Page 83 of The Woman on the Jury

I had no frame of reference for this shit.

“No,” I admitted, exhaling hard, and pulling my cup of coffee closer across Lorenzo’s dining room table. He was out, so we’d started without him.

Gav’s brow lifted at that, but he said nothing about it. “I said that the Serbian crew, from what I can tell, doesn’t give a fuck about these brothers. The brothers, though, seem desperate to get in their good graces. Trying to do errands and shit for them. It’s embarrassing, honestly.”

“And?” I asked, sensing he had something else to say.

Gav paused as the sound of the front door opened, and footsteps moved in.

“I wonder how happy the Serbians would be if they found out these guys who want in their organization are fucking with the Family,” Gav said.

It was true we didn’t have anything to do with that particular crew. No love nor animosity. Just indifference.

But it was impossible to know what their feelings about us were. Did they fear and respect us? Did they want to take what was rightfully ours?

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“I’m thinking there is someone who does know the Serbians,” Gav said.

“The problem being that Renzo isn’t going to help us until I agree to his terms,” Lorenzo said, moving into the dining room.

It wasn’t until I saw a stroller that I realized he’d been out with Giana.

“We aren’t going to force one of our women to marry him, for fuck’s sake,” Gav said.

“Renzo Lombardi?” another voice asked, making both Gav and I turn to find Lore standing there.

Lore was the youngest of her family and the only daughter. Her older brothers included both Cesare and Gavino himself.

“Christ,” Gav hissed. “You’re not supposed to be listening to this,” he said.

“I was just walking in,” she said, gaze skittering away. “Renzo Lombardi wants to marry one of us?” she asked.

Lore looked a lot like her late mom. Short and slight, with long, shiny black hair, and a round face with big dark blue eyes like Gav had.

I couldn’t remember shit like everyone’s age, not in a family this big, but I would say she was maybe twenty? Twenty-one, tops. A baby still. Her style was still that of a girl, too. Baggy jeans and an oversized hoodie. Almost like she was hiding herself away. Come to think of it, anytime I’d been around Lore, she’d been hiding away, trying to hold up the walls.

“It’s not going to happen,” Gav said, shaking his head.

“Why?” Lore asked.

“Because we aren’t going to force one of our women to marry a fucking Lombardi,” Gavino said, rolling his eyes at his baby sister.

“Not force, no,” she said, shaking her head.

“No one would willingly marry one of those fucks,” Gav said.

None of us knew the Lombardis well. Since Lorenzo had taken over for his father, their Family and ours hadn’t been exactly enemies, but we sure as fuck hadn’t gotten along. Even at the best of times, we’d been close to all-out war with them.

But what we did know was that they were less, I don’t know, refined than the rest of us. Closer to a street crew than an organized crime Family. Not the kind of men our women would want to be with.

“I will,” Lore said, making everyone’s head whip in her direction.

“You will what?” Giana asked, thinking she’d misheard her.

“I’ll, ah, I’ll marry Renzo,” she said, gaze on her feet as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

“The fuck you will,” Gav exploded, popping up out of his chair.

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