a little longer.
“Where is he now?” I ask.
“Back in England,” he replies. “He asked if you would mind if he gave his notice while you were unconscious. I hope you don’t mind, but I told him yes.”
I shake my head, even that small movement making me ache. “What else?”
“The Albanians are gone,” Dad continues. “Dujar’s death left a power struggle, and the Bostonians have been arriving almost nonstop to pledge their loyalty to us. They want us to know that Giraldo was acting on his own.”
I nod. “And Madolina?” Even if Levi was a rat, my belly gets tight thinking of the way Dujar unceremoniously dumped him over the balcony. He was my brother in everything but blood, my best friend. “She’s not … dead?”
“No, son. I put her on a flight to Rome. She said she wanted to visit her ex-husband. The loss of a son—it can be… very difficult to bear.” He glances at my mother, who seems content to just hold my father’s knee in one hand and my fingers in the other. Her eyes are full of tears, though she is smiling.
I sigh. That knot of emotion left in the wake of Levi’s death will take a long time to untangle. It’s easier to think of the enemies who almost took everything from my family. “Fucking Albanian rats,” I mutter, thinking of Dujar. “You know he had Dani and the undercover EMT carry Levi’s body back up to the apartment, don’t you?”
My father nods slowly. “Levi’s fall is what brought the cops running. In the end, it saved you both.”
“But having her brought there to carry the corpse.” I shake my head in disgust. “He must’ve known that would draw the police.”
He shrugs. “You were only up there for about fifteen minutes, apparently. In this city, with these response times? He probably thought he’d be long gone, taking our empire with him.”
Fifteen minutes? I think back to the hell in the penthouse, hardly believing it was so short a time. But time does funny things when all hell has broken loose.
My throat aches suddenly. I drink more water and sit there next to my parents in silence.
“There is something else,” my father says after a few moments. He glances at my mother and tightens his grip on her thigh. “It is time.”
“Time?” I ask in confusion. Whatever drugs have been coursing through my system don’t seem to eager to leave me clear-headed. It takes a moment before I understand what my father is telling me.
“Your father is ready to retire,” my mother explains.
I don’t know what to say. This is the moment I’ve spent my whole life waiting for. But now that it is here… I don’t know what to make of it. Everything feels flat and muted and just wrong.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” he confirms with a twinkle in his eye.
I feel a surge of sudden guilt. “Father, I must confess something.” In quick, halting words, I tell him about how Dani is not really my wife, about Levi’s scheme, about how I hired her to trick him.
He says nothing until I am done. But when the last words fall from my lips, to my surprise, he laughs. He looks to my mother, and she too begins to chuckle.
“Answer me this, son,” he says. “Do you love her?”
I don’t hesitate to answer. “Yes.”
“And does she love you?”
“Yes. Or she did.”
“Then tell me this—fake or not, what difference does it make?”
I start to answer, then stop. It’s such a simple question and yet such a profound one. What difference does it make how things began? We’ve come so far since then, since a twisted, sinful extortion deal in the middle of a nightclub.
“Love is never simple,” he counsels. “Even with your mother, it has never been simple. But it doesn’t need to be made any more complicated, either.”
He stands, my mother alongside him. They each kiss me on the forehead and then they leave without another word. I watch them go, my mind reeling.
Moments later, the door swings open once more. I see a familiar bulk enter.
“Giuseppe,” I say with a smile.
“Boss,” he intones. “Or should I say, don.”
I smile savagely. “It seems like he finally wants to retire, then. With Levi gone, you’re my second now, Giuseppe. The first thing I want you to do is get rid of all the Kong. We’re getting out of the drugs game.” I hold up a hand when his jaw drops. “Don’t worry; we’re not going to