Page 31 of The Don

After I’ve sketched out the broad strokes of my plan, the men scatter.

Lorenzo goes to retrieve the car. Federico offers to help Carlo dispose of Flavia’s body. That leaves me alone on the terrace with Tommaso.

“Do you want anything to drink, padrino? Eat? Anything. My home is yours.” His nerves have returned, and I suddenly feel weary. This is a part of the job I haven’t managed to erase, not even with men like Alfonso and Giulio. It is tiresome to watch my men bow and scrape like peasants.

“I want for nothing,” I tell him good-naturedly. “But I do have a job for you. Something no one can know.”

His eyes widen in shock, and he nods, eagerly. “Anything,” Tommaso whispers, his voice full of unnecessary reverence.

“I need you to send a message.”

“Si, padrino. To who?”

I shake my head. “One to Molise. One to Abruzzo.”

Somehow his eyes manage to widen even more as I tell him the message he must pass along.

* * *

Shae

I take my sweet time doing my hair, so I don’t have a reason to get dressed, but putting my hair into Bantu knots only takes so long, so I kill some more time by hanging my clothes and Salvatore’s in the closet. And then giving myself a tour of his apartment. Still naked as the day I was born.

Zoe always says there’s no kind of freedom like walking around your home naked. But this is not my house, and I am not a bold person by nature, so I move around Salvatore’s apartment on the balls of my feet, tentatively, slowly turning doorknobs, peeking into new rooms through cracked doors. I don’t touch a thing.

I don’t find anything out of the ordinary, but with Salvatore gone, I feel just how deeply I don’t belong here or in his world.

But I don’t want to live in his world; I just want him.

I came here for him.

I think I tried to ignore that at the time, but I can’t now. I came here for Salvatore. Zahra found Giulio. Zoe can take care of herself. Neither of them needs me. We’re not children anymore. And I only want Salvatore. And just as I think that, the front door opens, and I rush into the living room, forgetting that I’m naked. Maybe I’ve finally tapped into the freedom Zoe was talking about.

Lorenzo — I think, I can’t really tell them apart — looks at me quickly and then away with wide eyes before Salvatore breezes into the room, smiling when he sees me. Lorenzo pulls the door closed quickly behind him.

I should feel embarrassed, but I don’t. “You told me to be naked.”

“I did.” He starts to finger his beard, stroking the gray hair, watching me.

“So, I am.”

He smiles and scratches under his chin. He lifts his eyebrows in interest. “You are.”

“Are you done with…work?” I ask tentatively, naïvely.

His eyes lift to my face, and he smiles. “Si, bella. For now.”

“Good.” I shove my hands behind my back and cross one leg in front of the other, posing for him without thinking. No,thisis the freedom Zoe promised.

I watch Salvatore’s gaze move down my body again, his eyes squinting in focus, his hand caressing his beard, his tongue wetting his lips. There’s nothing like the way he looks at me.

“Did you just want to watch me?” I ask, my heart racing a mile a minute.

“Not only that,” he says, not making a move. “You’re beautiful.”

My stomach growls before I can respond appropriately.

Salvatore’s eyes lift to mine, and there’s anguish — actual anguish! — on his face.

---