Page 41 of Mafia Star

“They were freshman.”

As though that explains everything. As I stare at him, I guess it does in his world.

“What happened?”

“We heard the sirens, so we all fled. The house we were at backed up to woods, so we spread out into our families and hid. I was so sure all the blood would lead them straight to us. I found out later Maria recognized a cop from where she hid in the neighbor’s backyard. She went and whispered to her who was there. The woman’s dad worked directly under Papa. Once the family names got out, the cops packed up and took off. Uncle Salvatore had never been as angry before as he was that night. He yelled at us in English, Italian, and Itanglese.”

That must be like Spanglish but with Italian.

“As bad as that was, it was worse facing Auntie Carlotta. She’s a surgeon and had to patch us all up. We all thought we were so grown up after that fight and had balls of steel. Since we were men, a few of us thought we could swear while we got our stitches. Hell. She made us all limp into the kitchen and handed out bars of soap. I seriously thought she was going to go through with it. I really thought she was going to make us wash our mouths out. She has the least tolerance for profanity. She didn’t care that we were in pain or half doped out of our minds on the meds she gave us.”

I shouldn’t laugh. And I’m really trying not to. But the image that conjures makes me nearly choke as I hold back.

“I got the feeling Shane got in a bunch of trouble, too.”

“We all did. Liam was in charge back then, and this psychopath named Vlad ran the bratva. Enrique and Uncle Sal led our two families. All of them lost their shit. It would have been World War Three if anyone had been seriously hurt or killed. It would have set off a street war. We got so fucking lucky because some of the other guys were just as badly injured. We all learned a lot from that night.”

I can’t believe he shared that much with me. Maybe he could because it’s from so far in the past, but it was a ton of insight into his world.

“Beth, what did Shane tell you back then about his family?”

“Not much. It was more about my family. I know both of my mother’s grandfathers were high up. People even thought her dad would takeover instead of Liam. But he wanted out. I don’t know the deal he made, but Shane said it had to be something big for them to let him out when he wanted to marry my grandmother. I guess they didn’t totally release him until my mom and aunts were born. Chelle told me they’ve been watching out for my family as part of that deal. But my mom basically fired them when my parents accepted Enzo as their son-in-law.”

“Did Shane tell you that his family was watching out for yours?”

“No. I had no idea back then. I haven’t thought about him or his family in years, but it pissed me off to find that out from Chelle. He could have told me someone was watching me all those years ago.”

“These men who followed you. What did they look like?”

“Nondescript. They didn’t look stereotypically anything. Not Latinx, not Eastern European, not Irish, not Mediterranean. Just run-of-the-mill American.”

“Did they say anything to you?”

“No. The first guy bumped into me hard as I was stepping onto the sidewalk outside my building. I checked my purse, which was still zipped. I felt around in my briefcase, but there was nothing missing and nothing extra in there. When I was getting off the subway, the guy behind me shoved me, and I nearly tripped. Then he was super close to me on the stairs. I noticed the guy I followed off the train was hanging back. I started walking here, then noticed a cab. I took it for the last block. When I got out, the guy from my apartment was two doors down. I have no idea how he got here ahead of me since he went in the opposite direction from the station after he pushed past me.”

Marco reaches around me and turns on a computer then a monitor. I shift to make it easier for him to click and type. He pulls up security footage, and I see myself get out of the cab. He clicks around, and the view changes.

“There. That was the guy outside my building.”

I look at Marco, but his face registers nothing. It’s completely blank as though he wasn’t looking at anything. He changes to another shot, looking down the block toward the light.

“Can you pause it?”

He does.

“Those two. The one right by the lamppost and the one next to the bus stop. They’re the ones from the train.”

I look at him again, but I can’t read anything at all. He sits back, one arm on the armrest, and the other around my hips.

“Beth, I want to arrange a security detail for you. I don’t know those men, but I know what kind of men they are. I don’t want you going anywhere unless one of the men in my family is with you.”

“What? I don’t need babysitting, Marco.”

His arm flies off the chair and grips my hip. The other goes up to my hair and holds me in place.

“No one is fucking babysitting you, Beth. You don’t need someone to make sure you don’t drink poison from under the sink or watch horror movies past your bedtime. What you need are trained men who can protect you from pieces of shit like those men who someone hired to do a lot more than just scare you. I will not budge even a millimeter on this. You will accept the bodyguards. You will not argue with me about this. Do you understand?”

He lets go of my hair, but his fingers bite into my hip.

---