Chapter 12
Salvatore
I was slightly disappointed when our taxi pulled up in front of my great aunt’s house.
The last time, it had been a chaotic spectacle, and I thought Arie would enjoy that.
Today, there were no go-go boys or people in giant dick costumes.
But it was still a rainbow-colored mansion with a huge Pride flag flying in the front yard, and that was pretty great.
We climbed out of the cab and slung our bags over our shoulders. Then I took Arie’s hand and tried to head for the front door, but he remained rooted to the sidewalk. When I turned to him, his eyes were full of worry, and he asked, “What if they don’t like me?”
“They’re going to love you, Arie. Why wouldn’t they? You’re fantastic.”
“Look at the size of this house. They must be incredibly wealthy to be able to afford something like that, especially in San Francisco. I’m not exactly the country club type, so what am I going to talk about with them? I never know what to say or do around rich people.”
“They’re not like that. I mean, yes, they have money.
But my great aunt and her ex-husband bought this house decades ago, before real estate in this city spiraled wildly out of control, and she grew up in a working class family.
She’s a nice person. She’s caring, and nosy in a good way, and eccentric, and she’s a passionate ally of the LGBT community, as you can tell. ”
Arie nodded, but the worry hadn’t left his eyes. He asked, maybe to stall for time, “What’s your cousin like?”
“He’s kind. Dante would probably try to brush it off if he heard me say that, but it’s true. He comes across as a tough guy, but he has a heart of gold. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his family.”
He murmured, “That’s nice.”
Since he still wasn’t moving, I tried to encourage him by saying, “I promise there’s nothing to worry about.”
“But what if they think I’m not good enough for you?”
I tilted his chin up with my fingertips, and when he met my gaze I said, “They’d have to be out of their minds. You’re way too good for me, Arie. Anyone can see that.”
I brushed my lips to his, and he pulled me closer and deepened the kiss. We got lost in each other for a minute or two, and then he hugged me tightly.
“Sorry I’m acting like this,” he said softly.
“There’s no reason to apologize. And if you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to. You can go to the hotel instead, and I’ll meet you there in a couple of hours.”
“No, I want to. I’m just nervous.” After another moment or two, he let go of me and said, “Okay. Let’s do this.”
I picked up our bags and took his hand, and as we walked to the front door, he asked, “Who else am I going to meet today?”
“Dante’s husband Charlie and Nana’s husband Ollie will probably be here. Beyond that, I’m really not sure.”
To my surprise, Bunny answered the door. He smiled at me and exclaimed, “Hey, Sal! Good to see you, dude.” He turned to Armando and checked him out as he said, “You’re a cutie. I get why Sal shot me down when I came to see him in L.A.”
Arie looked confused, so I explained, “He brought me a delivery from my cousin a few weeks ago. We met for all of thirty seconds in the lobby of my building.”
“You made a big impression, though,” Bunny said with a grin, as he held the door for us and we stepped over the threshold.
I stuck our bags off to the side and tried to make some introductions. “This is my boyfriend, Armando. Arie, this is Bunny.” I turned to our unexpected host and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t remember your real name.”
“It’s Bowen, but I prefer Bunny.”
“Do you work for Dante? I thought you were a courier.”
He looked proud as he said, “Dante hired me to be his and Nana’s assistant.”
We all turned toward the deep voice that said, “That was shortly after I caught him trying to break into my car.” Dante had appeared in the kitchen doorway. He looked amused as he added, “He had no idea what he was doing.”
I asked incredulously, “He tried to steal your car, so you hired him?”
“We all did stupid shit in our twenties,” Dante said with a shrug. “I had my family to help me get it together. Now Bowen does, too.”
“For the record, all I wanted was to take that sweet Porsche on a joy ride,” Bunny said earnestly. “I had every intention of putting it right back where I found it.” For some reason, I believed him.
Dante crossed the large foyer, and after he and Armando shook hands and introduced themselves, my cousin grabbed me in a backslapping hug. “Great to see you, Sal.”
“Great to see you, too.”
“Come on in. Nana whipped up a huge batch of bloody Marys and did a lot of taste-testing along the way, which might explain why she burned the hell out of the stuff she was making for brunch. Never fear, though. Charlie and Ollie are on their way to pick up a deli platter and some baked goods, so we won’t go hungry. ”
As we followed him to the kitchen, I asked, “Who else will be joining us?”
“My brother Vincent and his husband, but they’re running late because they had to pick up Josh and Darwin. The boys were working on some kind of film project, but their car broke down in the Outer Mission.”
My great aunt was as colorful as ever in her rainbow-striped T-shirt and hot pink velour track suit. She greeted me with a hug, and when I introduced her to my boyfriend, she beamed at me and said, “So, you like dick after all!”
I had no idea what to say to that. Before I could think of a reply, she crushed Armando in an embrace and exclaimed, “Look at you, you’re adorable!”
Arie murmured, “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Call me Nana,” she said, when she finally let go of him.
“I hope you like bloody Marys. I’ve got all kinds of things here to doll ‘em up a bit. Most people go with a piece of celery, but they’re not using their imagination.
” With that, she plunked a multi-layered skewer into her glass.
It was studded with gherkins, marinated mushroom caps, and miniature balls of fresh mozzarella, arranged in a way that made me wonder if I had an exceptionally dirty mind.
While Dante poured some drinks, Nana said, “Tell me about you, Armando. I want to know everything.”
He glanced at me and mumbled, “I, um…”
To help him out, I said, “Arie owns an amazing midcentury diner. The food is out of this world.”
Nana clapped her hands and exclaimed, “That’s fantastic! I owned a restaurant back in the day. I even had my own cooking show on cable television. I’ll tell you my favorite recipes if you tell me yours.”
She and Arie launched into an animated discussion about food, and I took a seat at the kitchen island and grinned. This was off to a good start.
About half an hour later, we were on our third round of drinks when the doorbell rang. Bunny leapt up and announced, “I’ll get it,” as he hurried out of the kitchen.
“I hate to say it,” Armando said, “but I’m going to be too full for brunch after this.”
“I’m going to be too drunk,” Dante muttered, as he topped off our glasses.
Bunny returned a few moments later. His usual smile was replaced with a worried expression, and he said, “Someone wants to speak to you, Sal.”
He stepped aside, and a distinguished-looking man in a three-piece suit entered the kitchen.
He was probably in his late thirties, with slicked back hair and a tidy mustache, and he was followed by two huge men dressed in black.
My first thought was that they must be this man’s bodyguards.
My second was that something was very wrong with whatever was happening here.
“Ah, Mr. di Pietro, here you are,” he said with a smile. He had a refined British accent, the kind that made everything he said seem smooth and civilized. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Mr. Cavendish.”
I stood up and asked, “Do I know you?”
“No, we’ve never had the pleasure. However, I believe you’re familiar with my employer, Philip Ashcroft.”
That name felt like a punch to the gut. I stepped around Armando’s barstool, putting myself between him and this man.
It took Dante a moment to register what was happening, maybe because he’d had a lot to drink. He leapt to his feet, knocking over his barstool, which hit the floor with a clatter. At that, the men in black pulled two handguns apiece from inside their jackets and pointed them at Dante and me.
Armando’s breath caught, and I reached back to try to reassure him. Meanwhile, Bunny threw his arms around Nana and moved her off to the side, putting himself between her and the men while she yelled, “What the fuck is going on? Who are those dickheads with guns in my kitchen?”
Cavendish raised his hands in a placating gesture and said, “Now, now. Let’s all take a breath, shall we? There’s no need to get ourselves worked up.”
“How did you find me?” My voice sounded like gravel.
The man smiled. “We got your name from your uncle, Flavio Bianchi. Just FYI, he’s not a very good person.
He threw you under the bus minutes after we found him, in an effort to save himself.
We traced you to New York, but then you pulled an impressive disappearing act.
We might not have found you if Mr. Dombruso here hadn’t started poking around and asking questions about my employer.
Once we looked into him and found out you were related, we put this house and his under surveillance, figuring you’d show up eventually. And voila, here you are.”
“Did you kill my uncle?”
He was still smiling, his tone light and conversational, as if we were old friends.
“No, of course not. What would that accomplish? Instead, we punished him by taking away the only thing that mattered to him—his money. After we drained his bank accounts, we cut him loose. He’s probably out there trying to find a new scam as we speak.
If he’s successful and actually rebuilds his fortune, that too will be confiscated. ”
I wasn’t sure if I believed they’d let him live, but I had more urgent concerns. “What do you want from me?”