Page 48 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

“She should’ve married the bastard when she had the chance,” Tony said. “Maybe now, after four years as a single mother, she’ll listen to reason. Luca, tell your mother I want to invite Gio Costa and his family for dinner tomorrow. Invite Oscuro, and fucking make sure Sofia shows up. I am not allowing this family to be drawn into this fucking dispute.”

20

SOFIA

“So, dinner at your parents’tonight,” Ana said, elbowing me in the side as we waited in line for coffee at the crowded downtown café. “Tony Russo hasn’t spoken to Daddy since Mom’s funeral.”

I didn’t say anything, just stepped forward as the line moved.

“Why now, Sofia?” Ana asked, as if she weren’t perfectly aware of the battle lines drawn in the sand from burning down Dante’s clubs.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. From a distance, we could be sisters—blonde hair, blue eyes, slender builds—but where I was icy, Ana burned fiery hot. “Are you asking on your account, or your father’s?”

Neither of us said anything else about it while we ordered our sugary caffeinated disasters. Ana’s lips twisted in frustration as we sat at an outdoor table. To anyone else, we looked like two spoiled rich bitches with designer bags, expensive shoes, and elegant clothes. We knew the truth—we’d been baptized in violence, and the money was a thin veneer over the brutality of our families.

Ana acted out as an escape. I’d always behaved myself, as if being the perfect daughter might lead to more affection, more accolades, as if it would make my parents love me like they loved Ginevra and Luca. Neither strategy worked.

“If you tell me, I have to tell my father,” Ana finally said as she sipped her coffee confection.

I grimaced, my face tightening with displeasure. Friendship with Ana was easy when our families didn’t talk, didn’t do business together, and avoided each other at all costs. We were the sole link between the Costas and the Russos, and we could trust our families’ hatred to keep it that way.

We could trustmyfamily’s hatred to keep it that way.

Gio Costa called my sister a whore, setting off a chain of events resulting in Ginevra’s second kidnapping. My father’s former enforcer and a rogue Bratva soldier tortured her for two days in revenge for killing his son when she was a teenager.

My father didn’t care that Sergio, who worked for Costa, knocked me up. He would’ve solved that problem through marriage if Ginevra’s husbands hadn’t chased Sergio out of town. He did, however, care that Gio called Ginevra nasty names, and froze Costa out of the real estate and import/export businesses in Yorkfield. My hurt over the inequity was so old and deep that it no longer made my breath catch with pain.

“Nick took me out for dinner on Thursday,” I said.

One side of Ana’s lips tilted in a half-smile as I changed the subject. “Oooooh,” she answered. “How was it? Is he as nice as everyone says he is?”

“I think I could take him home to meet my parents,” I said in a rush, trying not to reflect too hard on the fact that he was the first man I’d said that about since I started dating as an adult. Of course, I couldn’t bring anyone home to meet my parents right now. Not with Dante in the picture.

Ana rolled her eyes. “I don’t give a shit if you can take him home to meet your parents. I want to know whether you like him or not.”

I hesitated, as if speaking the words aloud would jinx it. “I like him a lot, but you know the Lombardis. They like to pretend they’re above all the violence and the crime, even though that’s what got them where they are. There’s no getting around the fact that I’m a Russo princess.”

Ana sat back in her seat, her dark blue eyes hooded as she thought. “Or maybe he’s your ticket out. Two normal people in love, leading normal lives. A pediatrician and his finance-whiz wife, who happen to have some kooky violent relatives that they occasionally visit to be polite.”

The fantasy appealed to me on every level. “It’s early yet to be talking about love, I think. I really like him, though.” My phone buzzed. “Speaking of.”

Nick sent memes and cute pictures all day, as if he understood the darkness I held in my soul right now and wanted to brighten it.

“You two have it bad,” Ana said, grinning. “I love it.”

A shadow fell over our table, and we both looked up. I froze, my limbs locking into place with terror and fury as Sergio loomed over us. Neither of us had recognized the danger or noticed his approach.

“Sofia, I need to talk to you,” he said. His voice was rough and scratchy, as if he’d become a chain smoker in the years we’d been apart.

Ana’s eyes ping-ponged between the two of us.

“Go,” I said.

She raised an elegant blonde eyebrow. “I don’t think you should be alone with Sergio,” she said, her eyes flicking up to my ex. As touching as my friend’s worry for me was, this conversation was none of her family’s business, which meant I needed her to leave.

“See you at dinner,” I answered firmly, hoping she’d get the hint and leave me to speak with Sergio alone. He couldn’t do anything to me at a table outside a busy café.

Ana exhaled sharply. “Right. Of course. See you tonight.”

---