Rory clucked her tongue. “Never figured my bruiser of a brother would be saying stuff like that to me without at least a quarter bottle of whiskey in him.”
“You learn what you’ve lost once it’s gone and you learn never to take it for granted,soru,” I told her softly as I stared at the landscape ahead.
“It makes sense,” Luc agreed. “You’re not one of those creeps who’s into the big age gaps. I never did understand the fascination. You were more protective of her than you were of Rory sometimes.”
“Never really forgot how we found her,” I rasped.
“No. Me either. That goddamn sweatshop.” Luc sighed. “I went to Alina’s restaurant last week.”
“Yeah?”
“She said to say hi.”
“Wonder if she’ll want to know about Vangelin,” I mused. “It’s too little, too late for Evangeline…”
“But no other mother will have to go through what she did. You prevented that from happening again, Stan. That’s on you. No one else. Now Vangelin is FDA-approved, it’ll save lives.You’llsave lives.”
It didn’t whitewash my sins but it was a start.
“How’s Catania?” Luciu inquired, clearly wanting to change the subject.
“Beautiful.”
“Is Kitty loving the estate?”
“She is. Not that we’ve explored much of it,” I admitted wryly.
“TMI, Stan.” Luc pshawed. “That’s our cue to go, Rory.”
“Before you do, there’s something you should know…”
“What is it?” was their simultaneous, wary retort.
I cleared my throat. “I made a breakthrough before we left for Sicily. On the counter-compound for Red. There’s still a long way to go, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
Glowing, Rory expressed, “Thank you, Stan.”
I’d always known she hated the drug and its derivatives. Known that she detested how I’d sullied myself with them.
What she didn’t know was that I’d worked my team hard to take my hypothesis into testing. It had been too fast, but we didn’t have little things like regulations to stop us.
“If we start to use that formula instead of the original one, users will get the erection without the murderous intent.”
“That sounds positive,” Rory cheered.
“Just wanted you to know that it’s in the pipeline. We switch the product without the consumers ever knowing. Our dealers can trash their supply, and we’ll give them the newer compound for free so there’s no bad blood?—“
“We’ll need our men to watch them do it. You just know some of those fuckers will try to skim off the top.”
“I’ll leave that to you,frate. Just wanted to let you know that we should be able to get a better hold on the situation.
“Anyway, I’m off. I want to tell Kitty the great news. I think she’ll let me off for waking her up from her afternoon nap this once.”
“We made it,frates, haven’t we?”
My matching smile graced the view ahead of me—the estate, in all its grandeur, our home.
Even the terrible memories I had of this place were losing their sting.
