lure them in.”
“You blink,” he said.
“Not for everyone. Or so Anna says.”
We became quiet for a while, evening settling around us. Then a breath left my mouth when he took me by the arm and pulled me against his body. It was like crashing into solid rock, the soft parts of me forming to fit.
“You blink for me,” he said.
“Sì,” I whispered. “I do.”
His mouth was close to mine. I had to stop myself from biting his lip, and then sucking it afterward.
“Tell me, Corrado,” I said, breathing out his name, “why did they send you to find me?” I ran my hands up his chest, over his shoulders, until my fingers found the tattoo on his neck, right over his collarbone.
“Because I always find the ones who hide.”
“After you do?”
“I never fucking let them go,” he said, and then his mouth claimed mine.
I was lost to anything but him, like a moth to the volcanic heat of Mount Etna.
It was not until I lay in bed that night, thinking over the day, that I realized why today was so hard after he had walked me to my casa.
Today would never be enough. It was forever with him or nothing. My heart only would accept one, and if it was not to be, it might just stop beating.
I pressed my hands over my heart, over the hurt that welled up at even the thought, and whispered, “Il cielo mi aiuti.”
Heaven help me.
12
Corrado
That fucking mad energy was running through my veins again, and I blamed it on the full moon. It was so bright it looked like someone was shining a light in the window when I’d been trying to sleep.
I couldn’t sleep.
I couldn’t relax.
I couldn’t keep still.
It was hot as fuck outside. Sweat constantly beaded and fell from my temples.
“This is not a game that can last forever, cugino,” Nicodemo said to me. “Make a move.”
Nicodemo and I sat across from each other, playing chess at a table placed outside of the building we were staying in. Some of the men who worked the groves were doing the same thing we were, trying to catch the breeze, because there was no air conditioning. It felt better outside than it did inside.
Nunzio sat against the building, staring up at the sky, smoking. “A man who has no patience should not play a game that requires it,” he said.
“A man who likes his tongue keeps his mouth shut,” Nicodemo said.
I looked between the two men, but I didn’t give a fuck why one hated the other. It was a sign of respect in our business to be hated, and by many.
Adriano had a wet towel around his neck, looking through a metal bucket filled with ice and drinks. “This heat has me fucking starving,” he said. “Like after you go swimming. I’d give my left nut for some cold watermelon.”
I made my move, keeping my eyes on the board. “Tell me why you’re here, Nico,” I said.
Whenever I called him Nico, it was the equivalent of him calling me cugino. I wanted honesty, but on a different level. The terms brought us back to when we were kids, when he would spend summers with my family in Sicily.
He studied the board for a minute. “Giuseppe hid me when—” he made a move, a look coming over his face that made him seem more like the killer he was “—after my parents were killed.”
Nicodemo was just a kid—maybe five—when both of his parents were murdered. He was an orphan, and Tito Sala had intervened and found him a family. By the time I could remember going to Sicily every summer, Tito would bring Nicodemo and we would spend them together. I had no brothers or sisters, he was alone, so we kept each other busy.
“Ah,” I said, trumping his move. “Obligation.”
He made a move that beat mine. “You know me better. I am obligated to no man.” He looked me in the eye. “I like the family. Good people.”
“How did it get this far—with her?”
He took my meaning clear enough. Why didn’t he intervene before, or have Tito involve the Fausti famiglia. They were known to revere women. It spoke to their romantic side—the other side was ruthless. They didn’t believe in breaking something smaller than them. I tended to agree.
I also didn’t say her name, because some hunters blended in with the scenery.
“I was in Israel for the last two years. You are getting slow in your old age.” He grinned when