Dante spoke up from behind me. “Can I get a cup of water for you, Maribel?”
Pointing toward one of the pine cupboards, she nodded. Dante always wanted a balanced atmosphere. He said when the energy of the room was off, explosive things happened.
In a weird way, I agreed with him. “We’ll secure the area, Maribel. Same stipulations.”
“It won’t be enough,” she murmured and that one soft comment had me sitting down at the table.
I needed all the information if she expected me to help her. “What won’t be enough?”
“Oh, your father knew as well as I did, once we were gone, you’d all have to fend for yourselves. You’re fine. Mo, here, she’s as flippant as a hurricane. She’ll go full speed one day and slow the next.”
Morina tried to argue, but Maribel pulled her wrinkled hand from Morina’s and shushed her.
“You know it’s true. I don’t care. We’ve always loved that about you. It’s why I paid the Irish for your food truck area. It was the one thing that could keep your attention.”
“Fuck me,” I grumbled, and Dante sighed.
“What?” Morina whispered.
“You can’t mix allies like that,” I said, my voice ominous.
“It wasn’t meant to be found out.” She shrugged. “Just a little payment for one food truck to stay open.”
“They respect you, I’m guessing.” I offered, my mind working it all out.
“Of course. They do it for me because I’m old. I have that power. I’m meaner than Mo too. I’ll chop a hand off–”
“Grandma!”
“Oh, child. It’s just a hand!”
Dante chuckled but I watched Mo. She wasn’t laughing. Her blue eyes widened to saucers and I knew right then she wasn’t made to lead an area of mine. She wasn’t like the women in the mob. She was young, fun-loving, and completely naive to violence. “Anyway,” Maribel went on, “with me gone, she goes into witness protection, dies, or…”
The silence stretched and I let it hang in the air waiting for her request. I was used to discomfort and the absence of noise. It heightened everyone’s awareness, made them really think about their intentions and contemplate their gravity.
“You could have her marry one of your top guys for awhile. Put her in a position of power so they fear harming her enough.”
“Are you kidding me?” Morina stood abruptly as the question whispered out of her. Then it bellowed out, “Are you kidding me, Grandma?”
“Oh, it would only be for a few years,” replied Maribel. “It’d save your life!”
I raised my hands before either of them got too angry or too worked up. “I won’t put my guys in that sort of position.” I shook my head. Her hand in marriage wasn’t an option.
“What sort of position?” Morina asked, ready to unleash her anger on anyone.
“Don’t, piccola ragazza.” My voice cut through the air before I had time to contain the outburst. “I’m saving you an arranged marriage.”
Instead of her shrinking in fear, she seethed, lifting her chin. “Your men would be happy to have me.”
I looked her up and down. “My men want women, not girls. You’re too young for most of our tastes.”
Her jaw dropped. She paced up to me as if ready to slap me. And I found I wanted it. The way her fury boiled over into my space and burned me in just the right way had to be wrong. Still, I wanted her.
Shaking her head after a minute of us staring one another down, she paced away to the window and glared outside. “What planet is in retrograde right now? There has to be something off with today.”
Her grandma groaned and I heard Dante shift behind me. “You must be a Sagittarius.”
She smiled at him. “That I am. And you must be a Leo. I get along with Leos.”
“I think we’re going to get along just fine.” Dante smiled like she was right. Was she? Did I need to research the damn signs now?
My neck muscles tensed, like a fucking feral dog wanting to claim her all of a sudden. “We’ll be in touch. Maribel, I expect this to be put in your final will. I don’t want anything left out that will make me have to do anything illegal.”
“A true mafia gentleman.” Her grandmother laughed and stood from the table. “It’ll all be there.”
We didn’t stick around after that. We left with only Dante waving goodbye to them.
10
Morina
The rest of the evening, I waited like prey ready to be slaughtered any second. I jumped at the slightest sound and my grandmother even scolded me
“Mo, is this so scary to you? What’s got you so tense?”
“Oh, I don’t know. The mob being in our town, for one.”
She sighed and rubbed a hand over her wrinkled brow. “It’s not like you think. I fluff my own ego by acting as though we’re still at war. Like a soldier wounded in battle that gets to remember those days as some of the bravest ones he ever lived, I like to talk like it still might happen, huh? Don’t get your panties all in a bunch. They’re mostly businessmen now. Like I said, gentleman mobsters.”
I took a deep breath. “What do you mean, Grandma?”
“Ach. They have hearts now. They live by new rules. They make clean money instead of bleeding those who crossed them.” She waved toward the big city. “They know how to move things without death now. I think it's better this way but maybe more cruel. I’ve heard of how Bastian works. He’ll cut off dealings with those he doesn’t want to work with and let the wolves underground rip apart those he doesn’t protect. He wants everything legal but still holds everyone’s cards in his hand”
“That sounds just as scary.” I shivered as a breeze passed through.
“Maybe. But there’s ethics now. Code he lives by more than his dad ever did. It’d serve you well to marry into that.”
Sighing, I dug my nails into my hands so as not to jump down her throat right away.
Grandma meant well. In her mind, marriage still could smooth over many things. She thought Bastian would be protecting me with his name but she didn’t understand. “They love me here, Grandma. You know that right? Jonah is out on the water every day with me, Iago is at the food truck bright and early and I’ve worked at the humane society for years. Dr. Nathan–”
“Don’t be naive, Mo. Men love a pretty woman to look at. They won’t risk their lives for you. And who’s going to take care of you when I’m gone?”
I stumbled at her question in shock. I tried to school my expression but she caught it.
“Oh, I know. You think you take care of yourself but I pay the bills. I run the numbers of the real businesses we have. I’m your protection.”
Her words were like a punch to my gut. “I’m perfectly capable of doing all of that, Grandma.”
“We will see.” She murmured and went to her room.
* * *
She died that very night, her last words loomed, now ominous with their weight.
There wasn’t a sound made. No glass fell to the ground, no cry for help, not even a great sigh from her bedroom. She went the way everyone hopes they will: quiet and warm in her bed.