Page 94 of Tesio
He never showed tiredness or weakness. Hell, the guy would get up from a burst appendix and walk into a meeting standing tall and ready to command a room. In fact, he literally did do that a few years back.
“I fell… I have feelings for her. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. It wasn’t about betraying you, it was about saving her.”
He paused, and I really thought the silence was back already, but he smoothed his jacket and responded. It was a weird sense of relief and confusion, to have a conversation with him which went both ways.
“I can understand that, son. I know you’d never knowingly betray me, but our life… it’s built on rules, isn’t it? We have to know we can trust each other, in everything, or people die. You received information, and instead of reaching out to me, you acted against me. Against my men. You broke Guido’s jaw.”
Huh. I never liked that prick anyway, but I knew how it looked.
“Would you believe I’ve just never liked his face?” I tried, with a small grin, stunned to see it returned by the Don.
“Nobody does, son, but he was sent to do a job, and you prevented him from doing it.”
“Prevented him from killing a woman. My woman.”
“A police officer, digging into our business.”
“MY fucking police officer. My woman, who was doing something foolish, but not something she should die for. A quick conversation could have resolved it. Sending a fucking hit squad was going in too heavy.”
The Don sighed, smoothing his jacket again, his pinkie ring catching the light briefly. I was so familiar with this man, with every gesture, and reaction, but right now, he was acting anything but like himself.
“You jumped between me and a bullet. Between my daughter and danger.”
“It’s the job. One you can always trust me to do.”
He smiled. “Your woman did the same, you know. Threw herself into danger to protect us. Not in front of you, but us. Her instincts are good. Her carelessness is a mirror of yours.”
Yeah, and if we survived, we’d be having words about that crazy shit she did too.
“It bothers you,” he said softly.
“Not that she was protecting you, but that she put herself in danger at all. I feel like Ice needs to get punched out for letting her out of the van too.”
“I strongly doubt that anyone makes decisions for her, son. He couldn’t have stopped her, any more than you, or a whole legion of others could have. She makes her own decisions. She chooses her own path.”
Fuck. To an outsider, that’d sound like a good thing, but in the mafia, we saw it one way. As trouble coming for us. Either way you looked at it, her decisions could get her killed.
“We can come to some kind of arrangement, boss, please. I need her. I… I want her in my life.”
His eyes pierced mine, daring me to say the words I kept swallowing back. It didn’t seem right to say them to anyone but her, and since I hadn’t actually said them to her, it was doubly wrong to out them without her in the room.
“You haven’t told her you love her. I thought you braver than that. You jump in front of bullets, but can’t say three little words to the woman youlove.”
“I’m an emotionally stunted prick. Like I was raised to be, like we all fucking are. Emotions make us weak. They get us killed.”
The Don stood up so suddenly that I flinched, I actually fucking flinched, but he frowned at my reaction. Like he wasn’t making the decision on whether I got to keep breathing or not.
“I don’t know where this leaves us, son. I thought I’d always have you by my side, but I think that’s impossible now.” Fuck. But did that mean death, or life at last?
“So wheredowe go from here?”
He straightened his jacket, tugged on his shirt cuffs, and lowered his arms.
“I’ll send for you both. We’ll discuss it at length. For now, focus on recovery, although…” he chuckled then, “it’s merely a bullet wound, boy. We’ve all walked those off, haven’t we?”
Fucker. I watched him leave, my mind mulling over his words. It didn’t sound like he wanted me dead, but then, maybe a little of Luca and Enzo bending his ear would make that clearer to him. I had no fucking idea at this point.
Jamie didn’t return asquickly as I expected, and when my next visitor was Micro, I found out why.
