Bosco actually chuckled. “You’re a man of few words, but you make every word count.”
Vanessa held my gaze then sighed quietly.
Maybe this was a bad idea.
Bosco didn’t seem personally offended by Griffin’s coldness. He didn’t care what anyone thought of him—except for me. “How’s Max?”
Griffin’s eyes narrowed. “The business has been fine without me.”
“Glad they could carry on without you since you were such an integral piece of the team.” It wasn’t clear what Bosco’s angle was, other than to remind everyone, including Griffin, that he used to kill people for a living.
“I only killed people because they paid me to,” Griffin said. “You killed people because you wanted to.”
“Because they earned the punishment.” Bosco handled the conversation with perfect ease. “And I didn’t kill them myself. Each opponent had equal odds of success. But I have killed men with my bare hands…but I assure you, they earned it. Maybe my deaths were worse than yours because I didn’t get anything out of it besides retribution…or maybe not. I guess we’ll never really know.”
Vanessa cleared her throat. “Could we not talk about killing people over dinner?”
“There’s nothing else to talk about, then,” Bosco said. “Because that’s all Griffin and I have in common—because we’re the same.”
Griffin narrowed his piercing blue eyes, clearly provoked by that statement.
So much for Bosco getting Griffin to like him.
“I’m handing the casino over to Ronan,” Bosco said without preamble. “We’ve made our financial decisions, and I’ll be stepping away from the business permanently—settling down out of the spotlight for good.”
Griffin had just as good of a poker face as Bosco, so he seemed indifferent to that statement. “If you’re still getting checks, then you’re still part of the business.”
“He’s buying me out,” Bosco explained. “The business will be entirely his.”
Griffin still didn’t have anything else to say.
“Just as you walked away from your business, I’ve walked away from mine. We’re the same—making sacrifices for the women we love.” Bosco had carefully cornered Griffin, so there was no way Griffin could refute anything he said.
“We aren’t the same,” Griffin said in his baritone voice. “We’ll never be the same.”
Vanessa spoke up. “You are the same. You may have done different things for a living, but the degree of your crimes is similar. At the end of the day, you both gave up what you loved most for something you ended up loving more. How about we just agree on that?”
Griffin clenched his jaw but didn’t argue with his wife in front of us.
“Cut Bosco some slack,” Vanessa continued. “The man is doing everything he can to be with Carmen—and not just for a night, but a lifetime. You were persecuted for every little crime you committed by my father and everyone else, but those sins were irrelevant when it came to our love. Bosco just told you he made the ultimate sacrifice to prove his love for Carmen, and you continue to sit there like it’s meaningless.” She kept staring at her husband. “Let it go, Griffin.”
Bosco smiled when Vanessa finished her speech. “I like your wife. She reminds me of Carmen.”
Griffin growled so loudly that the rest of the restaurant must have heard.
“I meant that as a compliment,” Bosco said. “Didn’t mean it in any other way.”
“Don’t worry about him,” Vanessa said. “If any man besides my father says my name, Griffin is offended.”
Griffin kept up the same hostile stare, confirming what she’d said.
Bosco turned to me and lowered his voice. “And you thought I was protective…”
I was grateful Vanessa said all that she did because she put everything into perspective for Griffin. “It would mean a lot to me if you would accept Bosco. And it would mean even more to me if you vouched on his behalf to my father.”
Griffin wouldn’t look at me.
Bosco shook his head. “Beautiful, don’t put him on the spot. You can’t make a man like another man. That type of affection has to be earned—over a long period of time.”
“Tell me why you don’t like him,” I challenged Griffin. “Give me one good reason that you have nothing in common with him.”
Griffin shifted his gaze to me, silent.
I waited for a reason, a justification for his behavior.
Griffin couldn’t give a single example. “Just because he and I are similar doesn’t mean I have to approve of him. Carmen, I want the best man for you. You’re beautiful, smart—”
Now it was Bosco’s turn to growl.
Vanessa chuckled. “Two can play that game, Griffin…”
Griffin kept talking. “You deserve the best. You’re a Barsetti woman. And Barsetti women deserve—”
“Strong, fearless, and loyal men,” Bosco finished. “I’m all of those things. I killed a man in her honor. I protect her every single minute of every day. I provide the kind of life a queen would envy. Not only that, but I’ve made sacrifices to earn her, bent over backward just so I could have the honor of loving her. There’s nothing more I can do to prove myself to you. The least you could do is admit that I’m not a threat to her or any of you. You don’t have to like me, and I don’t care if you never do. But you have to be honest about my qualities and give me the respect that I’m due.” We hadn’t even ordered our drinks yet, and Bosco was making speeches that turned everyone silent. “You’re the kind of man that doesn’t lie, so go to Crow and Cane, and when they ask what you think of me, you have to say I’m not a threat to Carmen or anyone else. You have to tell them I love her—because you see it written all over my face.”