I walked over and reached out to touch it, but he stopped me. I frowned at him and he smiled.
“I wouldn’t,” he said. “Some people have a reaction to it.”
I snorted. “So it’s invasive and poisonous?”
“I’m not sure I’d call it poisonous, but something like that.”
“Are you thinking about doing some yardwork today?”
“No,” he said with a little laugh. “No, I was just thinking about this tree. It’s all over the city, you know. I bet that if we dug down deep enough and followed all their roots, we’d find that all the Trees of Heaven in this whole city are really just one giant organism.”
“Oh, sure,” I said, smiling. “I bet it is.”
“It’s a noxious plant. Its roots kill anything they come into contact with, can even damage pipes. But it’s always there, always growing, aggressive and unstoppable.”
“You seem to really like this plant.”
He tilted his head. “I think I see a lot of similarities between that awful weed and the mafia families.”
I leaned back away from him, frowning. “What are you talking about?”
He reached out and plucked a leaf. I sucked in some air as he threw the leaf down on to the ground and shrugged. “Underneath this city, the mafia families are all interconnected. We pretend like we hate each other, but if one of us were to finally win the war and take control of the city, the powers that be would just stamp that family out and be done with the whole enterprise. It’s a delicate balance, one that we’re all aware of all the time.”
“You have a mutually beneficial war going on,” I said.
“Something like that. And just like this plant, we kill anything we come into contact with.”
“That sounds bad, though. Why do you work for an organization like that?”
He smiled at me. “Because I don’t think it’s evil. I think it’s the purest expression of this city. I don’t hate this plant because it’s aggressive or it’s toxic. I hate this plant because it’s ugly. But I don’t think the Leone Crime Family is ugly, Aida. On the surface, all those things might seem bad, but we take what we want and we grow strong. We protect our people, help those we love flourish, and destroy our enemies. There’s nothing more honorable than that.”
I stared up into his face and wondered what kind of man I was getting tangled with. I knew he was a killer, but I didn’t know he thought so deeply about the monsters he cared for.
“If you could take over this city, would you?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “There’s no profit in that. Where there’s possibility, there’s profit. But once you’re in charge, there’s no more growth, no more possibility. I don’t want any of that shit.”
I smiled and slipped my hand into his. Maybe he saw the mafia as just some weed curling its roots in through the city, but I saw it differently. I saw men that took what they wanted and lived a life outside of the law, outside of normal society, a life of death and violence and honor and devotion. They were loyal to their family above all else, and that was amazing in itself.
I open my mouth to argue when there was a loud bang from inside the house.
It sounded like a firework went off. I blinked, surprised, and Dante dropped my hand. He took a step toward the back door, his mouth hanging slack for just a half moment until we heard the shout.
“Stay here,” he growled at me, but I was already following. He sprinted to the back door and kicked it open, ducking down low.
I heard more bangs and more shouts, and it took me a moment to realize what was happening. I stared in through the open door at Gino, ducking down behind the kitchen counter, his gun held out. I could see three men in the hallway, pressed against the wall. One moved out into the open with a shotgun and pulled the trigger, blasting the spot where Gino was hiding with bullets.
Dante went careening into the room and lost his balance. He fell onto his side and slid along the hardwood floor, coming to a stop near Gino, who ducked down behind the counter again. He reached behind him and produced another gun, sliding it over to Dante, who grabbed it and got to one knee.
“Hold them off,” Dante growled.
“Run,” Gino said. “Just go.”
“Not without you.” Dante moved up and fired off a few rounds, the gunshots like explosions in my skull. I felt like I was stuck in place, nailed to the spot. Like I was a Tree of Heaven, my roots digging down deep into the concrete, connecting with all the other roots of the city.
“Go!” Gino shouted, standing up and firing his gun again. Another man ran into the room as a third came around the corner with a small machine gun that sprayed bullets in wild patterns on the wall. I ducked down, a scream leaving my lips.