by Sunniva Dee
Keegan shakes his head, stare still holding all kinds of dollar signs. “You’re a fucking genius. And Silk, you’ve never been better. Fucking. A.”
Rubbing his chin, his brows cinch. “Okay, I want an extended redo of what just happened here. We’ll use this as a web teaser. You’ll get your pay, Gioele, for the audition since we’re using it, but I want a longer pay-as-you-go version too. I need a chat with my writers. Then we’ll get back to you as soon as we have a script. Silk: debrief in thirty.”
“Debrief?” Funny.
“All right.” She stands, gloriously bare with me trickling down the inside of her thigh. I hand Silk my towel, and she accepts it like it’s common for her. I guess it is.
I’m full of heart-stabs these days, and I just experienced one again; I’m glad Silk isn’t Silvina. I don’t ever want her naked in front of a group of men who aren’t me.
Keegan slaps my shoulder, saying something about checking in with the receptionist on the way out. The techs follow him as he exits, leaving Silk and me to ourselves. I pop my hands in my pockets and run my stare over her face. For a second, I consider of how strange it is to be so intimate with someone only to leave them without as much as a kiss.
“Where’s your robe?” I ask.
She juts her head toward a chair by one of the spotlights.
I smile. “You’re at home here, huh? They don’t even hand it to you?”
She purses her lips in a mischievous little smirk. “I live here.”
I arch a brow.
“Not literally, but you know what I mean.”
“Yeah.” I hunch my shoulders, looking at my feet while she drapes the robe around her pretty form. “How long have you worked for Harmony Femme?”
“About three years.”
“I guess you like it here, then.”
“Yeah, Keegan treats me well. And I get to work with people like you.” She tips her head back enough to look straight into my eyes, and—it’s weird. She triggers some lyrical part in my brain where I’ve got words like Aphrodite, Venus, and straight up fucking goddess stored away.
There’s no doubt in my mind; I’ve met a lot of beautiful women, but imagine combining a thousand percent woman with sexpot? That’s Silk. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone so insanely female in my life.
I bite my lip, smiling. “I’m glad he treats you well. He’s lucky to have you.”
“Thanks.” She puts her hands in her pockets too and lowers her head. Face to face, we’re only feet apart. “So…” She sends a side-glance to the bed where we just made love like it was our last of a thousand hours. “You were with someone in particular, weren’t you?”
My throat thickens, so I swallow before I reply. “Yep.”
Silk exhales. It’s so quiet it would have been inaudible if I wasn’t so tuned in. “I hope she understands how lucky she is.”
My attention has been on her toes. They’re as perfect as every other detail of her. I lift my eyes. “Afraid not. What about you, someone special?”
She grins, eyes sparkling. “Oh, you don’t even wanna know.”
Raul and I’ve been to class today. Funny how that is. When you know you’ve been bad, you want to make it up somehow.
Isaias called. Damn brother wanting to know why I blew off the appointment with the owner of Supreme Modeling. I’m just stoked he doesn’t leave long, annoying voicemails like my father does.
Speaking of Il Lince. He’s got shit going down and wants me back in L.A. Ma texts me when I don’t reply to my father’s calls, and who can resist the sweetest, most loving little mother in the world?
I picture her in her always-immaculate outfits. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without perfect makeup and her hair bundled up under some pearly hairpin at the back of her head. Everyone says she was a beauty when she was young. Can’t they see she still is? The silver streaks in my eyes I have from her. I wonder if hers grow bigger when she’s alone with my father.
The Santa Colombini are awake again.
What do you mean? In a flash, I’m back to weeks in lockdown while the press went rabid with the war between two strong mafia famiglie.
Ma. What now? I add.
I just want you back home. Please bring the girls.
The girls. As in Silvina and Gabriela. They’re both stubborn. More than once, Isaias has had to chase down Gabriela to keep her from getting in trouble. We’re talking physical restraints, here.
Unfortunately, being a mafia wife, my mother doesn’t cry wolf. She wouldn’t ask this of me without reason.
Details? I type.
“Fuck,” I grit through my teeth when she doesn’t answer.
“What’s up?” Raul asks from his seat across from me at our Thai lunch haunt.
“Nothing. Just, sounds like I need to take Silvina back home.”
“To L.A.?”
I nod, speed-dialing Isaias.
“Mafia shit?”
“Zip it.” I send a glance around us. “Yeah.”
“That other family again?”
“Sounds like it. They weren’t happy about the last throw-down in Il Veneto.”
“Venice?”
My brother isn’t picking up, and I don’t have time for this. “Yeah, Il Veneto is the region. Italy.”
“Don’t get all snippy, dude. You’re a fucking girl sometimes,” the asshole says.
I set my eyes on him. “You kidding me right now?”
I get to my feet before he can reply and stalk to the front door. By the window, I look out as Isaias finally, fucking finally, picks up.
“Hey, Ma called me.”
“Ah,” is all he says, and if my Silvina’s in danger, I’m not about to wait him out.
“What’s going on? Ma says I have to get Gabi and Silvina back home. Does that mean the plan is to get them in lockdown?”
“Definitely, yes. Il Lince’s done it again. Ceasefire between the famiglie is over, and we just learned that Randolfo Santa Colombini has people in San Francisco. As you might recall, they almost got us the last time. If it weren’t for…” Isaias cuts himself off right when his voice cracks.
“Right.” I know what was at stake for him last time. It was too much for one man to handle, and yet he did. Even as an adult, I’m in awe of my brother. “I don’t know about Gabi. She’s a tough one to pin down for anyone but you.”
He lets out a snort. “She lacks some gene.”
“Survival gene.”
“Yep. Loves to remind me she grew up mafia too. Anyway. Don’t worry about her. As long as you get Silvina back home, I’m good. I’ll take care of my cugina myself.”
“You do that, and good luck,” I say. In the mirror, I see a grim smile. We’ve already lost too many to this fucking war. “What about Tatiana? You’ll get her to the bunker, then?”
He laughs out loud at that. “Yeah, right. She’s got her job. I just wish— Fuck. Never mind, little brother. It’s not your business.”
“That she wasn’t pregnant?” I ask. His answer is a groan. There’s a twinge in my chest. It grows, gets wild, like it’s me in his situation, with the love of my life carrying my child under her heart and not stepping down from her job to stay safe. I can’t even imagine. “I’m sorry, Isaias.”
He lets out a huff. “Well, she’s a pro—She’ll be okay. And for the record, I’ll never wish that she wasn’t pregnant. Ariadna is ecstatic.”
“I bet. She’ll be a big sister.”
“Yeah. Just…”
“The timing,” I say.
“… of our father,” he finishes.
For a second, we just breathe together. It’s the craziness of being blood and knowing shit won’t get better with our father leading la famiglia. My elder brother has already backed out of Il Lince’s empire, and I don’t want to be the heir of the Na
scimbeni dynasty any more than Isaias did. But we’re both born into it, and we’re right here. As soon as la famiglia needs us, we’re with them, doing our best to keep everyone out of harm’s way. Isn’t it odd that Il Lince doesn’t do the same for us?
I’m at Silvina’s door, twenty-four hours after the last time. Tracy opens, starts in on some send-off lie. She’s too small to stop me, but she bickers, which can’t be slowing me down right now.
“Step aside. I’m going in.”
“She’s not home. You need to start respecting her boundaries. You realize I can’t just let you in whenever you want, especially not when your cousin isn’t even home.”
I stalk through their hallway to Silvina’s bedroom. It’s small, plum-colored, and I held her once on that bed while she drunkenly fell asleep. Some asshole almost-assaulted her after they’d been clubbing. Needless to say, I reduced his face to pulp.
Her bedroom is empty.
Tracy’s still talking, so I pierce her with a glare. All I need is to tighten my fists along my thighs, and she gasps and shrinks against the wall. As if I’d ever be violent with a woman.
“Silvina?” Tracy’s bedroom is on the way to the living room, so I check it first. I even peer into her walk-in.
My girl isn’t in the living room either. “Silvina! Stop it. I know you’ve heard from the family.” I suppress my panic and stalk to the kitchen.
There. There she is, cross-legged on the kitchen counter. Ah thank God.
With her back slumped against the window, only a few streetlights disrupt the blackness behind her.
“Ina mia.” My words are quiet, because those eyes, they’re dark wells tonight. More than anyone, our women are the victims, the ones whose lives are interrupted when Il Lince’s violence becomes obscene.
We’re mid-semester in college, and Silvina loves her Biology. She’s doing well too. All Silvina has ever wanted is a quiet life, and me, I wanted to be the man whose privilege it was to fulfill that wish.
Silvina shakes her head from within her hands. “I can’t jump every time your father tells me to jump,” she says.
I pull her into my arms, and she’s too sad to resist.
“I talked with Isaias,” I say against her ear. “He doesn’t mess around. You know? He’d never ask me to bring you home if it weren’t for good reason.” I pull away to stroke a dark lock away from her face.
“But I can’t keep running. I can’t just— I have a chance at an internship next semester, Gioele. That’s huge! Professor Meadows…”
“I know, baby.” I kiss her head. Rock her. “It’d be awesome if you got it. Can’t you email your professor? Let him know you’ll finish up the quarter from a distance?”
“As in from Il Lince’s bunker?” She presses a small index finger against the corner of an eye. I pull it away. Tell her that she’ll hurt herself.
“It might not be for that long, Ina mia.”
“Right, we never know, do we?” She lets out a hiccough. “Could be days. Could be months in that bunker, while life passes on the outside.”
“Shh. We’ll come straight back here as soon as the danger is over. I just want to keep you alive.”
“Why be alive if you’re not allowed to be happy?” she says, and that’s when I tug her off the countertop, to her feet, and take her in my arms in the full, big way that makes both of us complete.
“You. Will be happy. I promise you. You’re my number one priority in the whole wide fucking world, and I’ll slay every Santa Colombini member to get you there. I’ll lay down the Nascimbeni organization for you.”
Her giggle is a puff of air, a sound I haven’t heard in a while, and it makes me smile. “You don’t believe me?”
“Do you remember high school?” she asks.
“Of course, I remember. What’re you talking about?”
She shrugs, moisture still shimmering in her eyes. “Oh, nothing. Just, you’ll always get an A+ for effort.”
“You’re saying I didn’t pull it off?”
“Oh, you pulled it off all right. I still don’t think sending Ron Todd and Ricky Madden to the E.R. is comparable to demolishing your father’s enterprise.”
I tuck her under my chin and fold her into a playful hug, covering her head with my arms. “Ha! All I need is the right moment, the right time, and the right reason. You’re my reason. Two more to go, and I’ll show you a thing or two.”
Tracy clears her throat from the door, bravely tipping out a hip. “You want me to throw him out?”
I snort and fix Ina mia with a stare.
“No. Thanks for trying, though,” Silvina says. “Seems I have to go home tonight.”
“To L.A.? What about classes?”
“Take notes for me?”
10. CLOSE
SILVINA
It’s midnight. Gioele doesn’t want to wait until the morning. He was on the phone with Isaias while I packed, his expression more pinched by the second. He’s carrying my suitcase to his car.
“I can follow you in the Fiat,” I say, but my cousin doesn’t want to hear it.
“We’re hauling ass back down, Silvina. It’s to the point where Isaias wishes we had a safe house farther north. You know how the Santa Colombini work. They love to take out the weakest links first, and—”
“I’m not the weak link,” I clip out. “I have better aim with a semi-automatic than you.”
“I know.” He strokes my cheek in passing. Gioele is too affectionate, but when things are falling apart around us, it’s the last thing I want to think about. “You’re a devil with your SMG. You have it here?”
I press my lips together. “It’s at home.”
Gioele could rub it in. Instead, he says, “Okay, so we need to get you to your gun. You can inflict serious damage with it, but for now, what do you have? Anything?”
“A .380 ACP.”
“A lady gun?” He arches his brow at me, and I fold my arms over my chest. Gioele’s stare draws from my eyes to the V of my neckline.
“Whatever,” I say.
One of these days, we’ll be over. Completely over. But at the moment, we’re on a break from a healthy future, and I’ll be in the passenger seat of his Escalade all the way back to our parents’.
I have a small fish tank with a violet Beta in it. I bought it my first week in San Francisco, and despite the short life expectancy of this warrior fish, I’ve never had to replace it. In my haste, I forgot about Arthur. My cousin didn’t. Settled into his car, I have time to wonder what takes him so long before I see him balance it out in his arms.
“I’ve poured out a third of the water and taped it shut with shrink wrap. Still brought this, though.” Gioele holds up the lid of my Dutch oven. Then he wiggles it on top of the fish bowl. “Whatcha think?”
I can’t help smiling. “Arthur and I approve.”
Gioele bobs his head and situates my Beta in a cardboard box he’s lodged between my backrest and the backseat. “I’ll drive carefully.”
It isn’t the first time we make the long drive down the Pacific Coast Highway together. Tonight, though, there’s urgency in the air. Long-transport trucks inhibit us, and my bane zig-zags in and out of traffic at high speed.
In the low light, his profile is eternally familiar and never for granted. Lips as generous as they look, he’s perfection and not for me. My focus keeps straying to his jaw tonight. Defined, it dips into the shadows of his throat, but it’s the muscles clenching there that alarm me. Gioele has many tells, but rarely does his jaw muscles jump.
He turns up “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” by Wham!, a song I love and he finds ridiculous. I lean my head against his shoulder and stare out the dark blue glass pane.
“This is nice, isn’t it?” I run a stare up his face.
“Yeah.” The Escalade jolts forward. “Great song,” he
adds without sarcasm.
“Right. I know what you’re doing, okay?”
“As in getting you to safety?”
“No. As in only picking up calls from Il Lince and Isaias when I’m not next to you. One of them called at the rest stop. I saw it, Gioele. The time before that, you had me buying us coffees while you talked with them.” I sigh. “As soon as I call your mother, I’ll get the full story anyway.”
I send him another look and find his expression frozen.
“How many times have you done this, shielded me like I can’t deal with reality? I can, you know, and we’ve lived this particular reality for over twenty years. I’d so much prefer to hear what’s going on from you than from your mother.”
“And your mom?” he asks. “I believe you just talked to her.”
We both know she’s not fit for this life. “The difference between her and me is she’s too afraid to want any details. Me, I need them.”
He mutters something under his breath. We stall at a streetlight. He peers at me before syncing his cell with the radio and calling his father. My uncle infamously doesn’t answer, so I’m surprised when he does.
“Hi Dad. It’s me. I’m on my way home with Silvina.”
“Good. And where’s Gabriela?”
“Isaias’s sent someone for her. So the family’s at risk?”
Il Lince exhales. “Yes, unfortunately so. The Santa Colombini love to go after the innocent.”
Impatient, Gioele huffs out a breath. “The last time, they went after us for a reason. It was our fault. We started it.” I answer his stare with a grimace; it’s never pretty when giant mobster machines crash.
Il Lince lets out one of his hoarse laughs. “Well, it’s for a reason this time too, figlio. Let’s talk more when you get here.”
Gioele groans, the impatient kid I fell in love with a long time ago. He opens his mouth to insist, but before he can, a vehicle slams into the driver’s side of our car.
I shrink against the passenger door, as far away as I can. The Escalade careens to the right, scraping the cliff at the side of the road. Gioele straightens it last minute.