Elise nodded. “It’s just your father. He wants me to call him.” She peered over the device at Cora and her half eaten breakfast. “Do you think you’re finished?”
Assuring her she was, Cora quickly gathered her things while Elise did the same. They paid for their meals and started for the door with Kevin and Nicholas hot on their heels like a pair of disembodied shadows.
But they made it as far as the front steps of the club when Elise’s phone sprung to life with an incoming call. The whole caravan came to a stop as she fished the device from her purse and frowned at the screen.
Kevin took a casual step forward, silently asking if she needed him to answer for her.
“It’s all right, Kevin,” she told him kindly. “It’s Gio.” She lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello love, I was just about to call ... what?”
She stepped a few feet away from the group, or at least Nicholas and Cora. Kevin dogged her discreetly, but gave her room while she murmured to her husband. Cora remained where she was, recognizing the look on her mother’s face as the one she wore when it was clan business.
Crime wife business.
It was a unique frown line that appeared around her mother’s eyes. It drew age where her face was usually ageless. It was followed by a hollow kind of sadness that consumed the soft green in her eyes.
Cora hated it, hated the way it pulled her usually open and warm mother inward, sucking her into some dark void radiating from somewhere deep inside her very soul. It was that very reason Cora had always fought tooth and nail to keep away from it all, from her parent’s world.
She couldn’t handle that shit.
“What?”
The color had drained from Elise’s face. Her eyes were enormous and glossy over the hand she’d pressed over her mouth. Even Kevin had begun to grow concerned. He stepped closer, as if prepared to catch her on the off chance she fainted.
Cora moved in as well, apprehension pulling her hand to the other woman’s arm.
“Mom?”
Elise didn’t seem to hear her.
“When?” The single word question trembled with blades of anguish that slashed across her features. “Yes, of course.”
She hung up and tried to stuff her phone back into her handbag. She missed several times before finding the proper pocket.
“Mom?”
A small, pale hand fluttered to her forehead before lowering. “I’m sorry, darling. I’m afraid I have to cancel.”
Cora tightened her grip. “Is it Dad...?”
Elise shook her head. “No, your father is fine.” She paused for a momentary heartbeat to fidget with her purse strap. “It’s Claudia.” Air seemed to lodge in her throat, hitching her words. “Roman retired this morning.”
That single, simple word, such a common, useless word and yet it wielded a sickening power that made Cora’s stomach heave. The gravity of those four words struck her in the abdomen with the rage of a semi, knocking wind and sense straight out of her.
“What happened? Why—?”
“That isn’t something that requires discussion in public. But my presence is required and I promised your father I would visit Claudia and the children.”
Jesus, Cora thought, woozy. An odd sort of vertigo sent her head spinning and her vision blurring. Chills crept into marrow, stiffening joints and sending tremors wrecking through her with a viciousness that made beads of sweat erupt across her upper lip.
“But I don’t understand...” she choked out.
Elise lightly touched the side of her face, the tips of those four fingers singing skin like cubes of ice.
“I know, baby. I don’t either.” She smoothed back a lock of hair and offered Cora a weak smile. “Why don’t you go home and prepare for tonight, hmm?”
There was nothing simple about retirement. Not the way the crime world did it. Cora had only ever been present for one and it had been the nail that sealed her decision not to follow her mother’s footsteps.
In that moment, under the drooping branches of that oak tree, she learned what it really meant to be the wife of a crime boss, the wife of a man who had to do what was necessary. The delusions she’d carted around thinking it was all about fancy parties and pretty dresses had shattered with the single crack of gunfire, the eruption of blood as brain matter exploded like crimson fireworks into the clear, blue sky. She hadn’t even known the guy, yet the sight of his body jerking in that unnatural dance, the snap of his head whipping back on his neck, the look on his face afterwards ... God, there hadn’t even been a face left. Just a mangled lump of bone and torn muscle. And her father standing over him, smoking gun hanging firmly at his side, hadn’t flinched.
He hadn’t said a word.
Not before.
Not after.
That afternoon had haunted her for years. Every bang had sent her skittering nearly out of her skin. It had torn thousands of screams from her that terrified the people around her. It had taken years of therapy and a whole pharmacy to finally dull them enough for her to sleep. She’d spent the years between the ages of ten and sixteen in a drug induced haze riddled by nightmares and a fear of her own life. And he had just been some guy who worked for her dad. He’d been no one to her.
But Roman ... Christ, Roman.
Roman had been part of the six high members. He was a main player in Giovanni’s clan. He’d been around since the beginning, since before Cora’s birth. His wife was friends with her mother. It made no sense why the clan would order his execution.
Unless he’d done something horrible.
Something unforgivable.
Something the clan couldn’t overlook, despite his status.
“Go with her.”
The quiet murmur invaded her spiral, piercing holes in the darkness. Cora gasped as if coming up for air for the first time. She wheezed as she struggled to face the man hovering close to her ear.
Nicholas met her gaze with an unflinching scrutiny that made her think of an animal staring down his prey.
“What?”
“Go with her,” he repeated for her ears only.
He couldn’t possibly have asked her for anything worse. There was no greater torture, no threshold closer to madness than asking her ... no, demanding she face the thing that had nearly destroyed her once.
“No.” The refusal was barely above a whisper, a pleading tatter of her sanity crawling up her throat. “Please...”
But he was an impenetrable force of resolve looming menacingly over her, snatching away the last shred of air. His large hands tucked away the phone he’d been holding into the back pocket of his pants. The light caught the silver handle of the gun tucked against his ribs when the motion parted his coat.
“It wasn’t a request,” he informed her, still barely above a whisper. “Captain wants you to.”
“Then he can go to hell,” she spat out. “I won’t. He can’t make me. Not this.”
Rather than get upset — no doubt another emotion he was incapable of — he retrieved his phone and struck a single button. It went to his ear.
“She won’t,” was all the information he gave the person on the other end.
Cora didn’t need to ask who it was when the device was held out to her. She took it, along with a gulping of air, and moved away from the group.
“Hello?”
“You’re going.” James’s voice resonated with authority.
“No, I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. This is going to be your job soon and you will need to do it without your mother. So, you need to learn.”
“You don’t understand!” She pressed her eyes closed, and immediately regretted it when she was thrown back in time to that warm afternoon. She quickly opened them to a world blurred behind tears. “I can’t see that again. I can’t ... I knew him. He’s not some random person. It’s different.”
“You’re not seeing anything,” he murmured, his voice oddly gentle now, or maybe it was just muffled behind the roar of blood in her ears. “You’re only
visiting Claudia. You can do that.”
It occurred to her to ask how he even knew any of this from miles away, but as soon as the question popped into her head, it was ignored.
She didn’t really care how he knew.
“Cora,” her name was a gentle hum of his gruff voice “Be a good girl and tell your mother you’ll join her.”
Bitter anger rode up her throat like bile. It prickled her spine. She wanted to pitch the phone and stalk off. What was he going to do? Stop her? No, but Nicholas would. Even without him there, his watchdog was unfaltering.
“I hate you,” she ground out through clenched teeth.
“I’ll see you when you return.”
The line went dead in her hand. The urge to smash it returned, but Nicholas must have sensed it, because he took it away from her before she could follow through. It was stowed away in his pocket once more. Then he stood there, watching her, waiting.
She turned towards her mother, heart a chunk of rock in her stomach. She swallowed at the paste in her mouth before opening it to make yet another stupid decision.
“Can I come?”
The question took her mother exactly how Cora expected it to. It froze her mid motion. Her hands stilled inches from brushing back a lock of dark hair. Her eyes, big and round found Cora’s with bewilderment.
Cora couldn’t blame her. She’d spent the better part of fifteen years fighting against her legacy. She’d done everything in her power not to get caught up in the darkness of it. Yet, there she stood, asking.
“Are you sure?”
Even her mother’s tone was wary and held the weight of uncertainty.
Cora didn’t tell her she had no choice.
She nodded. “Yeah, for Claudia, and the kids.”
The lie was vile spilling from her lips. She barely ever saw the woman outside of social events three times a year. She didn’t even know the names of the children, or what they looked like.
Elise wasn’t convinced. She searched Cora’s face through narrowed eyes harboring the glimmer of someone witnessing something precious die.
She had no idea how close to the truth she was.
“Cora...”
“Really, I want to,” Cora insisted.
She applauded herself for not choking on her own tongue.
“All right,” Elise murmured at last. “I would like that.”
The group moved through the parking lot in the direction of the car. At some point, without being said, it had been decided that they would take Elise’s town car. Cora wasn’t sure how that happened, but Nicholas opened the back door for her while Kevin did the same for her mother on the other side. Both waited until the women had been seated before shutting the doors and climbing into the front.
Kevin took the wheel.
He pulled from the spot, and Cora tried not to notice that it was clear sky overhead. Albeit, the weather was crisp, tainted by the approach of winter. But it held the resemblance of all those years ago as if it wasn’t enough to simply remind her of that day.
She turned her gaze from the window and peered down at her lap, at the small fingers bunched against her denim clad thighs.
“Am I dressed okay?” she wondered, not entirely sure what the protocol was for dressing to deliver heart shattering news.
She hadn’t been expecting to detour from the original plan of shopping, lunch, and drinks with her mom. She’d dressed that morning with only her own comforts in mind. Now she couldn’t help wondering if they needed to make a stop.
“You look lovely.”
Did one want to look lovely when telling a woman her husband was killed? It somehow felt wrong. It felt disrespectful. At least Elise’s outfit could almost look black in certain lights.
But Cora didn’t break the silence again. Elise seemed to be a million miles away as it was. Her eyes were focused on the horizon with a steely resolve of someone headed to the firing squad. Cora wondered if she was mentally preparing herself to forever change another person’s life, and what exactly that pep talk sounded like. She doubted it got any easier.
Elise had been doing this for thirty years, more than half her life. She’d stood by Giovanni through some of the worst any couple could possibly face with a smile that had amazed everyone. Her job was never to kill anyone, or hide any bodies, but somehow, it always felt heavier, more dangerous to be the one to rule in the background, the silent gun. Her powers didn’t lie in weapons, but mere words, words that could make kings from slaves, or rip gods from the heavens.
Cora had once seen her bring a grown man to his knees in devastation all by uttering a single word Cora hadn’t heard.
But that kind of influence, that breed of power wasn’t inherited.
It was forged.
It was honed.
Her mother was the most dangerous person Cora had ever met, yet it still devastated her to be the one to pull up outside another person’s house with the purpose of destroying them.
“Let me do the talking, okay?”
Cora had no desire at all to do any talking of any kind, but she nodded as they pulled up alongside Claudia Enderizzi’s two story bungalow. Kevin killed the engine behind a silver minivan.
Cora followed Elise across the cobblestone pathway to the three steps, to the door. Elise paused. Her shoulders lifted once before they straightened to align with her stiff spine. Her chin lifted, a bracing gesture Cora recognized.
Eyes so much like her own turned to Cora.
“Ready?”
Her stomach was in knots. It was a vicious writhing of demons battling for dominance. Her entire body ached from the force of her tremors, agitating her queasy gut. But she nodded.
Claudia answered right away as if she’d been standing on the other side. But it became evident by the way her smile slipped that it wasn’t them she’d been expecting.
“Elise. Cora. I wasn’t expecting a visit.”
Elise offered her a small smile. “Hello, Claudia. Can we come in?”
There was nothing in her voice or demeanor to suggest anything was amiss, yet Claudia’s smile vanished before Elise could finish speaking. Horror flickered behind golden eyes that mirrored the tremor in her chin before she tightened her jaw.
She knew.
Just like that.
It broke Cora’s heart. She couldn’t imagine getting that visit. She couldn’t imagine what Claudia was feeling as she stood there, facing one of her oldest friends as her whole world crumbled around her. It was a fear she knew all the wives felt, a visit they all dreaded.
The war wives.
The silent figures in the background, dutifully standing behind their husbands.
Pretty little birds with serrated talons and watchful eyes.
They’d always intimidated her, like vultures anticipating the death of an antelope.
But women like Claudia with husbands in the high seat never expected it to happen to them.
“No,” she whispered firmly, already starting to shut the door. “I’m sorry, Elise, but I’m busy today...”
Elise stepped forward. “Please, Claudia.”
The other woman’s eyes brimmed. “Roman isn’t here...”
“May we come in please?” Elise repeated gently.
Eyes shining, Claudia hesitated, but ultimately moved aside to let them pass.
Elise paused briefly to glance from Nicholas to Kevin. “Can you gentlemen please wait outside for us?”
Cora wasn’t a fan of that idea. There was no telling how Claudia was going to react. She could flip and attack them. Who was to say there wasn’t a gun on the property?
But Elise waited patiently as Kevin dutifully shifted off to one side on the porch, a graceful and fluid motion like he’d done it a million times.
Nicholas remained firmly at Cora’s shoulder, refusing to let her out of his sights.
“It’s okay,” Cora assured him, trusting that her mother knew what she was doing.
“My orders are to keep you safe,” he told he
r evenly. “I can’t do that from out here.”
Cora lowered her voice. “I’ve known Claudia my whole life. It’s fine. I’ll talk to James,” she cut in when his mouth opened. “If I have to do this, then you need to stay here.”
Brown eyes flashed, but he stayed where he was when Cora slipped into the house after Elise.
The doorway opened to a narrow hall with a set of stairs pushed up against one wall and an opening on the left leading to a sitting area. The place was dim and quiet, and radiated with the chill outside. It smelled of wood polish and the remains of the previous night’s dinner, which made Cora think of pasta and feet. Otherwise, it was a nice place.
Homey.
Comfortable.
Elise turned to Claudia. “Where are the children?”
Claudia took a moment before she could answer. Knuckles popped with every vicious wrench of her fingers.
“School.”
Elise took the woman’s hands in both of hers, ceasing the twisting. But when she spoke, it wasn’t to Claudia.
“Cora, why don’t you make us some tea?”
Relieved for the escape, Cora ducked around the two and found her way into kitchen down the dark, narrow hall. The cramped little kitchen with its glass cabinets and stainless steel appliances seemed too bright considering the circumstances. Blinding strobes of light crashed through the patio doors and spilled across spotless floors as bright as sunlight against fresh snow.
Cora padded around the granite island in search of tea items. She filled the kettle and set it on the stove while she puttered around for mugs and the sugar bowl. The neatly labeled cabinets made the preparations much too simple. The well-organized system had her brewed and ready before she knew it. The set was placed on a silver tray and carried into the next room.
“I don’t understand,” Claudia was saying when Cora returned. “Roman would never ... we were fine. He was making plenty.”
“You know Gio would never make a decision like this without a thorough investigation. There was evidence.”
Claudia shook her head. “No, Roman would never steal money. Not from the clan.”
“I’m very sorry, sweetie,” Elise was saying in soft, soothing tones, while lovingly patting Claudia’s hand. “It’ll be all right, Claudia,”
Blood Script Page 25