All of a sudden the hypothetical question that spurned our only fight isn’t so hypothetical anymore: do I stay loyal to my own family and keep my mouth shut, or do I betray them for Sal?
It sounds like it should be fairly straightforward—I love Sal. Sal is wonderful. Sal deserves my loyalty.
But my brother murders traitors. Being his sister doesn’t automatically provide me any safety; he killed our disloyal older sister. That makes it a little more difficult.
I’m so sick to my stomach I go straight to bed after dinner. Then I decide to take a long bath instead, so I can cry out my frustration and fear in the only place in the damn house I have any privacy.
I wish I could talk to Adrian or Mateo and find out what they have planned, so I could better determine the stakes of my next move. Obviously I can’t, but I need someone who might know something.
So, when I leave the bakery Wednesday night, I pack up some cupcakes and go to visit Vince and Mia.
Vince invites me in, but as soon as I get there and see Mia sitting inside on the couch, snacking while she watches TV, I think about who gave them that house. My gaze drifts through the room, seeking out anything that might contain hidden cameras.
I don’t see anything, but it’s still a risk I’m not taking.
I also realize I’m not comfortable talking to Vince where Mia might overhear. I like Mia, I even trust Mia, but I trust Mia as a Morelli, not a Castellanos double agent. Apparently she lied to Meg about her history with Mateo, at the cost of making herself look like a cheating skank. I don’t know why she did that. I want to find out; I just have more important fish to fry right now.
Vince is still standing there, eyeing me questioningly since I’m just inside the door, not moving any farther inside.
“So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” Vince asks.
Mia holds out her bowl and looks up at me. “Pretzel rod?”
I shake my head, smiling faintly. “No, I’m good. Um, actually it was more a favor than a talk. Sorry, I was driving and I didn’t want to text and risk wrecking the car. My baker’s gone for the day but I need to rearrange something in the back and the bags of flour are too heavy for me to get up on the high shelf. I was wondering if you could run over there with me real quick and lend me your muscles.”
“Sure,” Vince says easily enough, kicking his shoes over so he can step into them.
“You should pick up dinner while you’re out,” Mia tells Vince.
“I can do that. What do you want?”
Grimacing, she asks, “Are you really prepared to have an hour-long conversation about what we’re going to have for dinner?”
Vince rolls his eyes. “Tell you what, I’m gonna go help Francesca, you text me when you figure it out.”
Mia nods, blowing him a kiss and going back to her show.
Once Vince gets the door shut, I remark, “You guys seem to be doing okay.”
“Yeah, we’re fine,” he agrees, glancing from his car to mine. “Since I’m picking up dinner after, we should probably drive separately.”
“Actually… we can just take one car. I’ll ride with you to pick up food.”
Vince frowns, stopping short on the sidewalk. “We should go to the bakery first.”
I hold his gaze wordlessly long enough for him to get it, then he slowly nods.
“Oh. Okay. One car it is.”
The ride starts off pretty quiet, both of us feeling awkward. Vince and I have always talked about stuff even if we shouldn’t—that’s why I knew about Mia when she was still a secret, and he knows about Sal even though no one else can—but I know I’m toeing a line today. I’m not just testing his loyalty to Mateo—which took a big-ass hit, understandably, when Mateo went after Mia—but I’m potentially putting him in danger by bringing him into my mess.
Finally, he asks, “So, what’s going on?”
“I hate to ask, but I have to know what’s going on with the Castellanos family.”
“You know I can’t tell you, Francesca.” He looks over at me, shaking his head. “You’re sleeping with the enemy.”
“But why is he the enemy? What did they do? What happened? Maybe Sal wasn’t involved.”
“He’s second-in-command,” Vince states, like I can’t possibly be that naïve.
He doesn’t like Mateo, but since he loves me, it’s somehow impossible for me to even consider Sal would move against my family. “We don’t talk about this stuff,” I tell Vince. “We know it’s sensitive, so we don’t, but I need to know if he’s in danger.”
“I think we’re all going to be in danger,” Vince states. “Stupid fucking Mateo can’t stop making enemies and he’s going to get us all killed.”