“Don’t worry, it’s the best.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a recipe my mom came up with when she first married Pops. He used to come home with wounds from going out with the boys, and well, my mom worried about him. She was brilliant and really caring. Now we have our medic guys make it and keep it stocked everywhere necessary.” She lets me smear the cream on both knees, watching me with half-opened eyes and a soft smile.
“I like it when you talk about your family.” She finally says as I reach for the gauze.
“I like to tell you about my family.”
“Do you?”
“Yes…”
“Then why haven’t you? Why are you waiting to tell me about everything.”
“Everything, as in….”
“You’re smarter than that, Tito.”
“The mafia stuff isn’t that important.”
“Well, considering we have a house extra full of security and eyes on us everywhere now, I’d say it’s a pretty big part of your family.” I bite my lip in response as I open the first roll of gauze.
“It’s not that I don’t want to. I do. It’s just not the right time.”
“I think it’s important for me to know.” The way she says this makes me pause, and I wonder where this is truly coming from.
“What do you mean?” She blinks down at me as I begin wrapping the first knee.
“I mean, I work for you and don’t know much about what we’re really doing.”
“We’re making tech.”
“For whom?”
“For our family and any alliances that we have. It’s going to save lives instead of this violence that everyone has grown so accustomed to.” I should bite my tongue now. Stop speaking, but I don’t. “I’ve never liked it, the violence.” I feel my lip curl at the mere mention of the word, and her eyes narrow as she studies me.
“Has your family always been violent?”
“It's a mafia tradition to be the strongest by any means necessary. But ever since Vince took over, we’ve had this New Era thing. It’s about peace and minimizing war between families. I proposed my tech could help. So—”
“So, the better tech could ensure you can strike first without hurting anyone.”
“Essentially.” She’s slowly nodding, taking this all in as I finish wrapping her first knee.
“What determines the distribution?”
“Of the tech?”
“Yeah.”
“What makes you think something other than Vince would determine that?”
“We’ve had scheduled test runs.”
“Yes… And?”
“And, I assume it’s not just so we can have these ready by the end of the month because Vince mentioned this could be a long-term role or only a month. What happens at the end of this month?”