“You know there’s no change with Chiara,” I tell him.“I sent you updates every hour, didn’t I?”
He nods and takes a long drag on his cigar.He’d opened up to me spectacularly last night, telling me things he probably never intended me to know.Some men react poorly to such oversharing.That’s why I’m here.To cement the deal we made before he decides I know too much and am a liability.Men like Ferro, ambitious, ruthless men are unpredictable.And they don’t do well with others knowing their weaknesses.
“We’re heading back to the hospital, anyway,” I say.“Gianna wants to be there, and I see no reason to stop her.”
Do you?
I don’t ask that last part, just let it hang between us unspoken.
“You have a tendency to do what the women want, you know that?”he says snidely.
“I find it’s easier that way all around,” I say.“She’s just gonna drive me and herself crazy if I make her stay here.And what’s the harm?They say the sick do better when they have loved ones around.”
They told me that when I’d spend my days sitting by my brother’s bed while he lay there in a coma.It didn’t do much good then, but for Goldie and her sister it’s already different.
Angelo takes a drag from his cigar, finds it’s gone out and tosses it into the garden like it offended him greatly.“I should never have taken her to that compound with us.But I wanted Codelli to see I’d already taken everything from him.It was stupid.”
I walk to the edge of the patio and rest my foot on the low stone wall surrounding it, gazing out into the darkness and trying to decide whether Angelo wants to hear what I really think.I doubt it.But whatever relationship we forged was built on me telling him the truth anyway.
“It was dangerous, and it turned for the worst.For a while,” I say and turn back to face him.“But it’s already righting itself.How far along is Codelli’s surrender?”
“They’re ready when we are, apparently,” he says and scoffs.“But I still think we’d all be better off if I killed him and all his lieutenants.”
I shake my head.“Not the daughters.”
He grins.“And consequently, not us.”
“Codelli owes me and my family a debt for not coming to our aid when we needed him,” I say.“If I take him and his men out West with me to repay that debt, we’ll be hitting two birds with one stone.Possibly three, if you count the daughters’ happiness.It’s a good plan.”
The grin on his face turns darker and darker, while the monogram on his chest seems to glow brighter and brighter.All day, when I wasn’t fantasizing about fucking Goldie, I’d been practicing these words.I didn’t expect him to be overjoyed at hearing it, but I also didn’t expect he’d hate hearing it as much as he seems to right now.
“What if I don’t want you to leave?”he asks.
I feared he’d say something like this when the time came to make good on his promise to me.He doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends among his own men.So telling me I was one of only a few close friends wasn’t just a lie he once told me to get on my good side.
“I gotta do what I gotta do, Angelo,” I tell him.“I’d rather do it with your help and your blessing.I’ll be forever in your debt afterwards.And I’ll come whenever you call.”
I have the urge to whip out my black bladed knife, cut my hand and make the oath in blood.And because it’s not a bad urge, I act on it, slicing open my palm and offering it to him for a handshake.
“I swear you can always count on me,” I say.“I swear it on my blood and my ancestors’ blood.”
He looks shocked for a moment, watching the blood dripping from my palm.
Then he takes the knife I’m offering him and cuts his own palm.We shake on it, the wound on my palm burning like I’d just touched fire.
“I’ll give you your army,” he says.“You can take Codelli and as many men as I can spare.But I will hold you to your oath.I’ll call and you’ll be there.Or else I’ll take back everything I gave you.”
I don’t appreciate his threat, but I do appreciate his honesty.I always like to know where I stand.
“I don’t offer blood oaths lightly,” I say.“And I’d like to leave as soon as possible.”
“I’ll set it up,” he says and releases my hand.“You can be back in LA by the weekend.”
The words light a match in my chest.It spreads like wildfire through my entire body.The one thing I craved, the only thing I lived for, is finally within my grasp.The weekend is only three days away.I know at least half of my excitement is the old family curse perking up because it can finally cut me down at my highest.But a lot of it has to do with the vengeance that will finally be mine.And the fact that I’ll be saving Goldie’s family in the process.Talk about the stone that killed all the birds that needed killing.
“I guess we’re blood brothers now,” Ferro says, looking at the cut on his palm like it’s a jewel.
“I guess we are.”
