“And you can imagine why I’m so protective of my cousin-to-be. So, I’d like to know why your side targeted my cousin and are now after Vittoria.”
“Vittoria who?”
“Vittoria Trevisan. What did Alejandro do to get on your side’s radar that they’d put a hit on him?”
“What makes you think anyone in the Camorra or’Ndranghetaare after Alejandro?”
“We have it on good authority that it’s not theCosa NostraorMala del Brenta.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s anyone in Italy. Your cousin’s pissed off people all around the world. They could be a homegrown enemy for all you know.”
Breathe.
Let Jorge handle this hijueputa.
“And you know how politics work in New York. No lesser branch will act against their New York leader.”
“Someone might have taken it upon themselves. Perhaps you should search your own backyard.”
“Perhaps you could be a little less evasive if you aren’t hiding something.”
I wish I could punch the guy. I just want a solid explanation to prove if his side’s involved. Holding Vita’s hand grounds me, keeping me from getting up and pacing. It’s not something I usually do, but I’m also unaccustomed to being this ball of nervous energy. It’s unsettling to feel out of control like this. Vita senses it because she wraps her free hand around my forearm and gives it a squeeze.
“Friedrich, you’re making me think you’re up to your eyeballs. If you or your people are striking out against my family, we won’t accept that silently. Would you want Liesel or Heidi to know?”
“You wouldn’t dare bring this up to either of them.”
“Liesel knows something’s going on with Alejandro and Vittoria. She knows someone injured Alejandro. She already has questions. It would be a shame if I let it slip, wouldn’t it? How quickly do you think she can call Heidi once she finds out? And how fast do you think Heidi will find you when she does?”
“This is bullshit, Jorge, and you know it. You do everything you can to keep Anneliese out of Cartel business.”
“And I will continue to. But I also won’t lie to her if her family on one side is targeting her family on the other.”
“You’d really destroy her relationship with her sister since Anneliese will pick your family, and Heidi will pick mine?”
“Are you so sure about that? Heidi’s met Alejandro before. It’s not like he’s some faceless stranger to her. She knows Alejandro helped save your father-in-law’s life and Liesel’s. At the very least, this will make things very chilly between you and your wife. That’s the last thing you need.”
There’s a moment of silence on Friedrich’s end. Then the sound of a door shutting before a car starts, and the call switches to Bluetooth.
“Look, you know I can’t tell you everything. You know where my loyalty must lie. But the last thing I want to do is hurt my wife. If something happened to Alejandro, it would upset her.”
“It would upset Liesel even more.”
“And that would also upset my wife. Heidi and I just found out something she planned to tell Anne today. They might even be on the phone together now. We swore not to tell anybody outside our immediate family. If this gets out, I’ll know it was you or your cousins. All of you, right now, need to swear to this secret to protect Heidi.”
My cousins and I exchange glances before we speak together.
“I will.”
If it’s a promise we can keep, we will. But if it’s one we can’t, then all of us will mitigate as much damage as we can. But we’ll always put our family first. It’s why we rarely swear promises unless we know what it is first.
“Heidi’s pregnant, and it’s extremely high-risk. She’s on bed rest for the foreseeable future, which could mean the entire pregnancy. She’s only eight weeks.”
“Is there anything we can do to help? My wife’s a midwife.”
“And my mother’s a midwife too.”
Javier offers Madeline’s help just as Pablo offers his mom’s. Friedrich might not be my favorite person right now, but we all have a shred of decency for the women. We know wrong from right, even when we choose to ignore it. But the decent thing to do is offer help even if we’re a continent apart. None of us believes Heidi will accept the offer if for no other reason than logistics. It’s still the right thing to do.
