For a moment, I think she's leaving. Walking away from me and my bloody history.
But she doesn't leave.
She opens a closet. Reaches inside. Pulls out a bottle of gin and a glass.
Then she grabs a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
She comes back to the living room. Sets the water on the coffee table in front of me. Pours herself three fingers of gin.
Takes a long drink.
Then she sits down in the chair across from me.
"Continue," she says.
Her voice is rough. Like she's been crying, even though her eyes are dry.
I pick up the water. Take a sip. My throat is dry from talking.
"Bruno was different back then," I say. "Younger. Happier. He was running errands for his father, building his reputation. He found me trying to steal from one of the Sartori warehouses."
I almost smile at the memory.
"I was sixteen. Starving. Stupid. I thought I could grab some merchandise and sell it for food money. Bruno caught me with my hands on a crate of electronics."
Marina takes another drink of gin.
"He should have killed me. That's what you do when you catch a thief in your territory. But he didn't."
I set the water down.
"He looked at me. And he asked me one question."
"What question?"
"He asked me if I had anywhere else to go."
The words hang in the air between us.
"I told him no. I told him I had nothing. No family. No home. No future. And he said?—"
I stop. Swallow.
"He said, 'Then you have us.'"
Marina is quiet.
"Bruno brought me to his father. Don Sartori. The old man looked me over like I was a stray dog someone had dragged in from the rain. Which I was, basically."
I go still. Eyes on the floor.
"He asked me what I could do. What skills I had. I told him I could fight. I could take a beating and keep standing. I could be useful."
My hands are steady. They're always steady.
"Don Sartori asked me one more thing. He asked me if I was willing to do whatever it took to survive. Whatever it took to protect the family that took me in."
I look at Marina.
