I don’t know what he’s making but it smells amazing. Thin slices of meat with breadcrumbs coat the flesh, fried in a pan.
“I keep forgetting you’re a pig.”
“And the fat jokes continue,” I mutter.
Diego laughs. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. You’re very attractive…for a cop.”
“I don’t know if I can handle this many compliments from you, Diego.”
“Shut up.”
He places a plate in front of me and I dig in, praising the taste.
“You’re gonna make some guy a great wife one day,” I crack, and Diego snickers but there’s no humor in it.
“Tried that. Didn’t pan out.”
His face tells me that he’s not going to elaborate and warns me not to push at the same time. I just clear my throat.
“So tell me about Luca. What was he like when he was young?”
“Wild,” he answers easily, and it surprises me so much I tilt my head.
“Wild? Luca? He seems so…controlled.”
“Wasn’t always. Inherited his mama’s temper.”
“You knew Luca’s mother?”
He shrugs. “More than I knew my own mother, yeah. She pretty much took me in when I was about fourteen. Died just a few years later.”
“Jesus. So you two really lived together for a while?”
“When we were teenagers, yeah. He would have gotten into a lot of trouble if it weren’t for his father. He talks about him babying Nico, but he used to let Luca get away with murder, too. Luca just grew up. Nico never did.”
I hum. I’ve heard about Nico, read about him in the dossiers. He seems dangerous. A loose cannon. Nothing like his older brother. Except I suppose they aren’t so different after all. They just took different paths.
Diego looks at me curiously. “What do the cops say about me?”
I look at him, biting my lip nervously. “You really wanna know?”
He nods.
I tell him, starting with his spotty military record and his colleagues who refused to say a bad word about him.
His shoulders relax. “That’s not so bad.”
“Thought they might know more?”
“Yeah. A lot more. You guys aren’t great at your jobs, huh?”
I throw back my head and laugh, holding my stomach. I wipe tears of mirth from my eyes after a moment, going back to my food.
“You’re not like any other cop I’ve ever met.”
“I think I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Not sure I meant it as one.”
