaks into another wave of laughter.
Aoife is sitting beside me on the stone bench, legs crossed, playing with the hem of the skirt of her uniform. Her hair is down, a little wild, catching the breeze like it belongs here. Like she belongs here.
“You bringing her to church this weekend?” Ricci asks, gesturing with his cigarette toward Aoife.
“Obviously,” I reply before she can even open her mouth.
“Then she’s gotta dress to impress,” Rosa grinned, tossing a grape at Aoife’s head. “No pressure.”
My family might not be a hundred percent behind this, and they will always be watching her, waiting to see if this is all a game.
Aoife laughs, ducking, and for the first time I see her smile without fear buried behind it, and fuck it’s a sight I like. She needs to smile a lot more.
My cousins seem to be warming up to her now, slowly but genuinely. She holds her own in conversation, throws a few good jabs back at Marco, and even manages to make Rosa snort with laughter, and that’s not easy to do.
