Funny that the thing you were most afraid of… most disgusted with — is going to be your salvation. Then again, life is like that, isn’t it?
Frank’s going to ask you to go with him to find the twins. To find Luca’s kids — to convince them to join the family. Go with him. Take a chance.
Smile at the girl. Don’t frown. It makes you look scary. Help her. She’s going to need you.
And know you have my blessing, even though I’m going to be as jealous as hell that another girl is going to experience what I got to experience. We were lovers. Best friends. Enemies. We were everything. But that doesn’t have to be the end. You still have time for more story, and I’d like to think that God isn’t cruel enough to give us only one soul mate. I’d like to believe he gave you two.
I love you more than you’ll ever know. Thank you for making my last kiss with you, my last moment, my last laugh, my last tears feel like the first.
~Russia
Hands shaking, I placed the paper onto the table and looked down at the folder again.
The very next page had a picture of a girl.
She was laughing.
Her hair was a lush chestnut, darker on the top than the bottom, like she was growing it out. Her eyes were hazel, just as Andi described, and she was holding up her Kindle in triumph, like she’d just gotten it at as a present or maybe had just finished reading the best book of her life.
Her smile was easy.
I looked away as my heart clenched.
The next page was information about Valentina and Dante — their location and known aliases.
And on the page after that…
In Luca’s handwriting was another note. It wasn’t long like Andi’s. Then again, he was easily a man of few words, used his fists and gun to talk.
Find my daughter. Protect her. Marry her. I know your secrets, and now she will too. If you’re reading this, I’m long gone. Carry on my legacy for me. You must know Frank and I have talked. If Dante does not want to take over the Alfero family, it will fall to you.
You are who I choose. Who Frank chooses. You will lead the Alferos if Dante does not. And you’ll do a damn good job, son.
~Luca
Dumbfounded, I stared at the letter, reading it over and over again. No wonder Phoenix had wanted me to read the damn folder! And Frank. I stood. My chair slid backward and collided into the wall with a crash.
I swallowed as the walls of my throat threatened to close in.
“I knocked,” Phoenix said from the door. “Funny I was just about to ask you if you’d read the folder.”
I pointed at it. “You knew?”
“Shit, Sergio, you even need to ask?” Phoenix folded his arms. “I know everything. Luca made sure of that the minute I took over the family. I just didn’t believe it at first, nor did I want to, all things considering. But…” He shrugged. “…she changed you.”
“She changed all of us,” I whispered.
“Yeah.” Phoenix nodded. “She did.”
“So…” I scratched the back of my head. “…it seems I’m going to New York.”
Phoenix grinned. “I already booked your flight.”
EPILOGUE
Sergio
”WHAT DOES IT MEAN?” THE WAITRESS inclined her head at my right forearm. “Your tattoo?”
I leaned back in the booth, my hand tapping against the ceramic mug. The smell of greasy food filled the air. A bell dinged as Frank made his way toward me from the door.
“The tally mark?” I asked politely.
She nodded her head. Damn, the girl just screamed innocence.
I had to fight to keep myself from scaring her. “It’s for a friend.” I said in a gruff voice then shrugged. “My best friend.”
“Lucky girl.” Her smile was warm.
“She died,” I said slowly, “and I promised her I’d never forget — I told her I only marked things that were desperately important to me. And ink is forever, you know.”
“Is that why you put the inscription underneath it?” She pointed.
I looked down. Until we both shall live had been scrawled in cursive beneath a black tally mark with a rose drawn around it.
“Yeah,” I croaked. “That’s why.”
“Again…” The waitress shrugged. “…lucky girl.”
“No,” I corrected, “I’m the lucky one.”
Frank cleared his throat.
“Well, I’ll just…” The waitress blushed and scurried away.
“So…” Frank folded his hands onto the table and leaned forward. “…I take it you’ve read your folder.”
“We leave tomorrow,” I said quietly.
“New York.” Frank sighed. “Never thought I’d return to that godforsaken place. It’s where we started, you know, but Chicago had been new, clean, unaffected by the crime families. We moved in, and everything changed.”
“You think they know we’re coming?”
Frank snorted. “Oh, they’ll expect it. Our cousins have been protecting that boy and girl for the past ten years.”
“Are these cousins… friendly?”
“Hell, no.” Frank grinned. “But a little gunfire never hurt anyone.”
“I thought your family was the least violent of the five,” I muttered.
“Funny.” Frank checked his watch. “I’d always believed them to be the most violent.”