Tony
When I go home to have lunch with Dominic, Christy isn’t home. Carmella says she’s out with Lisa. I bring up her phone and track her to Lisa’s place.
Once Dominic is gone, Carmella eyes me. “What’s the matter?”
Carmella has been with me a long time. Her husband was one of my men. When he got killed in a tussle, I promised him I’d take care of her. So she came to work for me. Over the years, she has done good by keeping her mouth shut on what happens in my home, although she loves to tell me what I’m doing wrong. I sigh, wondering if she has any ideas. I tell her about wanting to get Christy pregnant so she’ll stay. Not the why, just the pregnant part.
Rolling her eyes. “Give her a damn ring and marry her if you really want her to stay.” She huffs at my surprise. “For fucks sake. You’re a Sabatini, and your word is your bond. You also haven’t committed to a
single woman in more than twenty years. You tell her you want to marry her. She’ll know without a doubt she’s not going anywhere, and neither are you. Don’t you want your baby to be born in wedlock?”
Fucking hell. “Of course, I do. Christ. I didn’t even think of it. I’ve gotten so used to not thinking of it.”
“Men,” Carmella sighs.
“Shut up and leave early. I want the house to ourselves. I’m going to go get my mother’s ring out of the safe.”
***
Christy
Lisa tries to talk me out of leaving Tony, but by the time she has to leave for a date with a client I’ve come to terms with the fact I have to. I don’t want to, god, I don’t want to. But for him, I have to. The longer this goes on, the harder it will be on both of us. He’ll become bitter, or maybe I will and love will turn to hate. I could take anything but that—even being without him—over him hating me.
Except when I get home, Tony is waiting. He’s so damn sweet. He makes dinner, not letting me help. I know now, I can’t do it to his face. He’ll talk me out of it. He could talk me out of anything. So I decide to treasure this night, our last one together.
We linger over dinner, talking about everything and nothing the way we end up doing so often. He takes me outside. We sit on the deck and drink wine and watch the stars. Until I look down and find him holding out a ring to me. I go still in horror.
That laugh exhale laugh thing, he tugs my left hand to him. “Christy, I’m not asking you. No, piccolina, I’m not that stupid. I’m telling you. We’re going to get married. We can have a big wedding or a small wedding, but it will be in a few short months because I can’t wait for anything longer. I don’t think you can either. I don’t want anyone, you included, to doubt you’re mine. To doubt this is forever. Do you understand me? Until I draw my last breath.”
I nod, “Sempre.” Forever, I whisper against his lips.
Long after Tony falls asleep, I lay awake listening to him breathing. I don’t want to leave. The last three months have been the best months of my entire life. It's enough for me to live on. This was a crazy dream. This wasn’t really love. It was the forced connection of two damaged people coming together out of an insane moment of life or death. In a few months, this will die, and he’ll be grateful I left. If we managed to make it to married, he’d never let me go, not ever. I can’t let him do that to himself. He deserves better than me.
13
Tony
My alarm wakes me up. I reach for Christy. Her side of the bed is cold. I go still. I don’t hear her in the bathroom. A chill comes over me. No.
I’m up and in the bathroom, nothing. I push open the door to the walk in closet. Closing my eyes, I open them again. It’s gone. The one lone box she kept is gone. Most of her clothes are here, but enough aren’t. She’s gone.
It’s there in the marrow of my bones. She’s gone, and she’s not coming back. I’ll have to drag her back by her hair. If she were smart, she would have left not long after I fell asleep. I grab my phone and check the history of the alarm. Midnight. She’s now six hours ahead of me.
I dress on autopilot and go down to my office. Even though I know it’s useless, I can’t not do it. I call in every favor I’m owed. She had to get out of the city some way. How did she do it?
***
Tony
It’s been four days and I’m no closer to finding Christy than I was when I woke up the morning she left. She had liquidated her retirement plan before she came to see me, probably for her run after she killed me. As I was tearing the city apart for her she was walking out of a bank with almost sixty thousand dollars in a cashier’s check. Enough money to start over while still hiding.
If I haven’t picked up her trail by now, I’m not going to. I haven’t slept. It doesn’t matter it’s three in the morning, I go to the only lead I have—Lisa.
I hadn’t because I was sure she probably didn’t know. Christy wouldn’t have gone to her twice. As close as I am to losing it, I didn’t want to take out my anger on Lisa, but I have to be sure.
Lisa answers the door within minutes. “I’m sorry, Tony. I heard she was gone. I swear to you, I don’t know where she is. If I knew, I would tell you. It’s probably why she didn’t tell me.”
Falling onto her couch, I shake my head. “She never talked about somewhere she wanted to go? What about her brother?”