The Woman from the Past (Grassi Framily)

“You’re shitting me.”

“Unfortunately, no. Only a certain amount of sugar, no milk, very few carbs. I get a lot of salads. And grilled chicken with veggies. That’s about it.”

“Christ,” Massimo said, exhaling hard, his gaze moving to his own coffee.

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine,” he said, looking up at me. “But it won’t be for much longer.”

“You have, you know, permission?” I asked.

“Yeah. And a couple of my brothers as back up, if I need them. We were ready to start working out a plan without you.”

“That would probably have been a disaster,” I told him.

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“Because Colin is really well-connected. I think everything will work out better if you have someone who can give you insights.”

“And now I have you. Will you be able to talk on the phone without being heard?”

“If I’m not loud, yeah. We can’t text?”

“Do you really want there to be evidence that Colin could look over if he ever happens to catch you using the phone?”

“Oh, true.” I could delete texts, but he was absolutely right. If I was caught in the moment, there was no way to delete the texts quickly enough.

I didn’t want to stop and think about what would happen to me if Colin found out I was working with the mafia to get him killed.

“Talking won’t be an issue. I’m alone almost all of the time,” I told him.

“Except for dinner time,” he said.

“Yeah. Aside from that.”

“What does he talk you about every single night like that?”

To that, I felt my lips curve up a bit as I looked over at him.

“His plans,” I told him.

“No fucking way. He’s that careless?”

“I think he is delusional enough to sort of believe that I am going to be his someday, so talking over dinner is somehow part of that.”

“What does he talk about?”

“The people he had meetings with. How good sales are. About random smaller-time dealers thinking they could compete with him. And then also partially about his plans to expand the house. Or move. He changes his mind a lot.”

“So you know just about everything.”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Think I’m starting to see why he keeps you so locked up. You’re dangerous.”

“I guess. But since I can’t go anywhere, I’m not.”

“Except when you are,” he said, giving me a nod. “I am going to need to pick your brain about the operation, the players, all that shit.”