Page 39 of Till Death Do Us Part

“It’s nice that John wanted to check on you, find out how you’ve been doing after…” She looked to her right, where Talia stood in the shadows, facing us. “But Babbo will be expecting him in the office. He’s almost home. Isabella called him to tell him John was already here.”

“Okay,” Roma said, her voice steady. She offered me her hand. It trembled. “Thank you for everything, John.”

Her eyes glistened with unshed emotion. I grasped her hand, and she made a breathless noise when I pulled her in.

“Try to stay away from me,” I breathed in her ear, not letting her move away. “I’ll make the choice for you.”

“Time.” It was a tortured whisper. “Give me more time.”

As I walked back into the house, Lolita ran past me toward Roma. Talia watched me as Joseph placed a hand on her shoulder, suspicion in his eyes as dark as hers.

She stopped me by calling my name. “You took care of those assholes who attacked my sisters?”

I nodded and then didn’t know how to react when she thanked me and hugged me. Joseph showed me to the office, shaking my hand before shutting the door behind him. I was regulated to Corvo’s office, where he only did business. The rest of the house was off limits to a man like me.

I was never bound by limits, though.

I killed them.

* * *

Corvo came through the door with his dog a few minutes after I’d been shown to his office. He hung his hat and coat on the peg while the dog came sniffing around my feet. Corvo snapped at him in Italian, telling him to get on his bed and to stay there.

Even the dog, in his opinion, was too good for me.

Corvo grabbed a bottle of whiskey and filled the glass. He didn’t bother offering me one.

I’d been in prisons with warmer atmospheres.

He took a seat across from me, watching me with a cold glint in his eyes. He didn’t say anything and neither did I. He had something on his mind. He could go first, or this was going to be a silent meeting.

He drained the rest of his glass and set it down. “Your part in my daughter’s life ended. It goes no further.” His tone matched the iciness in his eyes. “It was never about my daughter anyway. It was about the favors Tommaso owes me.”

“I wouldn’t be much of man if I didn’t check on her, at least.”

“Much of man, ah?”

He meant it to be a slap in my face, insinuating that I wasn’t much of one, but he’d have to go for my jugular to get the response he was looking for out of me. I’d learned early on that giving someone else control was a decision. I had hard limits, but I’d memorized them. If a situation emerged that I had never experienced before, I’d act accordingly, adding a line or not. It was that simple.

“That’s what I said.”

“Your manipulative games will not work on me.” His tone was deathly quiet. “I see right through you, John Maggio.”

“Good.” I sat up some, fixing my suit. “Because I’m not out to prove anything. I don’t need any man’s approval. Your clear vision will save time.”

“Too good for that, you and that family of yours, to be humble about anything.”

That family of yours. The organization I belonged to.

“I can’t speak for all ofthat family of mine, only for me. I’m man enough not to need validation. I stand on my own two feet. I live life on my terms. I make the rules.”

I’d known Emanuele for years, but I never had much to say to him, unless I was delivering a message from Tommaso, and I could tell I’d caught him off guard. He didn’t expect me to be so articulate or charming. The change in his eyes, from cold to hot, told me it pissed him off, though he tried to hide it. I’d been in the same room with men who made professional poker players seem like rookies. He was nowhere near as skilled at hiding his reaction as he thought he was.

He loathed me.

Probably because he could sense who, or what, I was.

A hunter.

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