“So when he accepted to be the boss…”
“Seppi killed my mom…and my baby sister.”
“What?” I gasped.
“Mamma was six months pregnant when he…” He burst into tears.
“I’m so sorry.” I rubbed his back and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, but he cried harder. “Leo, please, take it easy.”
“He raped her, Lina. He sat there and watched her bleed out my baby sister, and then he slit her throat.”
My tears fell with his, my heart in shreds. Why would anybody do something this horrid for a seat? “I’m so sorry. So sorry. Where were you and Tino when it happened?”
“I was sick that day and couldn’t go to school. It got worse by the afternoon. The doctor was too busy to come to the house so he asked her to drop by the clinic. Dad was home and said he’d take me so she’d rest. Her pregnancy wasn’t a very easy one.
“Seppi came to the house around three p.m. with his men, murdered all the bodyguards and tortured my mom to death.”
“That’s terrible. If you and Tino were there, too, you’d have been murdered as well.”
“But if Mamma and I had been at the doctor’s, Tino would have died, and she and my sister would have lived. Away from this fucking mess.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe Seppi would have found you all. You can’t blame Tino for what happened. He was taking care of you. You should be glad you and your dad survived.”
“Glad?” He chuckled bitterly. “None of that would have happened if he hadn’t become the fucking boss.”
“You can’t think that way, Leo. Tino is a good father.”
“Why are you taking his side?”
“I’m not taking sides. But when you have a father like him, you don’t take it for granted. What happened is a terrible tragedy, but it’s happened to both of you.”
He rested his forehead on his palm and shook his head, a troubled sigh escaping him. “Anyway, what’s done is done.” He looked at me, trying to smile. “Can we stop talking about Tino now? You’re making me jealous.”
“Jealous?” I tucked my hair behind my ear nervously. “W-why would you be jealous?”
“Because he’s hot, and you look at him like he’s something to eat.”
Heat came off my face in waves. “I…I don’t—”
His smirk taunted me. “It’s okay. I’m the spitting image of him. It’s normal that you find him attractive, too. I’m also aware that girls like you dig older guys.”
“Girls like me?”
“Beautiful, innocent, blushing , amazing girls like you who swoon over beards and tats.”
“Oh my God, Leo. You are…”
“I can grow a beard if you want. And,” he leaned in. “I have tattoos of my own.”
I bit my lip, imagining where on his body they could be. “Do you?”
“Yeah. Wanna see?”
Yes, please.I jerked up, leaving him alone on the bench. “You’re trouble.”
He wrapped his fist around my wrist and gazed up at me. “Marry me, Lina. Make an honest man out of me.”
I laughed. A wholehearted laugh. I didn’t think I’d ever had one of those before.
