FRANK POURED EACH OF US A GLASS of wine.
We drank wine all the time—it was like water; if you weren't drinking it, you were either dead or dead. Seriously. Every other occasion called for it.
So I shouldn't have been suspicious, and I wouldn't have been — had Frank not asked Phoenix to stay as well.
Two bosses and me.
It wasn't good news.
But would it be bad? What could be worse than what I'd already experienced or what I was currently experiencing?
Frank cleared his throat and slid the wine toward me slowly. His frosted black and gray hair looked more dominant in the light, casting a glow across his sharp features. I imagined around thirty years ago he probably could have given all of us guys a run for our money in the looks and all around muscle department. But now he just had the look of the patriarch of a very old and very organized business.
He swirled the wine in his glass then took a long sip. "Have you read your black folder?
I suppressed a groan. "No. And I don't think I will."
Phoenix tensed next to me.
I wasn't sure why.
What the hell was so important about that damn folder?
"You should," he encouraged. "Luca kept great tabs on not only you but some other key players in our… family."
"I see what you're doing." I toyed with the stem of my wine glass. "But it won't work. I'm curious but not so curious that I feel like reading about all the horrible things I've done — the horrible things I'm capable of."
"Like you should talk," Phoenix said under his breath.
I shot him a guilty look.
Phoenix scratched his head and leaned back. He looked less tired than he had a few minutes ago. "Look, it would be in your best interest to read it."
I glanced between the two of them. They'd never been on the same team. Hell, the more I thought about it, they were basically natural enemies. Phoenix had tried to rape Trace; granted, that seemed like a million lifetimes ago, but Phoenix was basically the big bad wolf, the monster, the loose cannon. Out of all of us, he's the one I'd say who was around two seconds away from losing his shit and just bombing the house because he felt like it. It made no sense.
"What's going on here?" I leaned forward. How had I missed this? The way Frank looked at Phoenix, the way Phoenix almost… cowered in Frank's presence — not that he was intimidated, but that he was uncomfortable with the weight of his own knowledge.
"Luca knew everything about everyone," Phoenix said slowly. "Everything. And Sergio… it's hard to explain, but it's almost like he took every possible scenario that could have happened in our family and planned for it."
I snorted. "What? So now he's a ghost? Freaking psychic? Controlling the family from the grave?"
Frank gulped and looked down at the table. "You know nothing, and you'll continue to be in the dark until you read the folder, the one Luca specifically left for you, about you, with instructions only you can carry out."
I met Frank's gaze, my gaze unwavering, giving nothing away. "And what if I burn it? What happens then?"
Frank licked his lips and cracked a smile. "I imagine my brother even planned for that outcome as well. His mind worked in very mysterious ways."
Phoenix tapped his fingers against the wood table. "Sergio, we still need you. That's what this is about. We need you in this family. Don't check out. Not yet."
"Yet," I repeated.
Frank's eyes were kind when he said, "She will die."
I averted my gaze. "I know."
"And when she does…" His voice was soft, reassuring. "…we will still need you, Sergio. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
I snorted. "Don't go off and shooting myself in the face? Is that what you're saying?" I shook my head. "Well, let me put your mind at ease. I would never do that. Ever. Andi would be ashamed of me if I did, and I live for that woman." My voice shook. "I'm a man because of her, and I'll be damned if I take the coward's way out because I can't live without her."
Frank stared long and hard at me, his blue eyes piercing, his body taut. "Fine," he finally said. "Good." Standing, he gave me another once-over and said again, "Read the folder, Sergio, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised… or burn it. Either way, life… it is meant to be lived, it is meant to be felt, regardless of how painful or sorrowful the journey."
I nodded and whispered, "It's not how you start."
Frank smiled softly. "Son, it's how you finish."
"A beautiful ending." I repeated what Andi and I had said.
"Yes," he agreed, "it is."
Frank walked slowly out of the room; his footsteps echoed for a good while before they disappeared, leaving just me and Phoenix at the table.
"I have to say something." Phoenix's eyes were glassy with tears. "And I'm sorry if I'm being that guy right now, but I have to say it."