“Handle this,” he replied.
“Will he kill him?”
“No, but I told Teddy I don’t care what he does to him.”
“You’re ruthless,” she murmured.
He smiled. “Sì, amore mio, lo sono. Yes, my love, I am.”
Simone’s phone rang. “It’s Peter.” She answered, put the call on speaker. “Hi, Peter.”
“The office said you stopped by.”
“Yeah, I did.” He sounded like he’d just woken up. “Are you not feeling well?”
Peter choked back a sob. “Jerod ended things. He broke it off with me last night. I’m devastated.”
She exchanged glances with Luciano. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m a mess.” He paused to blow his nose. “I didn’t think it would affect me like this. I mean, I knew it would end. Maybe I didn’t. Hell, I don’t know. I called in sick today. Fortunately, Lucy is at work. I begged Jerod to come over so we could talk it out?—”
“He broke up with you over the phone?”
“Yeah, it was brutal. It started with a text, then we talked.” He started crying again. “I have to go.”
The line went dead.
“Here’s your chance,” Luciano said.
“I’m going for his jugular,” Simone replied.
“Now, you sound like a Santini.”
She shot him a little smile. “Thank you.”
After she plugged Peter’s address into her GPS, Luciano took the on-ramp to the beltway and slowed. It was rush hour and traffic was crawling.
“I thought Peter was a good guy—one of the best,” she said. “Now, I think he’s helping terrorists get into the country. Howfucked up is that? I thoughtyouwere a bad guy. You’re one of the best men I have ever known.”
“I just broke my cousin’s finger.”
“He deserved it.”
Luciano clasped her hand in his, rested them on her lap. “You know what we should do together?”
“Go to target practice?”
He smiled. “No. Fly to my Milan headquarters, then vacation on the Italian coast.”
“That sounds incredible.”
“The family has a condo in the city and a home on the coast. You would love it there.”
“I’m sure I would.”
“First, we deal with Hirzog, we find this Dante monster, and we play in Italy for as long as we want.”
“Forever sounds good,” she replied.
