“Amore.” Carlo unwraps a cigar and lights it.
“Speaking ofamore.” Al looks my way.
“I don’t kiss and tell. Told you that last time.”
“So you’re still seeing her?” Al asks.
“Who?” Bobby demands.
“Yeah, who?” Mario chimes in.
Sammy scowls at me.
“Sophie Palazzo.” I glance at Pauly, who I already knew was following the conversation closely.
“Little Sophie Palazzo?” Mario asks. “The one you kidnapped from her father’s funeral?”
“I didn’t kidnap her.”
“I remember the women were all upset when you two went missing. You didn’t show up at your dad’s house with her, and her ma was livid.”
“I took her for a drive. She didn’t want to go back to the house.” I don’t know why I’m still explaining my actions thirteen years later. Mario’s right, though. I remember everyone was pissed when I finally brought her back. My mom told me it was inappropriate for me to be alone with her, as if we lived in some other century where females had to be chaperoned with males at all times. Or as if I couldn’t be trusted around a teenage girl.
“You two had a connection.” Al puffs on his cigar.
“That why you sent me to her for a massage?”
He shrugs. “It’s good to check in on those who have slipped out of the fold. I figured you were the best one.”
As I’d suspected.
“I could use a massage,” Carlo says.
“No.”Cristo.I know he said it to rile me up, but I can’t keep the deadly warning from my tone.
“Is she any good? I mean, I always love a–”
“You go near her, I’ll cut off your fucking balls.”
Carlo chuckles and flicks ash from his cigar. “Oh, is that how it is?”
He’s lucky I haven’t vaulted this poker table and shoved that cigar down his throat. “Say you understand,” I snarl through a clenched jaw.
“I won’t go near your girl, Joey. I’m just playin’.”
“I gotta go check on the club,” Sammy mutters and pushes away from the table.
“Do you?” Al asks.
“Somebody has to,” he mumbles as he walks out the door.
Al looks at me and raises his brows. “You gonna let him get away with that?”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“You’lltalkto him?” Al demands. “I’d give him a fucking beat-down. You’re his capo. He answers to you.”
Fuck.