Even if I never saw him again.
Even if tonight was the end for me.
I just needed him to be okay.
Because loving him might be the only real thing I'd ever done.
And I refused to let that be the thing that got him killed.
∞∞∞
I followed our route on my phone, more out of boredom than curiosity. We ended up in Mill Basin at my great-uncle’s place. I’d been here a few times for someone’s birthday party. I couldn’t recall whose birthday it was, one of my many cousins, probably. I do remember he had a nice pool in the backyard.
I often wondered why these old guys didn’t sell their multi-million-dollar mansions, take their accumulated fortunes, and move somewhere exotic by a beach.
Like Barbara—the woman I’d replaced—had done.
Thinking about her, I hoped everything would end up resolved with Quentin and Carlo. If they could come to terms, nobody would pay poor Barbara a visit on Maui. She didn’t deserve to be collateral damage in someone else’s war.
The young driver opened my door and politely declined to answer when I asked if he’d be waiting for me. “I do what I’m told.”
“Got it.” I walked toward the path up to the gate at my great uncle’s place. This particular great uncle was my mom’s uncle, on her father’s side. Most of his generation had passed, but Uncle Giuseppe was still hanging on. Last I saw him, he was still getting around on his own and cracking jokes. I wondered if heever dreamed of a different life. He could be living on a beach in South America or in a cosmopolitan city in Europe. Instead, he’d chosen to stay in New York and he continued to host family meetings.
I wondered if this was my fate as well. If I didn’t die first.
As I approached the gate, one of the family’s soldiers, someone I didn’t recognize, approached me. “Inside the gate, you’ll be patted down, Donna Julia. If you’re carrying, please return to the limo and leave—”
“What the hell?”
“Carlo’s orders, Donna Julia. It’s everyone. He said to tell you you’re not being singled out. Everyone is getting checked for weapons.”
“Shit.”
“He told me to tell you not to take this personally.”
“Okay. Whatever. I’m not carrying.”
“Right this way.”
He opened the gate for me. I strode into the courtyard a bit arrogantly. Two men I didn’t recognize carrying MP5Ks greeted me. One watched and one frisked me. By the time I walked into the foyer, I was fuming.
Vinny greeted me with air kisses but no humor. “Hey Jules.”
“You look like you lost a puppy.”
“Things are tense.”
“What’s with the two goons carrying H&K’s like this is a compound in the Middle East and not in freaking Brooklyn?”
“Everyone is nervous.”
“Okay.” I shook my head. “We haven’t met here before except family get-togethers, right? This is the first family meeting in freaking Mill Basin. We’re in a nice neighborhood where nobody could possibly know we were—”
Vinny held up his hand. “If there’s a traitor, nowhere is safe. Act like you understand that and don’t be offended, it only makes you look suspicious.”
“Seriously?”
Vinny nodded, and I caught the deeper meaning. If someone in the family had made a deal with any of our enemies, then nowhere was safe and nobody was safe. Seeing as someone got to the Don, my father of all people, it was obvious that the danger was real.
