Complete Corruption (Corruption #1-3) (71 page)

“I don’t want to talk,” I said.

He didn’t say anything. Didn’t even look at me in that way that made me feel eaten alive. He just put his gun down carefully and held out his hand. I took it, and he led me to the couch. He lay flat, and I crawled on top of him, lying thigh to thigh, cheek to chest. When he put his arm around my back, the weight of it secured me in place, pressed the anxiety from my ribs, and I slept with his heartbeat in my ear.

theresa

 dreamed I was chasing something through the halls of WDE, but I didn’t know what. I only knew I wanted it very badly. My father stood behind Arnie Sanderson’s wooden desk, knocking on it while saying
it’s in here it’s in here
. His voice wasn’t his voice but a hive of bees in his throat.

I woke with a stiff neck to Antonio’s cheap burner phone buzzing.

“Be still,” whispered Antonio when I tried to raise my head. He wiggled until he got his phone out of his pocket. “
Pronto
?”

I opened my eyes and rested on him, letting my vision clear. How long had we slept? Longer than I thought I could. The light outside was dull grey, and the birds made a racket. Zo was on the other end. I heard his choppy Italian. I wondered if Antonio’s voice would still sound like music if I could understand what he was saying. Maybe if we got out of this and made a life, I’d learn Italian and find out the answer, or maybe I’d just go on loving the way he sounded, listening to what he was feeling instead of what he was saying.

He tapped his thumb to two of his fingers, making a list for Zo. He swallowed and added a third thing. Zo laughed. Antonio did not.

“
Bene. A dopo.
He tapped off.

I got up, and he sat on the edge of the couch.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

“What did Zo want?”

“Marching orders. I don’t know what they did without me for two days.”

“I want to see Jonathan,” I said.

His silence was too heavy. Too obvious.

“You can pick the time if we have other things to do first. Or…”

I realized he had a set of concerns he wasn’t sharing, and the look on his face told me he wasn’t just going to tell me what he was thinking. He was calculating his next move.

“Say it, Antonio. What are you going to do when Zo gets here?”

“I need you to wait for my call before you leave for the hospital,” he said. “I’ll send Otto or come myself.”

Ah. That was it.

“We need to stay together,” I said.

I knew he wouldn’t agree. I knew my demand was the first salvo in a series of shots meant to keep us together, and I knew there would be a fight. When he just smiled at me as if I’d not alarmed him but charmed him, I knew something was wrong.

A car pulled up outside.

“That’s Zo,” Antonio said without even looking out the window.

Antonio leaned into me. I wasn’t supposed to touch him. I was supposed to shun his body, but I already failed when I slept on top of him and let the pace of his breathing soothe me to sleep. So there was no harm in letting him put his arms around me. I could pretend nothing had changed. Valentina was dead, and she’d stayed gentle forever. A memory of some past time, some past love of a man who didn’t exist anymore. I let him kiss my neck because she was gone and he was mine alone.

The hug lasted two seconds before Zo knocked.

Antonio peeked out the window and opened the door immediately.

Zo stood there with a white plastic bag. “Good morning.”

“
Buon giorno
,” Antonio replied, taking the bag and giving it to me. “Your wish for a toothbrush has been granted.”

“Lorenzo, I think I love you.” I hugged him hard.

He patted my back noncommittally, and when I looked at Antonio, I knew why.

“I’m going to give these roses a rest,” I said and dashed to the bathroom to run the brush over my teeth.

There was still glass all over the floor. I stepped carefully onto the overturned rug.

“I’ll have to pay your sister for the window,” Antonio said as he closed the door behind him.

I ripped open the packaging on two toothbrushes. “Better do it before she sends a collections agency for you. Oh, he got the cinnamon flavor. I like that.” I handed him the blue brush and loaded it.

“I want you to consider something,” he said before putting the toothbrush in his mouth.

I’d never seen him do a simple cosmetic chore. He’d always been this effortlessly perfect man. Invulnerable. Capable. He could solve anything. Even during the ridiculous ritual of tooth-brushing, he looked as though nothing could touch him. I think I stared at him too long, brushing the enamel off my teeth.

He spit. I spit. Like normal, whole people, neither of whom was committed to anyone else. I got that nagging feeling of incompleteness, and I chased it away when I wiped my mouth. I had no time to feel sorry for myself.

“What am I considering?” I took the brushes and wrapped them back in the plastic bag.

“Staying here for a few hours. Maybe until tonight.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I’ll have a TV sent. Books. Anything you want. And someone will come to watch you.”

My initial reaction was rage, then insult, then a stew of annoyance, sadness, dismissal, and disgust. I ran my fingers through my hair, making sure the mirror showed nothing of my messy emotions and all the neat and proper thoughtfulness I wanted to project. He caught my stare in the mirror, and I smiled at him.

“Well?” he said. “I won’t be too long. I can take care of this today. In and out. Easy. Then I’m going to get Valentina and send her home.”

“What about your son?”

“I won’t turn my back on him, but he’s not safe here.”

“He might need a father.” I kept my face completely straight when Antonio broke our gaze. I wasn’t even half done. “And I mean, you know, one who’s alive. One who can teach him to stay out of trouble in Naples.”

“Like my father did? I’d do more harm to that child than you know.”

“You’re wrong, but you’ll never know if you’re dead. And her? Well, it’s going to have zero net impact on her life if you die. She goes home and picks up where she left off. But me? Selfish me? I get to sit here and wait to hear you got killed.” I turned from the mirror and looked at him. “I know you’re inaccessible, maybe forever. I know I’m all wrong in the head to think I need you, but I’ll never feel right without you. So I’m going with you. If you die, I die. If there’s a miracle and you live, then fine. You take your wife and your family, and you move on. But me? Sit here and have my life preserved in a jar while you do this? So I can what? Be destroyed when the news comes that they killed you?”

“I have nothing if you’re hurt.”

“You have a wife and a family. Do you not get it? You have something to lose.”

He balled his hands into fists and held them up. “You make me fucking crazy.”

I pressed my lips together. I had to consider if I was simply irked that Valentina was probably going to enjoy his company today while I was not. Or was I annoyed at having to put off a trip to Jonathan? We were on our way out of the bathroom before I realized he’d said something I’d missed. He was at the bedroom door when I stopped.

“Antonio.”

He turned, hand on the doorframe, pointer finger bent just so in a way that made me want to put it in my mouth. “Yes?”

“You said you were going to do something quick before you see Valentina.”

“Yes.”

“What was it?”

“Do you need the day’s itinerary every day? Do we need to hire a secretary?”

Oh, no. That wouldn’t do. Not at all. We’d come too far together for defensive nonsense.

“Today. I need your itinerary today,” I said.

“I am not going back to my wife, if that’s what you’re worried about. I may see her for practical matters but—”

“Do not treat me like a toy.”

“Theresa,” he said softly, “let me take care of business.”

“No. Not when I don’t know how far you can go without getting shot at. Not when Otto might come back and tell me you’re dead. I won’t get in the way, but I won’t be left behind.”

He held up his hands in surrender. “I tell you what. Wait for Otto. He’ll take you to your brother. We meet up after.”

“After what?”

He shook his head just a little and strode out to the living area where Zo waited.

“I’m not some bored housewife you have to keep occupied.”

He said something to Zo in Italian. A command, because I’d never seen one of his men do anything other than exactly what they were told.

Zo reached into his back pocket. I must have been moved by some form of trust, because my attention wavered enough for me to wonder what Zo had, what time it was, if we were going to get picked up by the Sicilians before we even got out the door, then I was airborne.

“What—?”

Antonio had slung me over his shoulder and carried me into the open kitchen. I fought him tooth and nail, though I didn’t know why. I only knew he was forcing me onto the counter, trying to get control of my left wrist.

“Calm down!”

I clawed his face.

“Spin, really…” Zo’s voice drifted off when the handcuff was slapped on my wrist.

“Little help here, Lorenzo!” Antonio cried.

I kicked Antonio, and he moved about three inches before wrapping his arm around me. I wiggled and wrenched myself away, but he was strong and vicious, slapping the other cuff around the drawer handle. I was trapped.

Zo held up his hands, muttering, as if he wanted nothing to do with anything about anything.

Antonio stepped back, breathing heavily. “You are a piece of work, woman.”

“Where are you going?” I pointed at the stove. “I’m going to burn this house down if you don’t tell me right now.”

He gathered his gun. “I am the boss, Theresa. I go where I need to, when I need to. If I tell you, it’s not for your approval. It’s for your information.”

He glanced at Lorenzo then turned back to me as he stuck his gun in his waistband. Of course, if he didn’t tell me, it would look as if he had to hide things from his woman. I’d put him in a position.

“I’m going to meet Donna Maria Carloni. Right now,” Antonio said. “I need to clear it up. I need to tell her I was already married and show her the trouble I saved her. Present it like a favor. It’s easily done, and this all gets done.”

“And what if it’s your territory she really wants?” I yanked against the drawer. It opened but didn’t come out. “You’re delivering yourself into her hands. She kills you, and she gets it? Is that right? It’s as good as a marriage, but she doesn’t have to share.”

“If she wanted my territory so badly, she would have done it already.”

“Bullshit. She wasn’t threatened before. There was no Bortolusi union. You know how people act when they’re cornered.”

“I am not taking you to a den of snakes!” he shouted. “End. No more. You brought this on yourself by insisting you can do things you shouldn’t. Otto’s gonna knock first. If anyone else comes in here, shoot them in the fucking head. If I’m not back in two hours”—he dropped a phone and gun on the counter—“call somebody.”

“I’m calling someone as soon as you turn your back,” I spit out.

“That’s enough of a head start.” He strode out.

Zo gave me an apologetic look before following. I yanked the drawer hard. It didn’t budge. By the time I figured out how to get it out of the counter, Antonio would be long gone into the den of snakes.

antonio

hen she’d lain on top of me and fallen asleep, I stayed awake for hours. Her chest rising and falling, her legs on mine, her breath on my neck, the blossom smell of her—I was trapped inside her. In the lack of movement, the absence of logistical puzzles, the only thing I heard in my head was:

A quarter million.

The amount was serious, and it floated over her head and under her feet, weightless because of her ignorance of it. She knew she was in danger but didn’t seem to understand what the price tag meant. The Carlonis were not messing around. Word would get out in less than a week, less than another day even, and she would be hunted worse than me, because she was a woman, and vulnerable, and if I was out of the picture, they’d get her. As ferocious as she was, they’d get her. I’d be too dead to stand in front of it.