Page 35 of Forbidden Surrogate

He shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. Pino wouldn’t allow me to act against his brother and I saw thewisdom in it. My sister should have listened to my father when he told her who to marry.”

“Understood.”

I make some slight movement that makes my father think I’m planning to leave because his arm darts out faster than I realized his reflexes would allow.

“I’m not done with you.”

Of course he isn’t. Angela wasn’t in the crowd of bystanders and revelers gathered outside to watch the firefighters work and answer the police officer’s questions. Her instincts are strong enough that I wouldn’t expect her to linger around talking to cops but… I sincerely hope she didn’t add even more to my plate by making an escape attempt.

It’s bad enough that Delphine is gone. And I can’t ask my father for the resources to get her back without making that problem even worse.

“Anything, dad,” I answer calmly.

“I’m sending Mikey and Peter out to Pittsburgh to talk to Marco.”

Marco Corsini is Carmine’s eldest. It stands to reason that he would have been the one to plan this bombing, since we know Pittsburgh sent guys our way and he’s the one who would have been next in line to lead the mob. It couldn’t have been Maury Gravina. That’s not how their family works.

“He agreed to a conversation?”

“Pino’s his godfather. He convinced him,” my father explains, growing reasonably agitated because this entire situation is the last thing we expected to be dealing with in the midst of innumerable family dramas. I have the good sense not to bring up Delphine, but at some point either tonight or very soon, I’ll have to choose.

“Great. What’s the point of talking to Marco?”

“It’s a warning. They call off their men. They leave us alone. Or I kill Maurizio Gravina.”

“What about Aunt Nora?”

“What about her?” my father says. “I negotiated this truce on her behalf years ago, going against my own fucking father because she promised she could keep him in line. I smell a rat Luigi… and I’m going to wring its fucking neck.”

I strongly doubt killing our aunt’s husband would bring peace between our cities, but I can’t say what I would do in my father’s position. He has to make choices that I don’t envy in the slightest.

“Understood.”

It’s best to agree with my father when his voice tightens and he seethes with barely concealed anger. The only person who has ever had the power to control my father’s bitter anger is my mother, bless her soul, and I don’t have a clue how she does it. Considering my father’s prolific career in the family business, I suspect it’s a dossier of blackmail.

“This is horse shit,” dad complains, switching his attention to an important detail that I couldn’t have expected to escape him. “And where the fuck is Angela? Tell me she had nothing to do with this?”

I sigh, ready to accept the verbal beatdown of a lifetime over my missing sister, when I hear her irritating voice behind us.

“I was staying out of the way,” she says innocently. “I’m right here dad, calm down. Luigi taught me well.”

“Perfect. Come here, princess.”

Apparently, they’re friends now. Angela throws her arms around my father and says dramatically, “We could have all died. The entire family could have been blown up like bacon bits.”

“I’ll go get Peter and Mikey. When do you want us on the road?” I say to interrupt Angela.

“Before they know what fucking hit them.”

Angela gives me long, slow eye contact as if to ask me what the hell I plan to do about thebig secretwe both have. I press one finger to my lips, hoping she doesn’t say anything stupid in front of our father.

“I have to have a word with Peter,” Angela says (not suspiciously at all, mind you). “I’ll walk with Luigi.”

“You two are getting along?” Dad asks, as if he isn’t the cause of most of the fights between us.

“We’re fine,” I tell him.

“He’s my big brother and I love him to death,” Angela says, laying it on thick. Nick approaches dad, distracting him long enough that I can make good on my promise to talk to my cousins while getting some valuable alone time with Angela.

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