Page 124 of Sinful Crimes for the Artistically Inclined
Leo, meanwhile, had been worried—very worried—when neither Percy nor Joe returned for such a long period. He had fretted for a while, and his knee had begun to tap, so Althea had settled it with her hand. Leo had taken holdof that hand, formed the sudden, firm belief that Percy and Joe would sort themselves out, and promptly forgotten all about them.
Without Percy to watch over him, he continued to hold Althea’s hand. He accepted the wine the next time a waiter offered it, and the next time again, and once that bottle was empty, he decided to impress her by ordering something a little more refined, which was saying something, because Percy had already ordered exceptionally well. He chose to accompany the new, frightfully expensive wine with some ill-matched but also very expensive caviar, which the wait-staff congratulated him on regardless of the fact it clashed with both the wine and the carefully planned meal. The two looked at the dubious mound of black pearls that was soon set before them, spread some on a cracker each, counted to three and shoved the lot in. They spat it all out disgracefully, laughing the whole time, at which point Leo got the drunken certainty it was then or never, and so he threaded his fingers into Althea’s hair, pulled her in, and kissed her.
He was fired immediately.
Lucky for him, Percy and Joe were both in remarkably good moods, and he wasn’t ejected from the restaurant, as he might have been for the same act a few hours earlier. As frosty as Percy was for a time, that soon fell away with the promise of ‘a serious talk tomorrow’.
Percy and Joe drank the expensive wine, and ate the expensive and poorly matched caviar, along with everything else that was presented to them during the remainder of the sitting. The bill was hideous, but Percy no longer cared. He had money again. Plenty of it. And he was about to make a whole lot more, only this time without hiding a thing from his handsome fiancé.
He did wonder how Joe would handle it all. He was smart, swift on his feet, damn good looking, but could he think like a criminal?
And that was exactly when Joe said, with a slight arch in his right eyebrow, “How about some drunk night swimming?”
What a fine, fine husband he would make.
A short time later, with two hands in his pockets, not his own, Percy entered the water. He swam fast, though not quite so smoothly as he had earlier in the day, with the pressing concern that he did not want to be eaten by a shark after all, but that carrying severed hands into deep, open water at night was about as close as it came to inviting that sort of trouble.
Percy did not get eaten by a shark, and somewhere around two a.m., he and Joe returned to their hotel room to find a short note waiting on their coffee table. It read:
Sei diventato tenero. Fallo di nuovo e sei fuori.
Coglione.
Mi tengo l'altra metà.
Which was Luca’s way of telling Percy he was a dick on thin ice who was definitely not getting the other twenty-five thousand dollars.
Percy gave a shrug, and he and Joe fell back into their bed, deeply in love, deeply happy, without any trace of the murder of Elio Randazzo.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
GIORDANO
The next morning was spent between sex and the beach, then some time in the early afternoon Leo was dispatched to Paris with Percy’s sheath. Shortly afterwards, Althea left for London, to stay two weeks in a mid-range hotel hard by Euston Station. She was given one of Percy’s credit cards, and Leo’s number, where she could reach them should she need them, before either Percy or Leo contacted her about the job opportunity.
Joe declined Percy’s invitation to meet Giordano’s mother. He knew it was offered with the best of intentions, but one taste of her caponata had left Joe in no doubt as to Percy’s worth to the woman, and he did not wish to play the role of interloper that day or any other. Especially when Percy would have enough trouble convincing her to attend her chemotherapy treatment as it was. But he was persuasive, and Joe had as much faith in him as Giordano evidently had.
Giordano.
Percy and Joe stayed on five more glorious days in Palermo. They saw the catacombs and Caravaggios, cathedrals and coves, piazzas and palaces. They drove as far as Giordano’s carwould take them and returned to the city every evening, just in time to dress for dinner.
And every evening, Giordano worked the bar.
It began with a friendly nod on the way past if they noticed each other amid the comings and goings. Percy and Joe would be in and out three or more times each evening, after all. On the first night, Percy popped over with Joe to have a brief word about his chat with Giordano’s mother. They said an avoidant but well-natured sort of goodbye, and that, they thought, was that.
On the second night, Percy genuinely forgot his watch, so Joe waited in the beautiful lobby while he ran upstairs. Joe was anxious when Giordano motioned him over with a raise of his chin, but all that took place was some light travel conversation and a glass of Cynar on the house. Percy was quietly displeased when he came across the pair, but pleasantly surprised by Joe’s good mood after the event.
On the third night, Percy and Joe rolled in sometime around half past one, just as Giordano was closing. With a knowing look, two glasses were placed on the counter and, being in a cheery mood, the two took up the offer. Giordano made Percy’s cocktail properly this time and made one for himself, too.
The fourth night was a repeat of the third, except that it lasted more than one drink. Joe found himself always favoured by both men. They, directed by Percy, never reminisced in front of him. They never talked of anything that excluded him, and by five a.m., Joe found himself almost forgetting they had once been together. He never knew the depths of it, and except for Giordano’s occasional searching look at Percy, it appeared to have been nothing more than a fling with a barman. A beautiful barman, who continued relentlessly to flirt with Joe, whether Percy was there or not. Percy’s only reaction was toagree that yes, Joe was shockingly beautiful, painfully desirable, and an exquisite husband to be.
The fifth night, being their last, they stopped in for a goodbye drink. But Giordano, knowing it was their last night, made a quiet suggestion. “I’m just about done here,” he said, halfway through a drink. “What if I bring a few bottles up?”
Percy tweaked the second the words were out in the open. “We have an early flight.”
Joe had not tweaked. “One o’clock isn’t early. We can have a few more.”
“We could do that here,” Percy subtly attempted.
