Ricky clapped his hands and rubbed them in glee. “This is gonna be so great! Can we take part in the hit, Pop? Can we go along and help out?”
“Fine,” my father replied, “but Romeo is going to organize the whole thing. I’m putting you in charge of everything, Romeo. This whole operation will be your new baby.”
“Where are you gonna hit ‘em, Romeo? There are plenty of good spots along that route.”
Enzo and Ricky kept talking up a storm about the hit. I had to fight to break eye contact with my father. I looked back down at the map, but I still saw him gazing back at me with that knowing look.
I had to go through with this job. I had to make it look like I really wanted to kill Leo and kidnap Gia to steal her wealth and ruin her.
If I went along with this, I might be able to help her. I might be able to do something to make this a little less of a disaster for her.
My father’s steady gaze left me in absolutely no doubt—just in case I wasn’t sure what he really meant by giving me this assignment. If I didn’t go through with it, he would only assign it to someone else.
He would probably let Enzo do it, and Enzo would do it right. He would make sure Leo got killed. That left me no choice but to step in and put the best possible face on it while I pulled a few fast strings behind the scenes.
NICKY
Gia bent over one of the flower beds and picked a flower. She smelled it and kept walking under the trees toward the woods on the far end of the grounds. “It’s a nice day today. It seems like I never get out anymore.”
“You were just out here yesterday,” I muttered. “You come out here every day. I should know.”
“I know. Time doesn’t seem to operate the same way it did before.”
I snorted and didn’t answer. I traced the top of the wall checking that all the security guards were in place. They were. I had trained them too well, and now I had nothing to do but wait around for the next Necci surprise.
She kept pressing the flower to her nose and looking around like she’d never seen these grounds before. “Maybe it seems different because I’m not out here with Cesare. I don’t think he’s talking to me after I blew up at him yesterday.”
“You might as well take a dive and make up with him. I’m sure you’ll be doing a lot of that once you marry him.”
She threw the flower into another bed and shook back her hair. “Maybe I won’t marry him.”
“Of course, you will. You two are perfect for each other.”
She turned around, and her eyes locked on me. “Can I tell you a secret?”
“I really hope you don’t.”
She barely smiled. “I’m thinking about not getting married at all.”
“Don’t talk smack.” I started walking again, and she copied me. “Of course, you’re going to get married. You’re a mob princess. You have to get married.”
“I don’t have to. I could stay single for the rest of my life and run the family on my own with Leo as my consigliere. It isn’t unheard of.”
I snorted again, but I couldn’t look at her. Looking at her hurt too much. “That’s just bullshit. What the hell have you been doing these last three weeks cock-teasing every man who comes near you if you didn’t plan to marry any of them? You’re shameless.”
“That’s what I’m saying. I care about them all. Everything went south with Romeo, and now I’m not sure I can give my heart to Leo or Cesare, either.”
I glanced over at her against my will. “Seriously?”
“I don’t think I can choose. I care about them all equally. I don’t believe Romeo proposed to mess with me. He really cared. I don’t know why he left, but there must be another reason.”
“What makes you think that?”
She shrugged. “Call it a gut feeling. Anyway, I don’t care about him any less than Cesare or Leo. Even without Romeo here, I can’t decide between Cesare and Leo. I don’t think I can hurt either of them by choosing the other.”
I went back to walking. “Then you have a problem.”
“It isn’t a problem as long as I don’t marry any of them. I can just take myself off the market and run the family on my own.”