Chapter 45 Francesca
Francesca
Dinora is putting the finishing touches on dessert with Carlo’s sisters while the men talk. “We leave our wives in your hands, De Luca,” my husband says at last with Faro by his side. He arrived with Aurora just before Mom, Cat and Gia came with Alessio.
“On my honor, no harm will come to them,” my cousin replies in a deadly serious voice.
I roll my eyes at Cat, knowing she shares my opinion of the men’s over-the-top protective posturing. She smirks in reply while helping Giulia reach the bottle of fruit soda on the bar.
When Carlo comes to tell me goodbye, I stifle my urge to beg him to stay home. He touches my wedding band, and my expression tightens, remembering it's another way to control me. Yet, I can't bring myself to remove it.
“You’ll be safe here. I hope you have fun tonight with the girls at your Seconda.”
“We will,” I reply, not able to express the same hope for him. Many men in the Trio would probably consider my demand to have a party of my own tonight a form of rebellion, but with my mother and three underage girls here, it’s hardly going to get that wild.
After our reception, Carlo brought me back home last night.
I focused on that step in the right direction and on the things he admitted in that little storage room before his brutal actions afterwards.
When we settled into bed at last, I let his touch awaken my body once more and silence any lingering misgivings I felt.
It wasn’t until this morning I started thinking about the fact he’s having his Seconda Notte tonight and started worrying what that might mean. He said the entertainment would be to die for. He cheated on Sofia at Alessio’s Seconda.
Once Carlo and Faro have left, I nod at the peculiar necklace Alessio gave Caterina a couple of weeks after their wedding. "I didn't notice earlier this week. Do the additional teeth hold some significance?"
Caterina shoots Alessio a strange look as he smiles darkly and answers for her. "You could say that."
“You should keep him company,” Cat suggests diplomatically to her husband when the Vicini guard who brought the girls retreats to the terrace.
“Yes, leave us in peace, and those are not for you,” Gia adds, hip-checking her brother when he reaches for one of our appetizers.
“You’re just pissed I didn’t bring Armando with me.” Gia glowers at him as he bites into the pastry. “Fuck. Burnt my goddamn tongue.”
Feminine laughter and his wife’s feather-light touch on his forearm accomplishes what Gia’s glare couldn’t. Alessio leaves us alone, grumbling about how much restraint it will require not to toss the Vicini guard over the balcony.
As the food is being served, I receive a text from Harper –
You’ve been missing from class. I’m worried about you.
We’d exchanged numbers, but it’s the first time she’s texted. I haven’t spoken to her since my meeting with Ronan in the park where she ran interference with Faro. I don’t even know where she went after I was caught.
Not wanting her to worry, I reply at once –
I’m fine. I’ll be back at school Tuesday.
There’s no class tomorrow, but Carlo promised I would return to my normal routine over breakfast this morning.
Okay. Anything I can do to help you?
I stare at her friendly offer, not certain why it puts me on guard.
No, I’m fine. I’m having a little girls’ night at home. Want to join us?
No sooner than the text is sent it feels like a mistake, but I can’t rescind the invitation now.
Harper texts back after a few minutes, asking for the address and saying she’ll come over a little later. Telling myself it will be fine, I message the concierge in the lobby that I’m expecting another guest before turning my attention back to the ones present.
“Why didn’t Alessio bring Armando?” I ask Gia and Cat as we settle on the sofa. My mom is in the kitchen chatting with Dinora and Bianca, Anna and Giulia are playing around with my piano.
Gia answers. “He caught us kissing at his birthday party before we left Vegas. It was nothing. Alessio’s just being a pain in the ass about it.”
My eyebrows shoot skyward at Gia’s casual admittance of infidelity, and Aurora chokes on her bite. “I’m sorry. Should I go join the girls or…”
“Are you planning to tell my husband about it?” Gia asks her, sharply.
“No! What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?”
Gia cracks a smile. “I like her. You can stay.” I give Aurora a reassuring smile to second Gia’s words. We’re all close in age, and I want us to get along.
Since it’s clear Gia doesn’t want to keep discussing Armando and the kiss that ‘was nothing,’ we talk about the reception last night. Of course, the sheets come up. “Silvio insisted on seeing ours,” Cat says, shuddering at the mention of my vile deceased uncle.
“Did you have to deal with that when you married?” I ask Aurora.
“No, once Faro and I were free to marry, our ceremony was very subdued.”
“I doubt this Seconda will be subdued,” Gia says. “Ritchie was pissed Carlo didn’t invite the men from Chicago and Vegas.”
“But it’s at Red Hook,” Aurora replies. We all turn toward her with the same blank expressions. “You know about Red Hook, right?”
We shake our heads. “What don’t we know?” I ask, an eerie sense of foreboding making my pulse speed up.
“It's the dockside warehouse the Trio owns in that section of Brooklyn. I’ve been to it… once,” Aurora whispers, looking lost in her memories. “They often use it to host inductions but also Tribunals and bloody statements.”
“That doesn’t sound like a place where they go for cards and hookers.” I nod in agreement at Cat’s words, wondering how messed up it is that I’m relieved at the thought of my husband spending his evening at a place drenched in violence rather than around prostitutes.
“It’s not. For Carlo to insist on the New York men being present without inviting men from outside his territory, he’s planning something specific. Faro thinks it's because of what happened with Roberto last night.”
I recall Carlo’s words from the storage room – “Anyone who wishes you harm will die screaming.” Despite my sick satisfaction over Carlo defending me against Roberto’s gross words, I don’t want to be responsible for more violence.
“It’s just like our men to get off on bloodshed if they can’t have sex,” Gia mutters, pouring more wine.
Cat nods, glancing toward the terrace where her husband paces while touching her tooth necklace. “Alessio would prefer a night of bloodshed to cards and hookers.”
“I hope they’ll be careful,” Aurora says, wrapping her cardigan around her tighter. “The last time Faro attended a meeting this big there, it was for the public execution of a traitor.”
I shiver, thinking of Ronan, and jump when Giulia taps my shoulder. “Want to dance?” she signs, smiling innocently.
“Yes,” I say, nodding. I don’t want her or Bianca or Anna to know what their brothers are up to tonight. Someday, they will but not yet.
***
Two hours later, Mom is laughing loudly at the dirty jokes Dinora tells her.
Caterina, Gia and Aurora are playing a game of charades with the Vicini sisters, all of them having a good time, when a notification pops up on my phone from the lobby.
I’d forgotten about Harper coming over. I give the okay for them to send her up.
As soon as the elevator beeps, Alessio and the Vicini guard step inside. “It’s just a friend of mine from school!” I shriek at them before hurrying over to greet Harper in the foyer.
The Vicini guard steps back outside, but my family and friends stare at the new arrival with curiosity and, in Alessio and Gia’s cases, wariness.
“Harper, hi!” I say, a little too brightly. “Come and have something to drink.” Her eyes are huge as she takes in Alessio. I forget sometimes how intimidating-looking my cousin is to others.
I wish I could say the awkwardness soon dissipates, but it doesn’t. Harper nurses one drink, her words friendly while her eyes constantly track Alessio’s movements. She asks Caterina and Gia a few prying questions. She mostly ignores Aurora for some reason.
When she asks to use the restroom, Gia grasps my hand the second she’s out of sight. “Make sure she doesn’t lose her way.”
“She’s just a girl like us.”
“She is not like us, Frankie. There are reasons we don’t socialize with outsiders more than necessary.”
Thinking it’ll shut Gia up, I go down the hallway to the guest bathroom but realize Carlo's office is open. He’s been leaving it unlocked more and more, but I know he’s careful when it comes to anything that shouldn’t be left lying out.
Nevertheless, my blood runs cold. Harper has no business being in there at all.
“So sorry! I thought you said it was on the left,” Harper says, breathily when I peer inside.
“No, on your right.” I watch her go into the bathroom and then check the office. Nothing seems out of place. His laptop is closed and off and the safe is undisturbed.
But when I rejoin the party, I’m uneasy and coming to a dismal conclusion.
Gia’s right. As much as I daydreamed about living a normal life, I was born into the mafia.
I could never discuss my husband cutting off a man's ear for insulting me or tell tales of macabre warehouses where bloody statements are made with a friend like Harper. People like her would never understand our world. They’d condemn the men in my life, and they’d condemn me for being a complicit bystander to it.
Everything I was convinced I wanted so badly a couple of months ago simply isn’t as important to me as it was. All the people I love are part of this lifestyle in some form or fashion; my mother, my brother, my cousins, my sisters-in-law… and my husband.
***
Carlo’s little sisters left with their guard hours ago. My mom went to bed in the spare room down the hall after Dinora’s husband came to fetch her. Caterina is asleep on the sofa while Gia, Harper, Aurora and I play cards.
“Where did you learn to play poker so well?” Gia asks Harper, having thawed minorly toward the outsider with enough wine.
“In the Navy.” She’s mopping the floor with us at Texas Hold’em. “I think you should fold, Frankie,” Harper says next, nodding at my hand.
She’s right. I’m not very skilled at card games, and my mind is wandering. The men have been gone for over six hours. It’s two in the morning. Was Aurora wrong? Does it really boil down to cards and hookers for them?
The elevator beeps, and my drooping eyes are wide open again. He’s home. Faro walks in, his jaw clenched tightly, followed by Carlo, Luca and Renato. Carlo has a strangely vacant look in his eyes. The tension radiating off the other three men is unmistakable.
Four sets of eyes pass over us, each settling on Harper. “She’s my friend from school,” I say, almost apologetically.
“Get your things, Aurora,” Faro clips, knowing Harper helped me in the park. Hurrying to obey, his wife doesn’t tease him like usual. They’re gone first.
Luca touches Carlo’s shoulder, but my husband shakes his brother off. Muttering something to Renato, Luca says a gruff farewell as the younger Vicini brothers leave.
“I should go, too,” Harper says once the elevator with them in it is gone. Her hands are shaking as she grabs her bag. She flees like the place is on fire.
I’ve barely seen her off when Alessio stalks in from the kitchen. “Why the fuck did you invite her here, Frankie?”
“Watch your tone with my wife, De Luca,” Carlo warns, speaking for the first time.
Alessio glares at him until something changes. He tilts his head to the side, and his eyes narrow, resembling a predator sizing up another predator. “Let’s go back to the hotel. Aunt Beatrice can sleep off her wine here,” he finally says, lifting Caterina in his arms as Gia gathers their things.
Alone at last, I want to know where my husband’s been. I want to explain about Harper, even though part of me knows I shouldn’t have to. I want to understand that odd look in his eyes.
But before I can say anything, Carlo groans and takes a seat on the sofa, pulling off his jacket to reveal the bloody mess underneath.