Page 42 of The Don

“What do you want, Luca?” I say, sounding bored even though I’m raging inside.

He had been speaking in Italian, but he switches to English now. For dramatic effect, obviously. “Where is your wife?” He spits that question, not at me but Shae, with such vehemence that my hand tightens around the butt of my gun.

I feel her blanch at that question, or maybe his tone of voice, even though she knows there is no reason to worry about Flavia ever again. “Look at me,” I say in a voice betraying my anger.

Luca turns to me with a triumphant look.

I enjoy watching the pleasure on his face fade. “If the next words out of your mouth aren’t an apology, I promise they will be your last.” If nothing else, I know Luca understands that I do not make idle threats.

“Mi scuso,” he spits at Shae.

“In English.”

“I apologize.”

“Now, don’t ever even look in her direction again.”

When he turns back to me, his face is the deepest shade of crimson and pouring with sweat. “You don’t deserve her.” He says this in English as well, hoping to wound her.

I look at Shae and smile.

Her eyes are nervously bouncing between Luca and me. She’s fidgeting with my shirt, and I take my arm from her shoulder to grasp one of her hands and press it to my mouth. “I know.”

She bites her bottom lip, nervous to smile in front of Luca.

“I meant your wife, you pig!” he barks.

I frown in confusion for a few seconds before giving Luca my attention again. “I don’t deserveFlavia?” I ask in disbelief.

“She is a beautiful, classy woman who deserves loyalty, especially from her husband.” He spits out that last word, years of bitterness barely leashed.

I laugh so hard there are tears in my eyes.

Shae tenses beside me, unsure of what’s happening. I hate to leave her in confusion, but this situation is so ridiculous that I can’t stop the laughter.

“Beautiful. Classy. Loyalty.” I laugh between each word. “Spoken like someone who has never known her at all. Flavia? Beautiful? She’d better be. Do you know how much money she’s wasted on plastic surgery? Classy?” I spit out that last word, beginning to sober and leash my anger again. “You can dress a goat in Gucci all you want. It will remain a goat. And Flavia wouldn’t know how to spell the word ‘loyalty’ even if the answer could be found in the pants of those barely legal boys she was seducing all over Naples behind my back. As if I cared.”

Luca looks on the verge of a heart attack, so I make sure to drive this knife deep before I twist it.

“Oh, did you think she’s spent the last twenty years being faithful to me? Oh, no,” I say, clucking my tongue like an old woman. “No, no, no, no, no. Trust me, she spent every day of our marriage fucking anyone with a dick and the whisper of facial hair. But for the last few years, she’s used her…talents trying to convince them to kill me. Whileyouwere here all along. And yet she never even looked in your direction. I guess,” I say, with a casual shrug, “it seems she wasn’t willing to let the southern goatfucker touch her, even if you would have happily promised her my head on a spike. That’s what she called you. I assume you know that, but just in case you were not aware. How do the ashes of your loyalty taste?”

I’ve been waiting years to say that, and it feels good. It feels even better when Shae rests her head on my shoulder, cuddling up next to me to drive the full offense of the years Luca waited for Flavia home.

She is perfect.

Luca’s entire body is shaking with rage. If he were anyone else, I might have mustered an ounce of fear to see him in this state. If he were me, my gun would already be smoking. But Luca is Luca; no one can be someone they are not. Right before my eyes, his fists unclench, his jaw loosens, and his body sags forward. He becomes the man I always knew him to be.

“Patetico. Go away,” I say, letting go of my gun so I can shoo him away like a child. “You’re ruining my evening. You can flog yourself and jack off to memories of Flavia at some other table.”

Shae squeaks and covers her mouth, laughing against my side, her body shaking with gentle tremors. I soften against her.

“We need to talk,” Luca says in a quiet, defeated whimper.

“We’ve talked. I’m done.”

“I don’t believe that. You didn’t bring…” He stops speaking abruptly.

I lift my eyebrows, waiting.

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