I reared back and stared at him. My heart did a double beat and I took a sharp breath to steady myself.
“What do you mean, stay with you?”
“If you want to do this right, you’ll need to be my shadow,” he said like it was no big deal. “You’ll move into my place, stay in a guest room. You’ll follow me around for the next couple of weeks. When I go back to New York, that’ll be the end of our arrangement.”
“But, I don’t… I can’t just… you want me to move in with you?” I gaped at him and felt a bead of sweat run down my back.
Out on the river, two kayaks glided past.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m a perfect gentleman.”
“No, you’re not,” I blurted out.
He laughed and stretched his arms out then sighed.
“Okay, I’m not,” he said. “And I’m not going to promise that I won’t try and take you when I want you, my little journalist. But I will promise that I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.”
“This is crazy,” I said. “I want to write a profile on you, not live with you.”
“These are my terms,” he said.
“They’re crazy terms.”
He shrugged and gestured like he didn’t care.
I turned and stared at the water. I watched it rise and fall in tiny little peaks as the wind picked up. I wondered how much trash was in there, how many bodies, how many secrets. That river, that damned river, helped sustain the city for so long, was its source of water, its source of waste. It flowed into the Delaware then out into the sea, so far from here.
I could feel the choice in front of me. I could see my life branching off in two different directions. There was the Mona that played it safe, that didn’t go for this crazy deal, that kept on working on her safe stories in her safe life.
That Mona didn’t get anywhere.
But I didn’t know if I could be that other Mona, the one that reached out and took risks and tried to do something bold and brave.
I looked at Vince and he smiled at me, head tilted. He was so handsome, and it was almost distracting enough to forget that he was also dangerous, that he was the son of a famous mobster, a very famous and very deadly mobster.
I could almost forget that I might end up dead or worse with him.
“I’ll do it,” I said.
He smiled. “I knew you would,” he said.
“But no secrets,” I said. “No bullshit. If I’m going to go through with this, I don’t want you to just… hide things from me. I want the real Vincent Leone, I want the real story.”
“That’s why you’re coming to live with me,” he said.
“Good.” I nodded once and took a deep breath. “All right. Let’s do this. I can do this.”
“Good.” He stood up suddenly and reached out his hand.
I hesitated, stared at it, then let my eyes move up to his chest, his muscular chest in its tight white shirt and the jacket that fit him like an old, perfect blanket. He tilted his head, smiled at me, and it was so disarming, so charming.
I took his hand and stood.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “It’ll all be okay.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s what people say when it really, really won’t.”
He laughed and turned, still holding my hand. He led me back to the staircase and climbed up. I followed him, heart beating, barely aware of the cold stone steps beneath my feet. We reached the top, right next to the waterworks, and stood there for a long moment as we surveyed the park. Parents with their children, young men with their girlfriends, a group of girls in workout clothes jogging past.
I felt like I was in an entirely different world now.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll take you home so you can pack. You’ll move in tonight.”
“Yeah,” I said, my voice a distant sound.
He led me away and I followed.6MonaWe drove to my apartment and I went up alone. He said he would help me pack, but I didn’t want him in my space.
I couldn’t say why. Maybe I didn’t want him to infect everything I owned. One day, this would be over and he’d go back to New York, and I’d be left with my old life.
I flipped on the light to my tiny studio apartment. Piles of clothes near the bed, my dresser a mess of jeans and underwear, framed posters of famous photographs on the walls, dishes piled in the sink. I pulled the small carry-on-sized suitcase from my closet and began to stuff as much clothing into it as I could fit. I put my laptop in a backpack, a couple books I was reading, my Kindle, and some chargers. I grabbed my toiletries, makeup, hair products, anything I’d need that he probably wouldn’t have.