Page 32 of Texting My Mafia Savior

I don’t like his tone very much, but I’m going to have to put up with a lot of crap this evening. I sit and place my hands in my lap, waiting for him to take the lead.

“Are you hungry?” he asks.

I offer a smirk. “As hungry as you are, Don Caruso.”

“Don’t be a kiss-ass,” he snaps.

Ah, so the charm I used to use won’t work. I was pretty good at disarming him once. But clearly, it’s not that sort of dinner. “Yes, I’m hungry,” I tell him. “How could a man come to Lupa Osteria and not be hungry?”

“Order anything you want,” he says dismissively. “It’s a gift from the Caruso Family.”

“Please, Don Caruso, allow me to give you the gift of this meal.”

“Are you trying to insult my hospitality?”

I can’t win. “No, sir.”

“What’s with all the titles, all the respect? You used to call me Dominic.”

“That was before,” I say, shrugging. “But I can drop the?—”

“The what? The act? Is that what you were going to say? You’ll stop pretending? Is that it?” With each question, his face grows even redder.

“I was going to say ‘the formalities,’” I tell him.

It might not seem like it to an outside observer, but this is one of the most dangerous experiences of my life, including my time as an enforcer. One misspoken word, one moment of disrespect, and he’ll call his men in here and have me executed. Lucy won’t know what happened.Arriawon’t know. Somehow, the thought of never seeing Aria again hurts more than never seeing my best friend, my so-called wife.

“Steak, bloody?” he says, somehow making it a demand.

“That sounds good to me… Dominic.”

I wait for the bait-and-switch, for him to demand that I speak to him with some respect. But it doesn’t come. He claps his hands together loudly. A terrified-looking waiter immediately opens a door hidden in the darkness and runs over to the table. “Yes, Don Caruso?”

“Bring me the special item,” he says.

“That’s a funny name for a steak.” I try to make it sound like a joke, but Dominic isn’t smiling. I know that look well—he’s about to play some twisted trick. It’s the same look he got before he arranged the fight between me and his men. Whatever this is, the bastard’s going to enjoy it.

“Hmm, funny,” Dominic says. “Do you know what’s funny to me, my old friend? I went my entire life never caring about a woman. Enzo’s mother, as you know, was a relationship of convenience—a relationship which ended when she disappeared to Europe, doing her runaway job so effectively that evenIcouldn’t find her. She left, and then I found another. I saw Lucia dominating the room with her eye for art, knowing exactly how to orchestrate her artists, her patrons, her world. I fell in love, Nico. I suppose it surprised you. I suppose you thought I was a monster.”

Heisa monster. That’s why Lucy came to me and begged for my help.

Instead of food, the waiter brings out a large box. My gut tightens. Fuck. It’s a lie detector test. A small man with wire-framed glasses follows, looking at the floor. Another waiter appears and clears the table, while the first places the big box down. The man with the wire-framed glasses pulls up a chair.

“This is Hugo,” Dominic says. “He’s going to administer a little test.”

“What’s this about?” I growl. “All these years, and now you’re playing games with me? I paid my debt, Dominic.”

“This is about truth, my dear friend. Enzo noticed something between you and your niece. You’ve always been so cold, so collected, so in control, just like I was. But when he made some flippant comment abouther, you changed. He said you were like an animal protecting what’s his. It was rather shocking. It seemed your change was like mine.”

The small man moves to take my hand and strap the lie detector gear onto my finger. I move away. He looks at Dominic.

“Are you going to make this difficult?” Dominic snarls.

“These machines are bullshit,” I snap. “They can’t detect lies. They can show heightened states, spikes in adrenaline. I’ve been out of the life for a long time. Of course I’m going to have a goddamn spike in adrenaline right now. This won’t prove anything.”

“We’re doing the test,” Dominic says flatly. “Let Hugo set it up. Or I’ll assume the answers are already what I expect them to be.”

I swallow. What choice do I have? Fuck. This is terrible. I can’t figure a way out of this without causing problems—bloodshed. Is he going to hurt Arria? Is he going to claim Lucy after all these years?

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