“Well, remember how I told you that I don’t speak to my family? In fact, I haven’t heard from any of them for almost two years.” He nods as I take a deep breath. “My mother texted me while I was giving River his bath.”
Emerson frowns as I hand him my phone to read the texts.
“Now, normally it wouldn’t bother me and I’d just ignore her. But this gives me a bad feeling. Mostly because I don’t know how she got my number and how does she know I’m in Illinois? We didn’t take a commercial flight.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do.”
“I need to get my cousins in on this. My cousin Sebastiano is an IT guy, so is Francesco Bastianini. They’re the two that take care of things for us.”
“Okay.”
“And I need to go and talk to my zios for a minute. I need you to stay here. I promise you, we’ll figure this out.”
Emerson kisses me and leaves me in the room. I take a shower to pass the time and then get into bed to wait for him to get back.
Emerson
I head over to my Zio Enea’s house, it’s a five-minute walk from our house. I need to talk to him before I can tell Sawyer anything about my family. The Mancinis and O’Connors are mafia. My Zio Enea is the head of the Chicago Mafia. I’m not sure if Sawyer’s heard of my family or not. She hasn’t asked me anything.
“Hey, Emerson, come on in,” my zio says as he greets me at the door.
“I’m really sorry it’s so late, but I didn’t want to wait.”
Sebastiano and Francesco come driving up in their four-wheelers. They both yawn at me.
“I was in bed. Warm and snuggly with my gorgeous wife,” Sebastiano says as he looks at me with one eye closed.
I laugh. “I’m really sorry. But this was enough to worry Sawyer and the look she gave me, made me worry.”
I show them the texts and tell them her story.
“She said she hasn’t heard from any of them for almost two years. And she brought up a good point. We didn’t take acommercial flight. So how did her mother find out she’s back here in Illinois?”
“Yeah, that’s fucked up. Okay, I’ll get on this.” Francesco yawns. “Can you send me those texts and the number?”
I nod as I send it to him.
“The other thing is I need to know is if I can tell Sawyer about all the families.”
My zio looks at me.
“You know the rules. Is she the one? And I mean are you sure that this isn’t just a fleeting feeling?”
“She’s the one, Zio. I have zero doubts, Sawyer and River are mine. And I won’t give either of them up.”
“Okay, and she also needs to understand that our secrets stay with the family. As for the Athanasious and Nikolaidises, you’ll need to talk to Zeus and Panagiotis.”
“Grazie, Zio. I’ll talk to them tomorrow.”
“My papà says if she’s the one, you can tell her about us too,” Francesco says to me.
Francesco’s papà is Giacomo Bastianini, president of the Cimaruta MC Chicago.
“Thank you, Franco.”
“I hate to say this, but I need to get some sleep. But I promise we’ll get on this first thing tomorrow.” Sebastiano yawns.
