Chapter Forty-Three Nico
Chapter Forty-Three
Nico
‘Is that…’ I start, staring at the man coming towards us, wearing a powder blue velvet suit that I am ninety-eight per cent sure is not a costume.
‘Frankie,’ Lee agrees, her voice several octaves higher than usual.
Holy shit. This is bad. This is very, very bad.
‘Who’s Frankie?’ Charles asks.
Yup, so bad. We are totally fucked. I do not think that introducing Charles to the notorious former head of a prominent crime family who has no idea about our fake back story is going to go down well.
‘He’s a friend from work,’ Lee chokes out, just as Frankie reaches us.
‘Frankie,’ she manages, ‘what on earth are you doing here?’
‘What do you think?’ Frankie exclaims, his eyes huge behind his enormous glasses.
He plants a noisy kiss on Lee’s cheek. ‘I got guys everywhere so when I heard the news, I had to come and see for myself. After all,’ he dusts off the wide lapels of his jacket, ‘I think I had a little bit to do with it. Who do we have here?’
‘Um, these are my friends Tara and Luke,’ Lee says, ‘Claudia and Charles. And of course you know… Nico.’
‘Her husband,’ my mum adds helpfully, because there’s nothing she enjoys more than pouring petrol on a fire.
‘Yeah, I know.’ Frankie’s expression flattens; he reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out his cigar case. ‘In fact, if it hadn’t been for my high-priced champagne—’
‘Mr Saunders!’ Tara breaks in, clearly sensing things are about to go badly awry. ‘Have you had a cup of hot chocolate yet? I know Kat was super excited for you personally to try it.’
‘Oh, really?’ Charles looks slightly bemused. ‘I’m not actually much of a hot chocolate fan.’
‘Don’t tell Kat,’ Luke puts in, following Tara’s lead. ‘She’s been talking about it all week.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t want to be rude…’ Charles murmurs.
‘Let’s all go!’ Tara yelps with an insane amount of enthusiasm. For some reason she’s waving her arms around a lot. ‘Leave Lee and Nico to catch up with their friend.’
As Charles and Ma are swept away by Tara and Luke who are both talking loudly and at once, Frankie blinks.
‘What did I say?’ he asks, looking crestfallen.
Lee’s face softens and she goes to hug him. ‘It’s not you, Frankie. It’s complicated, but I’ll explain everything. Honestly, I’m so happy to see you, it’s just that you caught me by surprise. What are you doing here?’
‘I told you, I heard the two of you got married.’ He holds an unlit cigar to his mouth. ‘When I looked into it, I realised it all went down when you were staying at my place. I wanted to make sure that everything was on the up and up, that you were being treated right.’
This time when he turns to me the affable old man falls away and I’m looking into the cold, hard eyes of The Shark.
‘Oh,’ Lee blinks. ‘That’s so sweet.’
Sure, that’s one word for it.
‘I love her,’ I say, keeping my voice steady. I’ve stared down a predator or two in my line of work, so I’m not about to fall apart now.
An edge of approval creeps into Frankie’s expression. ‘Buddy, if I hadn’t already figured that out a year ago we wouldn’t be here having this conversation.’
He doesn’t actually say I’d be sleeping with the fishes, but it is heavily implied.
‘Frankie,’ Lee scolds him. ‘Stop playing the tough guy. You told me you liked Nico.’
Frankie and I both let out startled laughs at this, and maybe it’s a bonding moment, because his expression softens a bit more. He reaches back in his pocket.
‘And you’d better not even think about lighting that thing,’ Lee frowns at him. ‘You promised me you’d cut back.’
‘Now, Lee…’
She lifts her chin. ‘Don’t you “now, Lee” me. You know Spuds and I chat on Instagram and he’s rubbish at covering for you.’
‘Wait,’ I break in, ‘you follow Spuds on Instagram?’
‘We like to share ice skating videos.’
‘Anyway,’ Frankie picks up, and even though he keeps the cigar in his mouth, he doesn’t light it. If I didn’t know better I’d think he looked a little hurt. ‘It looks like you’re happy, so what I can’t figure out is why you didn’t tell me the two of you got married.’
‘I’m sorry, the two of you got what?’ a painfully familiar voice asks from behind me and I close my eyes for a second.
This cannot be happening.
When I open them, Lee is looking over my shoulder, stunned, so I know I’m not imagining things. I know exactly who I’ll see even before I turn around.
‘Jack,’ I greet my best friend, who is staring open mouthed at the three of us. Beside him, Cynthie is all wrapped up in a winter coat and hat, wide-eyed and eating a giant bag of kettle corn. ‘It’s really not a great time,’ I finish weakly.
‘Yeah, I can see that.’ Jack looks from me to Frankie to Lee. ‘I’m guessing that has something to do with the fact that this guy just implied that you’re married to my sister. Or did I mishear that part?’
‘Oh, so I’m not the only one you didn’t tell,’ Frankie says, watching Jack from under lowered brows.
‘Frankie,’ Lee murmurs, putting her hand on his arm.
‘Well?’ Jack’s arms are folded over his chest. ‘Would anyone care to answer my question?’ He’s at his most sardonic, which means he’s angry, but at this point he can get in line.
‘You didn’t mishear anything,’ I grind out. ‘I am married to your sister.’
‘Oh my god, amazing,’ Cynthie whispers, popping more kettle corn in her mouth. Her hazel eyes gleam with excitement.
‘What are you two doing here?’ I ask.
‘After we spoke on Friday, it felt like something was up with you. I was worried,’ Jack frowns. ‘So we came as soon as we could make it work. Now I know why you were being so weird, I guess.’
I have no idea what’s going on in his head, but he definitely doesn’t look happy.
Cynthie comes forward, bundling first me and then Lee into a hug. ‘I’m so pleased for you two!’ she beams. ‘It’s about time!’
‘What do you mean it’s about time?’ Jack asks her, his frown deepening.
Cynthie rolls her eyes. ‘Please. I saw all this coming the second I met them.’
‘You saw them secretly getting married in Maine and not telling anyone about it?’ Jack’s eyebrows arch sarcastically. He’s going what Lee refers to as ‘full-Darcy’ now. Definitely angry.
Cynthie crunches thoughtfully on more kettle corn. ‘Fine, that part was a surprise.’
‘Hey!’ Someone grins at Cynthie as he walks past. ‘Nice costume, you look just like her!’
Cynthie smiles back at him, adopting a flawless Southern drawl. ‘Thank you so much!’ She holds the bag of kettle corn out to me. ‘Want some? It’s really good. I’m obsessed with this place, by the way. Did you know there’s a woman selling banana and broccoli ice cream?’
‘Can we get back to important matters?’ Jack continues to look furious.
‘Yeah, like why didn’t your brother know you were married, Lee?’ Frankie turns to her. ‘I knew something wasn’t right.’ Then he turns to me. ‘If you’ve tricked her into anything, you’ll have me to deal with.’
‘Who is this guy?’ Jack growls, and then he takes a small step back when Frankie fixes him with a glare.
I can’t help smirking at him, yeah, you weren’t expecting that. ‘Jack, this is Frankie Martelli,’ I say, and Jack’s eyes widen. ‘He’s your sister’s friend, and the head of the Martelli family.’
‘Retired,’ Frankie says around his cigar, in a way that makes it clear he’s still active enough to break Jack’s kneecaps should the whim take him.
‘Okay,’ Lee says, and I realise it’s the first time she’s spoken since Jack and Cynthie arrived.
Her calm voice is back, the serene mask falling into place, and nobody but me seems to even notice anything is wrong.
To anyone actually paying attention it’s clear she’s feeling overwhelmed.
It’s all too confrontational, and I’m not helping by winding Jack and Frankie up.
‘I’m going to take Frankie and fill him in on what’s happened,’ she continues smoothly, as I watch the pulse hammer in her throat, ‘while you catch Jack and Cynthie up. Then I’ll find Charles and the others to make sure everything’s okay.’
‘Who the fuck is Charles? I don’t understand any of this.’ Jack sounds annoyed again, clearly deciding Frankie’s presence isn’t going to deter him, and he’s radiating tension. Lee’s shoulders tighten more. She looks between me and her brother and presses her lips together.
‘I’ll explain it in a second,’ I say to Jack, but my attention is on Lee. I reach out and pull her towards me, wrapping her in my arms. Her body is still tense, and I gently pinch her chin between my thumb and forefinger, tilting her face up to mine. Her big, blue eyes swim with anxiety.
‘Nico—’ she starts helplessly, but I drop my mouth to hers. I hear Jack make a huff of surprise at the same time as Cynthie squeals.
When I pull back some of the strain has left Lee’s face. I smile, brush her hair back.
‘It’s fine,’ I say softly, and I take off the white lab coat I’m wearing and pull it around her shoulders. ‘I’ll take care of it, you go and handle Frankie. We’re good, Daisy. I promise.’
‘What the fuck was that?’ Jack asks when Lee and Frankie leave.
‘That was you stressing your sister out,’ I say. ‘Next time you see her you could at least say hello, for fuck’s sake.’
Jack blinks. ‘I thought I did say hello.’
I shake my head in disgust.
‘Look, there was a lot going on and I’m trying to process it all.’ There’s some colour in his cheeks now. ‘I didn’t even know the two of you spoke to each other, and now it turns out you’re married? Excuse me for being a bit thrown.’
I exhale. ‘Fair enough,’ I agree. ‘I should have told you. I’m sorry about that.’
‘I’m sorry too.’ Jack tucks his hands in his pockets. ‘And I didn’t mean to upset Lee. I’ll talk to her about it.’
‘I’d appreciate that.’
‘So now you two have had that moving heart-to-heart are you going to explain what’s going on?’ Cynthie asks, taking Jack’s hand in hers.
‘Yeah, and why we’re fine with Lee disappearing off with an actual mobster,’ Jack puts in.
‘Frankie loves Lee,’ I say absently.