tie. “You look so debonair in a suit.” She patted his chest. “I love you so much, tiger. And I’m so proud of you, no matter what. You are a good man.”
Tiger had been her pet name for him when he was little. She brought it out these days only when she felt especially emotional. He bent to hug her, and whispered in her ear, “That’s what you raised me to be, Ma. I love you.”
~oOo~
When Alex stepped into Nick’s office, he drew up short. He hadn’t expected Donnie, Tony, and Trey also to be there. That was the don’s whole inner circle. As Jake closed the door behind him, Alex swallowed hard. He’d thought maybe the don was going to offer him the vows, but now, he wasn’t so sure. Was he in trouble after all?
All four powerful men sat in the seating area in the far corner of the expansive office. Nick and Donnie were ensconced in leather armchairs facing each other across a low, gleaming coffee table, Tony and Trey on a matching leather sofa, Tony at the end nearest Donnie, and Trey nearer to the don. None of them stood for Alex, not that he’d have expected them to.
“Alessandro,” Nick said. “Come. Sit.” With a turn of a hand, he indicated the middle part of the sofa.
Alex went where he was told, walking around the back of Nick’s chair so he didn’t have to climb over the don’s legs. He sat, forgot to unbutton his suitcoat, lifted up, undid the buttons, and sat again, making sure his coat lay smoothly.
All four watched him with various looks of amusement or impatience or both.
Never in his whole life had he felt more awkward than now, seated among the entire power structure of the Pagano Brothers. One of these things was so very much not like the others.
He felt stupid not saying anything, but he couldn’t think of a single word that would make him sound like he should be here.
“Alex,” the don said. “We have a very important meeting today. Today, our war with Sicily ends, one way or the other. You’ve been pulled into this more deeply than your station warrants, because you’ve protected Lia. You’ve become a presence among my family. Now, I’m inviting you to finish the war with us.” At that, Alex sensed Tony shifting his seat, and he got the sense his capo wasn’t on board with Nick’s plan. He couldn’t think more about that because Nick was still talking. “But what I’m about to ask of you is nothing you’ve done before. So I need to know you’re capable of doing what I need. I need to know you’re willing. I need to know I can count on you.”
Tony cleared his throat softly. Nick noticed. His eyes flicked to his enforcer and narrowed.
Whatever was about to happen, there was tension between Nick and Tony about it. Donnie, on the other hand, sat still and calm, his expression as unreadable as ever. Trey seemed simply interested.
When Nick focused again on him, Alex realized if he now asked what the don meant him to do, he’d be suggesting his willingness to do what was needed had a limit. If he wanted to be made, he had to answer without knowing.
Did he want to be made? He did, right? Of course he did.
More to the point, what choice did he have?
He spared a couple seconds to try to anticipate what he’d be asked to do, but he only needed one second. He was about to be tasked with killing somebody. In cold blood. Making his bones.
Well, he’d always known that would happen eventually.
But could he actually do it? Act not in self-defense but with cool intent?
What choice did he have?
“You can count on me, don.”
~oOo~
That evening, just as the sun was setting beyond the wide, paned windows of the Pagano Brothers’ meeting room, Alex sat at the vast elegant meeting table and thought how disorienting it was, in the first days of Daylight Savings Time, to have the sun up so much later. The sunset in these early March days felt rushed and tardy, like it had stayed out past curfew.
It was a mundane thought to distract him from all the other insane thoughts rioting across his temporal lobe. He’d felt out of place sitting on Nick’s sofa. Now he was at the table during a Council meeting—not just any Council meeting but a War Council. A truce negotiation, ostensibly. Alex focused all his energy