The Woman in the Back Room (Costa Family)

The man who took her from him didn't deserve to just keep on living, likely getting hired to take more fathers and mothers away from loved ones whose lives would be a little bit emptier because of their greed and heartlessness.

If I had to kill, I was glad to have a reason.

"Yes, I do," I countered, shrugging as I watched Brio go through the kitchen drawers.

He always had to be doing something, it seemed. Always touching shit that didn't belong to him.

At least he had gloves on this time.

The cops were pretty fucking useless in our neck of the woods, solving only a quarter of all serious crimes, and they sure weren't going to be busting their asses to find the people who killed a couple of killers, but we had to be careful. The city had a stick up their asses about the mafia ever since they realized they could use RICO charges against us. I guess it was a real feather in their caps to bring one of us in rather than some low-level wheel or trigger man.

So we had to be careful.

Which was why, despite my gloves, I was keeping my hands to myself. I couldn't take unnecessary risks. Unlike Brio, I had a kid to think about, a future with a woman I cared about to consider as well.

It felt a bit like we were a couple of teenagers, sneaking around all the time. But not from our parents, just my grieving son.

We'd almost been caught a few times.

Once, when Avi had a stomach ache—likely from all the street food he and Alessa had eaten on their way home from the movies—and had knocked, but started to open the door without waiting for a response.

Alessa had flung herself over my body and onto the floor, disappearing under the bed like some fucking spy movie or some shit.

Another night, we'd been on the couch in the living room, having a late-night drink that ended up making us a little loose and careless, leaving us with our hands down each other's pants when Avi's door opened, and we flew apart like someone had dropped ice on us.

We needed to be more careful. At least for a while.

It was hard, though. There were at least a dozen times a night when I wanted to reach for her, to kiss her. I was trying to convince myself that it just made our private time after Avi went to bed even more special. And it was. But I was looking forward to a day when I didn't have to hold myself back.

I think that day would be important to the clearly uncertain Alessa, too.

I didn't think she was uncertain about me, per se. But because relationships were something new to her, because she'd never known a man she was interested in sharing her life with, because she was scared of losing someone she'd started giving herself to, I thought it might reassure her if she didn't feel like everything was a big after-dark-only secret.

"You should take her out," Brio said, pulling me out of my swirling thoughts.

"What?"

"Alessa. You should take her out," he said, finding a particularly jagged steak knife in the draw, nodding at it, then slipping it into his pocket. "Send the kid to his grandma's or uncle's for the night, and take your girl out. Like two normal people."

"That's... that's actually a really good idea."

"I got some of 'em," he agreed, shrugging, moving toward the front windows, looking out.

I was a little disappointed in myself for not thinking of that sooner.

Of course I should take Alessa out.

Knowing her, she'd probably never had a proper date in her life. She wouldn't have wanted one when she'd been so committed to non-commitment. But now that she was willing to give it a try with me, she needed the whole experience of courtship, even if we were sort of working backward with the whole thing.

It didn't matter.

What mattered was the thought, the effort.

"Take her somewhere fancy," Brio added, grin wicked. "I want to see her try to walk in heels."

I wanted to see that too.

I made a mental note to set it up even as the both of us heard footsteps on the steps.

Brio moved across the apartment, getting into position behind the door so he could close it and block the only exit. Sure, there was technically a fire escape in the bedroom, but it wasn't fully connected to the brick wall of the apartment building. No full-grown man could put his weight on it without the whole thing falling several stories to the street below.

The door opened as my adrenaline kicked into overdrive.

My hand slipped to find my gun, pulling it out as the two men moved inside the apartment, jumping when Brio slammed the door behind them.

"Scream and I'll drag this shit out," Brio said, waving his gun at the two men. "Don't you two fucking idiots know better than to mess with the mob?" he asked, clicking his tongue at them as realization dawned on them.