A Madness of Crows: Mafia University #3

16. Day 42 – Dante

“Merda.”

Gio turns at my quiet mutter. I sweep my hand across the familiar space, stopping still in the doorway. “How do you stand it? Being here?”

Caterina’s things are everywhere I look. A silky blue robe tossed carelessly over a chair. A pair of heels discarded next to the couch.

He hasn’t touched any of it.

Gio looks around. “I feel better, being here. And it made it easier to get Rosa out.”

“She’s alright?”

He half-shrugs. “Furious, of course. But she’s safer in Italy than here. At least until it’s all over.”

I take the beer he hands me. “I can’t stay long.”

I have a flight to catch back to Vegas. As per the instructions of our capo dei capi, who prefers that we stay as far away from each other as possible.

Giovanni pulls up a seat next to me, and I glance at him. “You look like hell.”

He shrugs. “The campus is a different place now. Matteo has his claws in deep.”

Everywhere. Like a cockroach, Matteo is everywhere we look, spending money as if it’s water to collect as many men as possible, building his little empire on blood and betrayal.

I look around at the empty chairs surrounding us. Seeing the faces that are missing.

“I often sit here,” Gio says quietly. “It reminds me of what we are fighting for.”

Family. The family we created, that Cat brought together.

My response is rough as I stare at the chairs. “I get it.”

A thud sounds from outside, and we exchange glances. My hand slips to my gun as Gio stands, easing his way across the floor to look out of the peephole. Frowning, he shakes his head.

Nothing.

Another thud. A groan.

One that sounds… familiar.

Gio yanks the door open, cursing as Luc tumbles inside. His head smacks against the wooden floor with a thud. “Fucking Christ, Morelli. What the fuck are you doing here?”

I stand silently, crossing my arms as Luc rolls over onto his hands and knees, his words slurring as he reaches for the tipped bottle of vodka. “Don’t mind me. Leaving.”

He stumbles as he gets to his feet before Gio grabs his arm, pulling him to the table and pushing him into a seat. “Sit before you fucking fall. I don’t want to stitch you up again.”

We both watch as he stares around the apartment. His brows drop as his eyes linger on Cat’s blue robe.

“Don’t.” My voice is harsh. Livid. “She’d be sitting here wearing it, if it wasn’t for you.”

Some of the haze clears from his eyes at that, his jaw clenching. “If you think I don’t know that, V’Arezzo, you would be very fucking wrong.”

I step forward, curling my fingers over the back of a chair. Gripping it to stop me from going for his throat. “What the fuck did you think you were doing? You left us there, Luc.”

Left us there, battered and grieving and bruised, as Dom held his dead sister in his arms.

His throat works. “Cat asked me to keep a promise. To get Alessia back, she would have gone alone. I wasn’t about to sit back and let that happen.”

His eyes shift to mine, the hazel more brown than green. “Believe me. Not a moment passes when I don’t regret what happened that night, Dante. You think I don’t know that I failed them both? I was there. I fucking know.”

My chest tightens, constricting into a ball of lead as he reaches for the vodka, holding it up in a mockery of a toast. “To us. The lonely fuckers left behind.”

“Enough.” I snatch the bottle away from him as he raises it to his lips. “What’s your plan, Luciano? We’ve been focusing on the Asante house because we can’t get anywhere near Matteo outside of the Cosa Nostra meetings. Fusco here is convinced that you’re not Matteo’s whore, and you’re actually working to get my daughter out of there.”

He leans back in his seat. Silent.

“Tell me that we haven’t wasted this time,” I breathe. “I cannot get close to Matteo, Luc. He does not let me anywhere near that house. I’ve tried too many fucking times. I can’t – I can’t get to her—,”

My voice breaks. “I need you to tell me that you still love Cat enough to save Alessia.”

Silence.

Gio slips into the seat beside Luc. And after a moment, I do the same.

Luc traces his finger over a mark in Caterina’s dining table. “I’m going to get your daughter out, Dante.”

A hole, punched directly through my heart. I glance down at my shirt, as if I might actually see it.

“I failed them that night. I wasn’t prepared, didn’t see it coming, and I couldn’t – I couldn’t get to either of them. But I promised Caterina that I would bring Alessia home, and that is exactly what I am going to do.”

There’s no trace of the irreverent Morelli heir in his eyes. Only grief shines there, grief and loss and regret.

And determination. “I will not make the same mistake again. I swear it. On my father’s grave.”

We both lost our fathers that night. Luc was just as close to Paul as I was to my own. Maybe even closer.

I don’t have any words left.

Gio gets up, thumping paperwork down on the table. Luc drags his gaze from mine and looks down. “What’s this?”

“Since we’re in the same room for the first time in weeks,” Gio reaches for his beer, giving Luc a dirty look when he reaches for the vodka. “We’re going to work through what we have so far.”

I glance at my watch. “An hour.”

And we make it count.