Page 27 of Mafiosa
‘An address,’ he said. ‘Someone who will help you. Go to them, and they will hide you. Take your life and run with it. If not for me, then for your mother. She would have hated to see you turning to darkness. It would have broken her heart in two.’
I snatched the paper from his hands and opened it, reading the top of the address. ‘Who the hell is M Flores?’
‘Someone who will help you,’ he said simply.
I read the address. ‘Colorado?’ I looked up at him. ‘Are you serious? You want me to go to Colorado to stay with some guy I’ve never met?’
‘That’s exactly what I want you to do.’
‘Well, that is ridiculous.’ I brandished the paper between us. ‘You have seriously lost your mind.’
He raised a hand. ‘Put that away. Don’t show it to anyone else. When you go, you have to disappear. Don’t tell another soul the address on that piece of paper.’
I narrowed my eyes at the hurried script. ‘Who is this? And why would they owe you anything?’
He pursed his lips together. Another secret he would not relinquish. He was a fool to give this to me. As if I would ever listen to him. As if I still cared for any of his stupid, reckless advice. My fight was here, in Chicago. My fight was in the underworld, just as his was.
‘I’m not a monster, Sophie.’
I blew out a sigh. I had reached my threshold for this particular genre of conversation. All assassins were the same – deluded – and I was done being the resident counsellor. I was done with second chances,thirdchances. I could make up my own mind about who to trust from now on; that much had become very clear. ‘How long are you out for?’ I said, eyeing the prison guard.
‘They granted me furlough for the ceremony.’
‘Well, it’s over now. You can take off again.’
I was still inching away, trying to distance myself from the love I used to have for this man, from all the admiration and respect that was now smouldering inside me – a wasteland of childhood affection. ‘Soph, will you do what I said?’
I looked down at the note. I looked at his face.
‘If you prove your loyalty.’ I kept my gaze as steely as his own. ‘Show me that after everything, you’re on our side. Mine and Mom’s. Tell me where Jack is hiding.’
He drew in a loaded breath, his chest puffing out. ‘I won’t do that.’
I crumpled the note and threw it at his feet. ‘Then I can’t trust you.’
CHAPTER TENTARGET
‘Sophie.’ Valentino’s voice cut through my mental assessment of his office. The velvet drapes, the mahogany desk, the expensive leather chairs, the dark wood cabinets. ‘Are you ready to pay attention to me now?’
I turned back to him, dragging my gaze from a particularly opulent lamp in the corner of the room. ‘I was just… taking it all in.’ I tried to get comfortable in my chair, but I couldn’t. The leather squeaked under my attempts, drowning out Bach or Vivaldi or Beethoven or whoever was needlessly upping the dramatics.
I settled under his gaze, and wished he had asked one of the others to come in with me. A one-on-one meeting with the Falcone boss was not high on my bucket list.
He tapped his fingers along the desk, a careful drumming,perfectly in time with the music.
‘How was school?’ he asked blithely.
‘Do you really care?’ I asked. Valentino didn’t do small talk.
He was leaning back in his chair. He picked up a pencil and twirled it around, catching and releasing it between his fingers. ‘No, not especially.’
The pencil was quite captivating. ‘Your dexterity is commendable.’
‘How are you settling in?’ he said, the pencil still moving round and round. It was like he was trying to distract me. A test. I kept my gaze forward.
‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Felice notwithstanding.’
‘Unfortunately, Felice’s presence here cannot be helped.’ So Valentino didn’t think too highly of Felice either.Interesting. See also: unsurprising.‘Nic says you’re a natural shooter.’
