We loaded up the Hummer and Ariana climbed into the backseat while I helped Nonna into the front. Then we took off. Nonna was never one for small talk. Maybe because she was old, she figured she only had so many words left in her and had to ration them, using only the ones that mattered most. Before we reached the main road, she turned to me and asked, “How much trouble is Carlo giving you about leaving?”
I cut my gaze to the backseat, hoping she’d get the hint I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Ariana.
Nonna clicked her tongue and looked over her shoulder at Ariana. “Men and their secrets. They think they’re so clever, hiding what they do like we’re too stupid to figure it out. Well, when this one gets himself in too deep, you come to me, dear. They treat me like some powerless old woman, but I helped Angel out of his mess and I’ll do the same for Bones here. He’ll probably be too pig-headed to ask for my help, though. They usually are.”
I glanced in the rearview mirror long enough to watch Ariana nod. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Nonna, dear. Just call me Nonna.”
Then, before I could even argue about the way she’d totally dissed me, Nonna shifted herself to face forward and we rode the rest of the way in silence.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ariana
I’D ONLY MET Angel’s grandmother a few times, but she always managed to surprise me. Today was no different. “Men and their secrets. They think they’re so clever, hiding what they do like we’re too stupid to figure it out,” she said. Her words felt like a warning. Like a verbal smack upside the head that said, “Hey Bozo, pay attention. The guy you’re crushin’ on is into some serious shit.” Only I couldn’t imagine Angel’s grandma saying “crushin’” or “shit.” In fact, there was no way she could know how bad I had it for Bones. I didn’t even know.
Bones did have a lot of secrets. I was still reeling about the one he’d just shared. Working since he was ten? Coming home all bruised and broken, his mom doctoring him up without saying a word? My mom would have flipped out. What had caused Bones to come home all messed up in the first place? Bodyguard training? That’d be some pretty brutal training for a kid to endure. I’d known for some time there was more to his job by the way Bones often disappeared for “work,” leaving Angel—the body he was supposed to be guarding—behind in the condo with Markie. So what was he doing?
If the rumors about the families were true, Bones could be anything… a pimp, a drug dealer, a loan shark, a murderer. All of which made for spectacular boyfriend material. No wonder Nonna was warning me about him. The guy I was crushin’ on was into some serious shit.
But he was also sweet, helping Nonna out of the Hummer and offering her his arm while he carried the three hot dishes of food, leaving me the one cool container to carry. And even though he and his mom had issues, he still dropped everything to go change her light bulb. No matter what Bones did for a living that made him pretty remarkable in my eyes.
The condo smelled of sausage, onion, and garlic, instantly making my mouth water. Christmas music blared from the surround speakers, and way too many damn Christmas lights blinked from everywhere. A small but fluffy tree, twinkling with lights, ornaments, and old-fashioned tinsel sat in the corner of the living room. Lights and garland circled the floor-to-ceiling windows and hung from the bar. The tablecloth and runner were red and gold, and coordinating Christmas dinnerware had already been set. A small Christmas village had been set up on the entryway table, and I counted four poinsettias as I stepped into the living room.
“Holy crap, it looks like Santa threw up in here,” I breathed.
I heard the deep rumble of Bones chuckling behind me.
“Ari, Bones, Nonna,” Markie said. “Come over here and get in on this action.” She waved goopy hands, motioning us toward her.
Nonna slipped into the kitchen and hugged both Angel and Markie, skillfully avoiding Markie’s hands.
“You didn’t do this, did you?” I asked, setting Nonna’s dishes down on the bar so I could better evaluate the Christmas nightmare we lived in.
Bones unloaded his arms and joined me.
“I wanted to…” Markie’s gaze cut to Angel.
“We called in people,” Angel answered.
“I hate not being able to do anything, and I wanted to… I don’t know… feel Christmas? It looks great, doesn’t it?” Markie asked.
I’d never been big on the holidays—not since mom died—but if Markie had managed to eke out even an ounce of Christmas spirit, I wouldn’t be the one who squashed it… even if it made me want to pop anti-depressants. “Yeah, it looks great,” I lied.
She beamed me a smile. “Wanna help me stuff manicotti?”
I looked to Angel and asked, “You’re letting her cook? I take it her headache’s gone?”
“I’m right here.” Markie scowled. “It’s been over a month since the surgery. Now that my head’s better, you all want me to die of boredom.”
Angel winced.
“Sorry.” Markie put a hand on his arm. “Open mouth, insert foot.”
“She’s sitting.”
I glanced at the bar and realized one of the stools was missing. “Ah-ha.”
“Again, right here,” Markie huffed.
“And she promised not to overdo it,” Angel added, giving her a pointed look.
“Right,” I nodded. My sister was an adrenaline junkie. “Overdo it” was her mantra. “Let me know how that works out.”
Nonna looked to be taking over anyway, so Bones and I left them to it and headed for the living room. Bones turned down the music and sat on the sofa. I eyed the recliner, but in the end couldn’t resist Bones’s magnetic pull. I plopped down beside him, sliding my legs across his lap. It was like I needed to touch him and craved the little sparks of electricity his touch ignited. He adjusted my legs and reached for the controller. I watched him, my conversation with Nonna once again playing through my mind.
“What?” Bones asked after a while.
I said the first thing that popped in my mind. “It was nice to meet your mom today. I mean, I realize it’s not an ideal situation, but it was still nice, you know?”
He cocked his head and gave me a crooked smile. “Yeah. I’m glad you got to meet her. At least David wasn’t home. He’d probably be trying to get in your pants.”
Too bad Bones wasn’t trying to get in my pants. Hell, he wouldn’t even have to try. One more of those crooked smiles and my pants would probably combust. “Well, is he cute?” I asked.
Bones snorted and went back to the television.
“What?” I asked. “It was a reasonable question. Sounded like you were trying to set me up.”
“Definitely not,” he replied.
Which only made me wonder, why not? Was it because he liked me after all and was just playing excruciatingly hard-to-get? Or did he think I was some sort of man-eater and he was trying to protect his little brother from me? I wish I could say I felt ridiculous for my insecurities, but I knew the truth about myself and everything I was capable of. My mind wandered back to a time when Markie was away at college and I was home alone with our uncle, Jay Lawson, Boise County Deputy Chief Prosecutor. Uncle Jay had been enjoying the single life before his sister—my mom—died and left me and Markie to him. He was all sorts of bent out of shape about taking in two teen girls, and he did little to hide his feelings. For the most part, I slept at a friend’s house or stayed in my bedroom to avoid him. That particular night, I claimed a headache and went to bed early so I could sneak out and go to a party with my friend Jasmine.
Jasmine picked me up at the corner and we went to Adam Drinkwater’s. I’d always heard that the Drinkwater parties were the best, and the rager we entered that night did not disappoint. Red solo cups materialized in our hands while we were shuffled into the living room where a group of guys were bonging beer. After downing the first drink, we stumbled into the kitchen to retrieve more cups for the newcomers.
The kitchen was cloudy wit
h pot smoke. By the time we found the cups and returned to the living room, I had a pretty strong contact high going and was almost done with my second cup of something they kept referring to as “jungle juice.” I didn’t know what was in it, but it burned going down and my entire body felt numb by the second cup.
“Let’s dance,” Jasmine said, stripping off her jacket. Before I could answer, she tugged me into the throng of gyrating bodies.
More people pressed in around us, everyone dancing with everyone. I spun around and almost ran into Markie’s boyfriend, Trent Rodgers.
“Hey, Ari,” Trent said, tipping his cup at me.
Panic was my first response. “Shit! Oh God, don’t tell my sister you saw me here,” I pleaded.
He used his free hand to mock zipping his lips. “Don’t even worry about it. Your secret is safe with me.”
Relieved, I hugged him. “Thanks, Trent.”
Trent’s eyes were glassy. “But only if you promise me a dance.”
I’d had a small crush on my sister’s boyfriend since the first time he took us both out for milkshakes. He was way cooler and more laid back than Markie, making me wonder what he saw in her. I nodded enthusiastically.
We danced through a few songs before he draped an arm over my shoulders and led me off the dance floor. “How are you? How’s everything going?”
I glanced back to make sure Jasmine was okay without me to find her giving me a thumbs up. Since there was no good way to tell her the hottie I was walking with belonged to Markie, I smiled and returned the gesture.
“School blows. Home blows. Everything’s in the crapper right now. But hey, these are the best years of my life, right?” I held up my cup in a toast. “To keepin’ it real.”
Trent laughed and tapped his cup to mine. We both drained our drinks, and then he headed off to get us refills.
“Dinner’s ready,” Markie said, bringing me back into the present.
I looked up at her smiling face—noting the tired lines around her eyes—and felt guilty for the memory. My sister was recovering from brain surgery, and I was fantasizing about her ex. I’d never confessed to Markie what had happened between me and Trent, and didn’t plan on it. If she knew what a horrible person I was, it would probably break her heart. I loved my sister, and I would choke on my guilt before I’d hurt her. Again. Determined to do just that, I pasted on a phony smile and stood. “Great. I’m starved.”
I spent the next hour defending my plate as Nonna kept trying to pile it high with food. She’d apparently taken my starving comment to heart and decided it was her personal duty to solve the problem.
“Eat up, dear. You’re too skinny. You’ll need some meat on your bones to fight the waves when we move to the coast,” she said.
Since I hadn’t decided whether or not I’d be moving with them, I cut my gaze to Markie, who conveniently kept her eyes on her plate.
“Markie says you’ve never been to the ocean. You are in for a real treat. I remember my first time. My mother took me and my sister to Pismo Beach. The sand felt so warm beneath my feet and the surfers… whew… you should have seen the bodies on those boys.”
“Nonna!” Angel said, sounding scandalized.
I giggled. Sure, the old lady was trying to fatten me up, but she was funny.
“What?” she asked. “I was young once too. I had all those urges that you kids have now.” She leaned closer to me and added, “And I wouldn’t mind seeing those surfers again, if you catch my drift.”
We all caught her drift. Bones was doing his best to ignore the whole conversation, Markie’s cheeks were pink, Angel was shaking his head, and I was doing everything I could not to bust up laughing. My grandparents were stuffy and disconnected, and I’d trade them both in for Nonna.
“We’re looking at some locations in southern Oregon,” Nonna continued. “Small towns, nice places to raise my great-grandchildren.” The pointed look she gave Markie and Angel left no doubt she expected great-grandchildren soon. “I don’t know how many surfers will be up there, but the four of you should go up through San Francisco and spend some time seeing the sights.”
“The four of us?” Markie asked. “Won’t you be driving up with us?”
“Heaven’s no, dear. I don’t travel well anymore. I’ll fly up after the movers deliver everything. That’ll give me time to spend a few weeks with Dom and the children beforehand.” Nonna patted my hand. “But you all should go and spend some time being tourists.”
I’d love to see the sights of California, but there was just one problem with Nonna’s plans. “I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll be moving with you.”
She nodded. “Understandable, dear. The lure of the city can be quite intoxicating. Too much of it will kill you, though. More bread?”
It took me a moment to process her offer because I was trying to make sense of what she’d said. She dangled the bread basket in front of me. “Ari?”
“No thanks.”
Markie asked Nonna about Christmas dinner. Still unsettled, I looked to Bones. The worried expression he wore reflected my feelings as I listened to Angel’s grandmother talk about the gifts she had gotten for Angel’s siblings. She sounded like a caring, sweet old woman, but there’d been something more than that behind her words. Had she been warning me? Threatening me? As she patted my hand and reminded me to eat, a shiver of fear went up my spine. Nonna was terrifying, but at least she was on our side.
Or so I hoped.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Bones
ANGEL AND I took Nonna home after dinner. The drive was uneventful until Angel asked Nonna what her comments to Ariana meant.
“Now I’m just an old woman minding my own business, but it seems like there’s only two people who survive this city. Those who know everything and those who know nothing. Ariana seems like a bright young person who falls somewhere in between—a little too curious for her own good,” Nonna replied.
Angel frowned. “Too curious? You said the same thing about Vinny last year when you told me to keep my mind on him.” Angel glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “That was right before Vinny’s brakes… malfunctioned and he wrapped his car around a telephone pole.”
Nonna nodded.
A shudder ran down my spine, but Angel wasn’t finished.
“And Tony… you called him curious right before he got two slugs in him coming out of the movie theater. The cops called it a random drive-by. Never did find his killer.”
“You’ve always been a sharp one,” Nonna replied.
If Ariana was in danger, we needed details. I leaned forward and asked, “Is she in danger?”
Nonna turned in her seat to watch me, which I knew was a red flag, but I couldn’t keep my mouth closed.
“Have you heard anything?” I borderline pleaded, unable to mask the concern I felt.
“I was beginning to wonder about you, Bones,” she said.
Knowing I’d just been played, I forced my pulse to slow down and took a deep breath.
“Nonna, please tell us what you know,” Angel said.
She straightened herself in her seat and stared out the window. “There’s nothing more exciting than watching a young person chasing a dream. Must have been a hundred years ago, I had a friend named Molly who came to Vegas with big dreams of becoming a dancer. This city chewed her up and spit her out. Couldn’t handle the failure. Slit her own wrists.” She shook her head. “Such a beautiful, talented girl. What a shame.”
“We wouldn’t let that happen to Ari,” Angel replied, meeting my gaze in the rearview mirror. “We’ll help her succeed.”
Nonna studied him for a moment before reminding both of us, “We won’t be here.” She let the meaning behind her words hang in the air for a moment before adding, “A person needs more in their life than success to make them happy.”
I couldn’t help but think about the first time I met Ariana. She was writhing in bed, drenched with sweat, her pulse and breathing erratic, dirty dope pois
oning her system. I’d kept enough of an eye on her to know she hadn’t used since, but Ariana was impulsive, and I’d be stupid to assume she would never use again.
We dropped Nonna off, and I climbed into the passenger seat.
“We’ll help Ari, you know?” Angel asked. “She won’t fail. If she decides she wants to stay here, then between the two of us, we have enough contacts to keep her safe.”
I wasn’t so sure. Without Angel’s family, we barely had the contacts to keep ourselves alive.
Angel put the Hummer into gear and motored out of the retirement home parking lot. “In fact, Markie told me Ari’s birthday is coming up… January third. We’ve been talking about possibilities for her gift and I have an idea I want to run by you.”
“She’s gonna be what? Twenty?”
“Twenty-one. You know she came to Vegas to sing, right?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Well… you still friends with that talent scout?”
“Noah Garner. Yeah, we still keep in touch.”
Noah was contracted through several of the local casinos and was always on the lookout for talent. He and I had met years ago, when one of his actors had gotten strung out and owed an insane amount of money to the wrong people. When the actor got the shit kicked out him, Noah reached out to the Mariani family through a mutual contact. Carlo sent me in and I made a few calls and threw the weight of the family around, negotiating the debt to payment installments and an interest rate that wouldn’t cripple the guy. Noah and I had kept in contact ever since.
“Cool. You reach out to your contact, and I’ll make arrangements at Uncle Mario’s restaurant. According to Markie, Ariana has a powerful alto and gave me a list of songs. I’ll make sure Uncle Mario’s pianist has the music.”
My thoughts drifted back to Nonna’s warning, and I felt torn. Ariana had come to Vegas to sing. If we got her a gig, she’d be over the moon. She’d stay for sure, and although it would probably be for the best, I didn’t want her to. But at the same time, I wanted her to be happy. This was her dream. What kind of selfish jackass would I be for denying her a chance at her dream because I wanted her with me?
Breaking Bones (Mariani Crime Family #2) Page 5