Sempre (Sempre 1)

The clock on the car’s dash read midnight when Vincent backed out of the driveway and started toward Highway 290. He drove for thirty minutes before he pulled onto the long winding path that cut through the hillside, driving through the front gate: Mount Carmel Cemetery.

He turned off the car and climbed out, walking through the grass, past the graves of some of those who had lived his life and died. The Capones were buried in this section, dozens of other Mafiosi scattered throughout the cemetery. He’d be there someday too, buried in the plot beside his wife.

His steps faltered as he spotted the gravestone, his chest constricting. Kneeling in front of it, he ran his hand along the name on the cold marble marker.

Maura DeMarco

April 1965–October 1996

“Ama, ridi, sogna—e vai dormire”

“My sweet Maura,” he said. “I know it has been months, but I haven’t felt like I deserved to visit you. How disappointed you must be.”

He sat down in the grass, eyeing the sentence that aligned the bottom. “Ama, ridi, sogna—e vai dormire,” he said, his voice a strangled whisper in the darkness. “‘Love, laugh, dream, and go to sleep.’ That was how you lived your life, and I’m trying to follow your lead. I got her, you know. I finally got her for you, and you’re not here for it.”

He laughed cynically as tears slipped from the corner of his eyes. “You were probably angry at me when I locked her in her room, as upset as you must’ve been that day all those years ago when I . . . I . . .” He trailed off. “You know what I almost did, what I tried to do that night . . . the night I killed them. I know you were watching, and you were the one who stopped me. Even dead, you’re still saving her. I could imagine you standing there with your forehead wrinkled—how you used to look when you got mad. I hated disappointing you, but what I wouldn’t give to see that face again.”

He paused, shaking his head. “The girl’s okay, I guess. We all are for now. I’m trying to figure out how to keep us that way. She’s growing and coming into her own. It reminds me of you, and that’s harder than you could imagine.”

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, brushing away the tears as he sat quietly, savoring the silence. Seeing her name, something tangible to remind him she had been real, soothed his frazzled nerves, and for the moment, he almost felt at peace.

After a few minutes, he stood and brushed the grass off of his pants. “I won’t stay gone so long next time. I love you.”

He walked away, heading across the cemetery to his car. The tears came to a stop, his heart growing numb on the drive back to Chicago.

By the time he crossed into the city limits, he felt cold again.

32

Haven stood in the doorway to the bedroom, quietly watching Carmine as he did his homework. He sat at his desk with his head in the palm of his left hand, staring intently at a laptop. He hadn’t sensed her presence, or if he did, he chose not to acknowledge her.

Carmine groaned. “What does the Greek alphabet have to do with math?”

She blurted out the answer. “Pi?”

He jumped at the sound of her voice and swung around. “Did you just ask if I wanted pie?”

“No, Pi is a part of the Greek alphabet, and it’s also a math, uh, thingy.”

He stared at her for a moment before what she said registered. “Well, thank Alex Trebek for that. You could probably do my damn work and save me a lot of aggravation, you know.”

She blushed. “But if I did it, how would you learn?”

“I don’t see myself ever needing to know this shit,” he said, shaking his head. “Anyway, is there something you needed?”

“I’m supposed to go to Dia’s, remember?”

She wasn’t sure how he’d forgotten, since it was his idea in the first place. “Oh, yeah, right.” He grabbed his keys off his desk. She expected him to stand so they could leave, but instead he held them out to her.

She stared at the keys. “Aren’t you going to drive me?”

“You know how to drive,” he said, jingling them. “I don’t have time to play taxi, tesoro. I have a ton of homework to get done and errands to run.”

Her brow furrowed. “How will you run errands if you don’t have your car?”

“I’m going with Dom,” he said. “You remember how to get to Dia’s, right? It’s a straight shot. I dropped you off there when you got your dress.”

“Uh, yes, but . . .”