Page 52 of The Thief

“No, I’m back home.” I stare morosely at the Titian on my wall. I should be triumphant after my successful heist, but I feel flat.Again.

The next move will have to come from you.

“Do you want to come over for dinner with us tonight?”

“Yes,” I reply. I don’t particularly want to go out, but I can’t stay here and wallow either. This room smells like sex, and it’s making me want more. I’m perilously close to calling Antonio back, and I need to get out of here before I do something I regret.

“Fantastic,” she says. “Come over anytime. Oh, I wanted to ask you something else. What are you doing on Thursday? Do you have plans with Antonio?”

My heart does a funny little leap when I hear his name. “Why would I have plans with Antonio?”

“Oh, just a wild guess,” she says teasingly. “Not at all because you marched into his house on Wednesday, and he cut a meeting short to spend time with you. And it’s certainly not because you were there again today, and once again, Antonio interrupted a meeting halfway across town and tore back to intercept you. No, that has nothing to do with it at all. So, are the two of you an item now?”

Danger signs flash in front of my eyes. As much as she pretends otherwise, my best friend is a secret romantic. If I tell her everything that’s happened between Antonio and me, she’ll start planning our wedding.

“We are not,” I say repressively. “I’m not crazy; I’m not getting involved with a mafia boss. The only thing I’m doing on Thursday is my laundry.”

“In that case,” she replies, sounding like she’s smothering a laugh, “do you want to go to a sex club with me?”

What? My mouth falls open. “Did you just say sex club?”

“Yes,” she says as if a sex club is a perfectly normal place to visit on a Thursday night. “Angelica is having her second sleepover at her new best friend’s house, which, after her bullying woes, seems like a reason to celebrate. I was so thrilled when she asked me for permission that I didn’t even care that it was a school night. So, want to go with me?”

My brain is still stuck on the wordssex club.As far as I know, Valentina hasn’t dated since Angelica was born. I once asked her how she managed without sex, and she told me she had an outlet for that. I thought she meant a vibrator like the rest of us, but clearly, no.

Every day, I learn something new.

“Of course, if you don’t think you should because of your relationship with Antonio. . .” Her voice trails off suggestively.

I think about how bereft I felt when he left, how I’ve been staring moodily at the Titian for the last hour instead of doing the right thing and returning it to the Palazzo Ducale, and know I need to put a stop to this. I need to do something to get myself under control before it’s too late.

Are you sure it isn’t already too late?

“I have no relationship with Antonio,” I say harshly. “Let’s go to your sex club.”

28

ANTONIO

The next week is quiet. Sandro Rizzi continues to recover, and the doctors are optimistic that he’ll be well enough to be discharged in a few days. Nobody else gets beaten up, and nobody gets killed. We find two more containers filled with guns, and I have them crushed, but Gafur doesn’t retaliate, something that I’m both grateful for and uneasy about.

Thursday evening, I’m meeting with Tomas to go over the plans he’s developed for financially ruining Yuri Kozlov when Dante walks into my office. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” he says. “Tomas, can you give me a moment alone with the padrino?”

My senses go on high alert. Dante wouldn’t interrupt unless it was important. When the door closes behind us, I ask, “Is it Kozlov? What happened?”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s something else.”

I give him an inquiring look, and he hesitates, something else that isn’t like him. “Spit it out, Dante.”

“Today is Thursday. Valentina just walked into Casanova.”

“Ah.”

Dante and Valentina have a complicated relationship. On the surface, they’re unfailingly polite to each other and generally work well as a team. But there are undercurrents between them. Roberto, the father of Valentina’s child, was Dante’s brother. Dante had no idea that Roberto was abusing her, and when he found out, he lost it. He went over to confront his brother, and in the ensuing tussle, Roberto’s gun went off.

His death was ruled an accident. Was it really? I don’t know; it doesn’t matter. I’ve certainly never asked Dante about it.

It’s been many years since Roberto died. Dante’s always been in love with Valentina, but he’s never allowed himself to make a move. He’s still beating himself up about his brother’s abuse and blames himself for not spotting the signs.

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