Page 4 of Twisted Knight

“She’s going to be fine,” I said as I served us both a double drink.

He sighed. “Yea…” His statement lacked conviction.

“Why are you even hiding up here as your wife is watching her romcom downstairs?”

He rolled his eyes. “I did have some work to do but then—” He shrugged. “She keeps trying to guilt me into getting her some junk food. I already caved four times this week… no more.”

“You can go down now; she won’t harass you again.”

Luca looked heavenward. “You bought her that damn burger, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “Of course I did.”

“Dom,” he started with a weary sigh.

I took a sip of my drink. “You know I’ll never refuse her anything.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s not good for her.”

“She’s pregnant, Luca. She’s not sick.”

“She’s so small.”

“Yes, and you’ve put two babies in her. This one’s on you.” I meant it as a joke but as Luca paled ever so slightly, I realized he was scared.

I’d rarely seen my best friend scared before. He was the beast capo, the scarred Mafia boss that terrified our rank almost as much as Genovese, the heartless bastard capo dei capi, did, and he was scared now.

“Women have been doing this for thousands of years. She is strong and valiant, our Cassie.” I let out a humorless chuckle. “Hell, she would have run a long time ago if it wasn’t the case.”

“I know.” He nodded. “It’s just—” He looked toward the computer again, remaining silent.

And I understood exactly everything he was not saying. Cassie was his everything; she had been the one who got him out of his pit of despair and self-destruction. He was living for her, breathing for her. If he’d lost her— I shivered. He would not survive it and I couldn’t even blame him.

I used this opportunity to change the subject. “You know, maybe it’s not the best time for Cassie’s cousin to come.”

“Dom… please.”

“Luca, as your consigliere—”

Luca laughed. “You know for a title you didn’t want, you use that card a lot.”

It was not that I didn’twantto be his consigliere, of course I did, but he was Mafia royalty. I’d been a son of a prostitute and a made man. A made man that was killed in mysterious circumstances when I was fifteen, circumstances that had never been investigated—because everyone, including me, were way too pleased for his untimely death. Luca’s position had already been challenged, but I shouldn’t have expected anything else from him. What Luca Montanari wanted, he got.

“She’s a stranger, Luca. An outsider.”

“So was Cassie, and look how she fits in. How much you care for her.” He arched an eyebrow. “I mean, in any other circumstances and were you any other man, I would shoot you just for how fusional you two are.”

I sighed. “It’s different.”

“Different how?”

I shook my head. I had no real argument except that we got very lucky with Cassie. Genovese accepted an outsider because Luca had something he wanted and gave it to him in exchange. We also got lucky that Cassie was basically the most caring woman in the world and accepted our darkness without blinking, which was also due to the fact that her parents had been serial killers and so much worse than we could ever be—at least in her eyes.

“Dom, I did all the searches on that woman, plus all the ones you requested.” He threw his hands up in exasperation. “I even had the poor woman followed by a PI for days! My wife would kill me for that. She’s her family.”

I crossed my arms on my chest. I knew I’d lost, not that my argument made a lot of sense to start with.

“Maybe she can come later? Cassie is not due for another month. The woman doesn’t know anything about our world; we don’t need to risk her discovering who we are.”

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