Fragile Longing

“Carlo and Santino won’t let us leave their sights.”

“Don’t worry about Santino. I’ll handle him. I’ll give you a call once I’ve ironed out the details.”In usual Anna fashion, she did indeed handle everything. Anna had a way of getting her will in a subtle way. I wasn’t sure how she’d convinced her parents that she needed a weekend in the woods with me, but they agreed and that meant mine did too, and so Anna and I met at our lake house on the weekend of Danilo’s birthday party. Samuel was staying in the Mancini lodge to party the weekend away. Of course, I wasn’t invited as Danilo’s fiancée. Heaven forbid girls had fun.

We arrived at the lodge on Friday afternoon, which gave us a day to prepare for the party on Saturday night.

I had Carlo and one of my parents’ bodyguards with me, while Anna came only with Santino. It was ridiculous that I had more protection than the Capo’s daughter, but since the thing with Serafina, my parents and Danilo were uber-protective.

Fresh snow covered the treetops and the roof of the lodge and crunched under my boots as I headed toward the front door. Santino’s car was already parked in the driveway.

Anna sat in one of the plush armchairs in front of the stone fireplace, her legs curled under her. She smiled when she spotted me. “Santino made a fire for us to warm up.”

We hugged and I sank down on the armchair beside her while Carlo carried my bag upstairs. Santino stepped into the living room, his expression verging on murderous. He gave me a curt nod before he headed back out.

“What did you do?” I asked.

Anna waved me off. “He’ll calm down eventually. Don’t mind him. We need to focus on you and how to dress you up. You still sure about doing it?”

I nodded. “I’m going to confront him.”

“You can confront him without playing a blonde chick and kissing him first . . .”

I ignored the comment. I was determined to go through with it, even if Anna considered it a stupid plan.The party was set to start at eight, but Anna assured me it was uncool to arrive among the first guests, so we headed out from the lodge at eight. Santino was driving us, and he hadn’t said a single word.

His anger worried me. What if he told anyone about our plan? My parents would be disappointed, and I’d be grounded until my wedding day. Though growing up in the mafia as a girl you were pretty much grounded for life anyway.

“Are you sure my bodyguards won’t notice I’m gone?”

“I told them I’d take the nightshift. They’re watching TV in the guard house. As long as you two stay out of trouble, we should be fine,” Santino snapped.

I gave Anna a look. She obviously hadn’t revealed the details of our plan to him. He thought we wanted to party.

I’d chosen a Catwoman costume. The leather cat mask covered the entire upper half of my face. Strands of the blonde wig trailed down my shoulders to entice Danilo. I hoped the mask would cover up enough to keep Danilo from recognizing me. I doubted he’d ever looked at my face for long enough to really notice the details, but it was still a risk. Maybe he wouldn’t even have recognized me without the mask. He’d never looked at me longer than a few seconds, if at all. I’d put on thick fake lashes and bright red lipstick, to entice and distract him since I’d never worn anything like it before.

He’d see the long blonde hair and be drawn to it. Then he’d smell Serafina’s favorite perfume. She’d left the bottle in her bathroom when she’d run away, and I’d taken it as a small reminder of her. Today was the first time I wore it myself and it felt strange. “How do I look?” I asked Anna.

She sighed. “Not like you.”

Not that Anna looked like herself. She’d dressed up as the wife of Chucky, the killer doll with a bright red wig and scary makeup. She was completely unrecognizable, which was necessary if we wanted to stay undetected long enough. If the Capo’s daughter showed up at the party, the news would spread like wildfire. Santino had refused to wear the matching Chucky costume. Instead, he was dressed all in black. At least he had a skull mask to cover his face, but that was the extent of his cooperation.

“That’s what I was aiming for.”

“I know,” Anna said. I could tell that she had more to say but was probably trying to word it in a way that wouldn’t hurt my feelings.

“Say it.”

“I just want to make sure you stay in control of the situation. You want to confront him, set rules, and make it clear that his behavior hurts you. Hold a mirror up to his face so he realizes how messed up his actions are,” she whispered so Santino couldn’t hear us.