"Mami, this is my good friend, Mario. Tell him the news."
"We are getting married." She kisses Edoardo.
The thread snaps.
I look at her and find a smile because I know Dad. I offer a brief placation with social niceties. "Congratulations, I'm pleased for you." Then the smile vanishes. "But we have business. Dad? Edoardo?"
"Enzo," Dad warns as Costa places a hand on her curvy ass.
I can't keep the irritation from my voice. "No. Lyndall and Lola might be getting tortured while you two eat cake and fucking cucumber sandwiches."
"This is not how we do things."
"It may not be how you do things, Dad, but my woman, my sister, your daughter, are on the line." I stare him down, waiting for him to contradict me, to fight me on this.
We may not be blood to Lyndall, but we are family.
And the fact he's fucking here gives me some kind of hope that he cares.
"I am aware, Enzo. But there are ways..."
"It's all right, Mario." Costa sighs and nods, then whispers into his fiancée's ear.
I really don't care that we didn't get a name. I'm notexpecting an invitation, let alone a formal request to be the man's best man.
What I do want is to get down to the business that got us here.
So, I wait, holding onto the fragments of my patience.
She wiggles out, and the man's expression turns to one of hard business as she disappears completely.
He clasps his hands together, leaning back in his chair.
Now would be the time to move to a more professional setting, crack out hard liquor, smoke a cigarette or cigar. Show it's time for negotiations, that the niceties are done.
He doesn't, just studies me.
When he's done, he spreads his hands. His gaze doesn't leave me. "Let's get down to it, then. I am guessing you are not overly thrilled I helped Dominic, are you?"
"Enzo is aware you didn't mean to upset my family in such a way. I take it Rebecci didn't mention my daughter?"
"He did mention a second female, just not who she was." He glances at Dad, then back at me. "So, you are not thrilled by this."
"That's the understatement of the fucking century. Of course, I'm not fucking thrilled."
Edoardo shrugs. "Do you plan to kill me? Shoot me? Slit my throat?"
I wait a beat, and I'm slightly mollified Dad doesn't interject.
I stare him down. "No. I just want Rebecci and the girls."
He picks out a delicate cake and eats it. "It wasn't anything personal, you understand. I'm a businessman, first and foremost."
"I bought the startup, not fucking Louie's issues."
Edoardo shrugs again. "But... you bought it."
"The business. To help sort it, to protect Lourdes. Ishould never have inherited his fuck-up. That's not how it works."
