Guilt twists in my stomach. We’re the biggest liars of all.
“I swear, I don’t have a date. No one has ever asked me on a date,” I say ruefully.
It’s true, and I don’t know if that’s because of my intimidating family or because no one at St. Peter’s likes me enough to ask.
He relaxes a little, but his eyes are still narrowed, searching my face. “And what do you say if some meat-headed, horny idiot asks you on a date?”
“I say, my big brother will kill you.”
“You’re damn right he will.” He strokes my hair back from my face and studies me with an intensity that makes me feel naked. “If you want to go out tonight, I’ll take you out. I just have to do some things first.”
My heart leaps. A night out with Damiano, just the two of us. It’s pathetic how much I want this.
I shrug, not wanting to show Damiano that a night with him all to myself is my idea of heaven. “Sure, if you’re so desperate, I suppose I’ll have to keep you company.”
Damiano smiles like he can see right through me. He probably can. We’ve never been good at hiding things from each other.
“I’ll pick you up at eight. Be ready when I get home?”
“I will.”
He kisses my cheek, so close to the corner of my mouth that I feel it like a brand, and he gets to his feet with me still in his arms. For a moment, we’re pressed together, chest to chest, his face inches from mine.
Then he settles me back into the chair like I weigh nothing.
“See you then, sis.”
I watch his broad, muscular back as he heads into the house, my heart pounding in anticipation. Going out with Damiano on a Saturday night, and he’s promised to pick me up.
It almost feels like a date.
6
Damiano
The capo is on his knees and sobbing his heart out, a pathetic display for a Barone man. My father sits behind his desk, fingers steepled, the gold viper signet ring glinting on his little finger. His face is impassive, but there’s a slight curl to his lip as he gazes at the man.
He speaks to me, standing on his right-hand side. “What’s my number one rule, Damiano?”
“Live with honor, Don Carlucci,” I reply.
“And what do I hate more than anything in the world?”
The answer is readily on my tongue. It’s been driven into me almost since the day Lucy and I arrived at the Barone mansion. “Lies, Don Carlucci.”
The man on his knees sobs even harder. The dozen capos at his back are as still and impassive as stone. Everyone in this room knows the don’s ironclad rules by heart, and they would sooner slash their own throats than act with dishonor. No one has an ounce of pity for the traitor.
Carlucci Barone makes his expectations crystal clear. The day we become made men, we swear an oath of loyalty to him, and we must live it, breathe it, and honor it until the day we die.
Even before I became a made man, I learned to fear displeasing Dad. I lost count of the number of times he beat me between the ages of twelve and fifteen. If I was late, if he thought I was lazy, if I questioned him or didn’t follow his instructions to the letter, he would take off his belt and lay into me viciously. Every inch of my back, my ass, my thighs would be on fire. Physical punishment is his favorite form of discipline.
It never happened at home, only in this office adjoining the Barone warehouses, so Lucy never knew.
I think she might have screamed the house down if she did.
When I turned fifteen, I learned the truth about our family, and I never dared to break one of Dad’s rules again. I stood on the spot where Emilio is presently kneeling, the capos at my back, while Dad told me the reason why I’d been adopted. Not to be his son, or rather, not only to be his son. My father is not a businessman. Mr. Barone is just his public persona. He is Don Carlucci, head of the Barone crime family, and I had been plucked out of that squalid, hateful group foster home to become a mafia prince. Not a lot of what he was saying was a surprise to me as he’d given me a gun the year before, but this was the point of no return.
Dad was asking me to join him. I would be a soldier, the lowest ranked one at first, but I could work my way up, and if I worked hard enough and gave my whole life to the family, one day I would take his place and be as powerful as he is.
