Page 55 of Corrupted Memories
He swears, dropping me as fast as he had grabbed me. “You fucking idiot. I’ve warned you! Love destroys everything, especially a bitch you can’t trust. She belongs to the Italians!”
“She doesn’t! She’s an outsider.” It burns that he called her a bitch and I want to punch him for it, but it would make everything worse so I restrain myself.
Spitting on the ground, he shakes his head. “Even worse.”
Nico clears his throat. “I’ve checked her out. Gianna is as pure and good as they come, and in the end, it gave us an opening to engage with the Irish. Something no one at the Outfit hasdone in years.”
We stare at each other, father and son, and I take the brunt of his disappointment because Nico couldn’t begin to understand the full depth of it. Secrets we laid to rest as a family before I even moved to the States.
Controlling his anger, my father turns to my chosen brother, someone he considers just as much a son. “But now you are cordial with the Irish?”
Nico shakes his hand in a seesaw motion. “Ehh. It’s more a tit for tat kind of thing. They got information, and we give some in return. We gave them the sparrows, they gave us Gianna. We got their girl in place for something, and they got us Arthur’s movements.”
My father rubs his hand down his face. “Fuck. Fuck.Fuck.We don’t have time for this.”
“The plan was always to put Nico into place,” I remind him.
He glares at me. “Yes, but now Arthur is conspiring against us, against Christian. We can’t allow it to go unchecked. Look how it’s going for the Italians. Italy is growing impatient.”
“Then allow me to make an alliance on behalf of the Outfit.”
My father’s eyebrows flicker. “Analliance with who?”
“The Irish and the Italians.”
“Both?” He barks out a laugh. “Son, you are a man of many talents. But I don’t think you could even achieve that.”
I scowl. “It would be a temporary truce to deal with a common enemy.”
“And Arthur is that enemy?” he asks, unconvinced.
Shaking my head, I blow out a long breath. “He’s mine, but he’s the stepping stone to theirs.”
My father’s eyes brighten with understanding. “You want to allow them to torture the son of a bitch?” The respect in his expression makes me a little sick. The gore of this life has never appealed to me the way it does to him.
“Yes. You think Christian will allow it?”
He hums, turning to think about it before he says, “Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.”
Nico’s mouth drops open. “So you’re saying if it blows back badly on us, you’ll leave us to dry?”
My father glares at him. “When have I ever let you boys hang?”
“He can’t anyway. The Outfit is loyal to its knights,” I spit out the last word, feeling theburn of the tattoo on my chest. “I can’t ever get arrested. If they strip me now, the proof is etched on my skin.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Get ready to come home, Son. Sooner rather than later.”
I nod, turning to Nico. “I’ll call Luca in the morning. See if we can make a day trip to New York without being noticed.”
Chapter 20
Gianna
“What are you doing?”
I will myself not to look over my shoulder to get a glimpse of him. Last night he still wasn’t home when I woke up in the middle of the night, and then he was gone by the time I woke up again. The only proof he came back was the tossed clothes in the corner and the faint scent of him on the pillow. My fingers tighten on the pen, and I keep drawing in the notebook on my lap.
He settles next to me on the couch, and his fresh scent engulfs me. My heart gallops at the familiarity and the comfort I still get from it. There used to be nowhere I felt safer than in his arms. I’d missed when he came back home, but he obviously took a shower. His fingers grab a piece of stray hairhanging in front of my face and tuck it behind my ears. I swallow down the rise of a softer emotion inside me.
