Mercenary (Gangsters of New York #3) - Bella Di Corte Page 0,96
and his name. He set one more foot over my personal boundaries, and all civilities were off. The only reason I did this was because of the respect I had for Tito and Romeo, and in general, the Fausti famiglia.
He nodded and then stood. We all stood.
Tito nodded. “We all agree then,” he said.
Rocco nodded and then I did. He fixed his suit and walked over to me, Romeo and then Guido behind him. He offered me his hand and we shook.
“Alcina is a special woman,” he said. “I respect your boundaries, and I respect you more for having them. You will take good care of her.”
I didn’t respond. It was none of his business what I did or didn’t do with my wife. You will take good care of her was not a casual comment. It was an order. I didn’t fucking need that from him.
He grinned, because make no mistake, he was an intuitive bastard. You had to be in this life. “It will not matter much after your death anyway, since you keep fucking with the wrong man,” he said, moving past me toward the door. “I will still be here.”
Yeah, to fucking take care of my wife.
I turned and spoke to his back. “Fucking bastard,” I said, finally getting it off my chest.
He stopped, and after a minute, he finally turned around. We faced each other.
Tito rushed toward us, coming in between us again.
“We have an agreement,” he said, pushing his glasses further up his nose. He was much smaller than us, shorter and thinner, but he was more respected than all of us put together in this room. To stand next to him was like standing next to an immovable, impenetrable wall. You didn’t fuck with him.
“For now,” Rocco said, fixing his suit again. “Rules are void when a man is not alive to enforce them.”
“If it’s the last thing I do on my deathbed,” I said. “These rules will stick.”
He knew how serious I was being then.
“There are worse men than me for a woman,” he said, and then left.
Romeo squeezed my shoulder before he followed his brother. Guido looked at me and shook his head.
Tito stood in front of me, forcing my eyes on him. “It makes you think, does it not? If you keep up this foolishness, chasing after old ghosts, who will be here to take care of your family if something happens to you?”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “That’s our life,” I said. “The fucker in this club or the fucker on the corner who pulls the trigger—the bullet goes in the same way, and I don’t come out alive.”
He studied my face. “The product of this life, through and through,” he said. “I treat grown men who are dying daily. I see and hear all types. Some men cry for their mammas. Some men are angry, because anger hides true fear. But you—men like you—you wake up with acceptance.
“‘If it is not this knife in my back, it will be this bullet in my heart.’ However. You are in a position that is not like the rest. You have earned the right not to constantly have a dagger over your head, or a gun pointed at your heart. Why waste it on what happened years ago?”
I didn’t answer.
He sighed and shook his head. “What Corrado Palermo did was against the rules,” he said. “He tried to kill his boss without permission. He failed. It kills me to even say his name, but Arturo had every right to seek retribution for what Corrado Palermo had tried to do—but only on Corrado Palermo, not his family. It was his right as a boss. Just as it is yours. You of all people should understand the rules. You practice them every day, and now, you enforce them.”
“Why do you care?” I said. “What does this have to do with you?”
“There is so much to lose here,” he said, shaking his head. “And even more to gain, if you would only stop focusing on the past and look toward the future.” He hesitated for a minute or two. “Your sister. The one they never found. What about her? Why haven’t you looked for her?”
I shrugged. “He took that away from me, too. The chance to get to know her. To have someone who shared my blood. But it doesn’t matter. If she’s still alive, she’s better off not being involved in this life. She escaped once. She should count her blessings.”