Page 41

“Only slightly. Now, answer the question.”

She goes up on her tiptoes with the waves crashing behind her and I lean down. She kisses me quickly and then says, “I’d love to make toast with you, Mr. Pietro.”

“Good, Mrs. Pietro. It’s first on the agenda.”

“Gotta say, you have a really easy bucket list. Give me a challenge.”

“Toast is just the beginning.” I wind my arm around her, and we turn to walk back to the hotel when Becca appears.

She yells, “It’s time.” Poppy nods her head sharply.

“I’m ready.”

“You know this is like pushing a snowball down a fucking snowy hill, right?”

“More like a mountain, but yes. It all starts now.”

“Let’s roll.”

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

Poppy

Becca and I have scripted a coded conversation for David. Sal taped burners all over Sonoma in case we needed an untraceable network. I pray the cleaning crew didn’t throw away the phone at Prohibition Winery, and that it’s still charged. It’s time for Enzo to think I took the bait when, really I am the bait. If this all goes accordingly, I’ll bring my skinny ass to them. Becca squeezes my hand as I take the phone from her and push send.

It rings four times and then thank god it’s David who answers.

“Holy balls! It’s a fucking bat phone. When the fuck did you hide this in here? Who the fuck is on this burner? Come on. Can’t be him so…um…Pop?”

“Hi, David.”

There’s a huge, stilted exhale from him and then he launches into a flurry of words. “Christ. Are you ok? Your mom is freaking out. Are you ok? I miss you. Sadie misses you. Hell, we all do. Tell me you’re ok? This is a balls-out move on your part. You’ve gone full tilt crazy. Pop, girl, come home. I’m so fucking sorry you’re going through this, but please let me be there for you. We can fuck shit up together, what ever you need. But come home.”

I bite back emotion. No time for it. “Shut up.”

“Always good to hear from you.” We get along, but we fight like brother and sister.

“Seriously. Listen up. I need for you to tell Sadie I won’t be at her birthday party, but you all should still go. Also, Saoirse won’t make it either. She has to clean up after her guests. All of the five should go but maybe don’t have it at the Art Shack.” I exhale. I got all the coded elements into the sentence. There’s a long pause.

“Well, they’ll be upset, but if you’re busy. You’re busy. You might want to call your mother and tell her about the party.”

“I will. Next. Needed to tell you first, since you were the most direct line to the five members of your family.” There’s silence. Saoirse is our great Aunt who lives in Ireland where Brick and Becca have been staying. He’ll know Brick is with me.

David has a son and a daughter, so there are only four of them. He’ll get the reference that he’s to warn the five winery families about bodyguards and security measures. I’m going to war, and I need the home front protected. The art shack is where Becca, Aunt Jana, and little Sadie were confronted with one of Cady’s men who killed a bodyguard and almost killed them.

And apparently, I have enough loyal guys from Sal’s world to get this done. Boomer is on it, and the men are in place. Still no word from Lou, so we’ll mourn him later when we have time. Boomer stepped up and established contact with some of the best old school guys you could imagine. The ones who have been playing on the edges of Enzo’s regime of money and bloodshed but are loyal to us.

Enzo want me dead because they’ve discovered I control the Los Angeles harbor, the last piece of Sal’s mafia pie, that he couldn’t figure out how to extricate himself without it falling into truly evil hands. That money gets funneled into an account I’ve never looked at. It’s handled by Sal’s lawyer, who is safely hidden away. But he didn’t hide me well enough.

David clears his throat. “And you’re safe?” It’s rushed, and I need to get off the phone, so I don’t burst into tears. I don’t have time for them. Now to tell him how I can be found.

“Yes, silly question.”

“And you’re not coming home.”

“Correct.”