“The family. If we meet Scout’s family, they will meet ours.”
I blinked.What?
“And how do you think that’s going to work? We can’t just strut into a vampire den and say, “Hi, we’re a fucking organized crime family. Can we hang?”
“We won’t.” He rolled his eyes. “We’ll be your real family.”
“But Jaime has met my brother.”
There was a pause in his plans. “Well, who cares? We’ll be fine.” He put a finger up and spoke into the phone. “Dante! My friend! I need you to come to Mexico with Desiderio and me.”
I drove through the night as Arsenio spent our first leg of the trip making phone calls to Corrine, Toulouse, and Dante.
The conversations went about the same as ours had been. They were skeptical and had lots of questions, but finally, all three agreed to come.
As we pulled into our first hotel, Arsenio discussed Ginata and what to do about her situation as a whole. None of us had known about her imposter. Discovering the truth caused some major issues. Organized crime was only as good as its weakest member, and currently, ours was MIA.
I checked us in and handed Arsenio his room card as he continued his phone call. Finally, as I was taking Tippi into my room, Arsenio hung up and smiled wide.
“This is great. The seven of us, under one roof again. I can’t wait!”
I shook my head. “What about Ginata?”
He waved off my concerns. “Corrine is on the case. She’ll figure it out. She always does. There’s a reason for her sin.”
Pride.
“Thanks for doing this, man,” I said, putting my hand on the door. He came over to me. His room was directly across from mine. He put his hand on my back and patted it hard, causing me to jerk forward.
“No problem, friend. It’s going to be perfect. I can see it now. The six of us, all standing beside you on your wedding day. I couldn’t think of anything better. Well, other than being your best man, naturally,” he laughed.
“You want to be my best man?” I blinked with surprise.
“Of course!” he boomed. “Who else better to give her away than the man who did originally!”
“That’s not how—” I started, then shook my head. His laughter, energy, and the overall good mood was growing on me. I grinned. “Yeah, okay. I’d like that.”
35
The flight didn’t take long. In fact, it was a little too short for my liking. I had hoped for more time to process everything. I had a brother and an aunt. They lived in Mexico, as I had thought, and they were special.
I was special.
I was hesitant to tell Jaime about what I had only recently learned I could do. So far, my new abilities were only activated with Desi. None of it really mattered if he wasn’t with me.
And he wasn’t. I specifically asked him to back off. I needed time to process this entire week.
I told myself that I would never go back to Desiderio Amato, but the moment he came for me, I was putty in his hands. I couldn’t resist the pull I had to him. Despite his violent actions, he still had my heart.
“Are you okay?” Ludovica reached for my hand. I blinked and turned to her on the plane.
“Yeah, just nervous. I’ve spent half a century looking for these people, only to have it thrust on me in a few hours.” I glanced over at Jaime. I supposed if I were to have a sibling, he’d be it. It was hard for me to see similar features in us, but the aunt was undeniable. We could almost be twins.
Jaime heard us and nodded. He said something in Spanish, and I shook my head.
“No sé Español,” I told him, shrugging apologetically.
He cocked his head and an eyebrow. “I thought you spent time in Mexico?”
