Even though I couldn’t remember the way she looked, I thought of her often. Especially when I touched her rosary. Even as a child she tried to teach me how to ease my anxiety with faith.
Capo stared at my face, maybe thinking back. He ran his finger down my nose again. “Your nose. Your eyes. Even your lips belong to her. The color of your eyes...” He tilted his head. “They seem to be a mix. Her eyes were amber, like whisky in a glass right at sunset. She was a beautiful woman.” He became quiet for a moment.
“Your father used to bury shit. Guns. Money. Jewelry. Papers. When I found him, he was in a bad neighborhood. The kind where people keep their heads down, eyes averted.”
“I’m familiar.”
He nodded once. “There was nothing in the house but ratty furniture. When he ran, he ran with very little. He wouldn’t have thrown his shit away. He believed he was going to make a name for himself. He believed he was going to be the new capo in town.”
“You think he might’ve buried pictures?”
“Bingo.”
“I would.” I swished the last of my drink around the glass. “I would love to see her. It would mean a lot to me if I had pictures of her.” I touched my stomach. “Maybe I’ll see some of her in him.”
We became quiet as the waitress came back to refill our drinks. I only had one thing on my mind, though.
I reached out and took Capo’s hand, resting it against my stomach. “Here’s a twist they probably never saw coming. Two families that hated each other are now joined by one link. Love. This little boy brings them together in peace, whether they want it or not.”
Even if Capo would never speak the words, this baby was created from love. Having children never even crossed my mind when I’d been struggling to survive, but when Capo gave me the choice, I’d never wanted anything more. To be able to hold my blood in my arms felt like the most amazing dream. To see someone else who maybe looked a little like me felt unreal. I craved to feel that special connection.
Capo lifted a cucumber slice from his bowl and set it in front of my stomach. Then he set another one next to it. Like my stomach had eyes. “Here’s a twist. He’s about the size of a mango right now, even though he’s only supposed to be the size of a cucumber. He’s going to be a big boy.”
The grin that came to my face was slow. “Like his Papà.”
Capo called the waitress over. “Let’s not keep him waiting to eat then.” He ordered spumoni cake and ice cream. He looked at me. “Make that double.”
“Hey!” I started laughing, but I ate the cucumbers he had sat on my stomach. Then he started laughing. I stood, running a hand down my dress. “The bathroom calls before dessert.”
The smile on my face lingered as I made my way through the restaurant. When I got to the back, where the bathrooms were, I noticed a room off to the side. The backroom Capo had been talking about. It smelled like garlic and tomatoes. I wondered if we could check it out after we ate our spumoni?
The bathroom trip didn’t take long, and I was still wiping my hands on a paper towel when I stepped out and ran right into Capo’s arm. He was standing in front of the bathroom door. Another man stood by the storage room. He was much shorter, but bull-chested. They stared at each other.
The napkin in my hand fluttered to the floor when I noticed the tattoo on his hand.
“Bobby, you got a cigarette on you?”
The man’s eyes flew to mine. Then back to Capo’s.
“The fuck? Vittorio?” The man’s voice came out low, and a light sheen of sweat bubbled over his top lip. He was pale, his lips too red from the lack of color on his face. I wondered if the men Capo had killed, the ones who had tried to kill him, had this same reaction when they thought they saw his ghost.
Capo said nothing, but he nodded in a way that told me he wanted me behind him. I moved, but I put a hand to his side, trying to peek.
“Tell me one thing, girl.” It took me a moment to realize Bobby was talking to me. “Do you see him, too?”
I didn’t know what to say. Capo refused to answer, and I wasn’t sure what this guy was going to do if I confirmed it was the man they all thought was dead. Would Bobby pull out a gun and kill us both? If I kept quiet and he got pissed? What then?
“See who?” I rasped out.
“The man standing in front of you. The one you’re touching. He’s supposed to be six feet under. His throat slashed.”
“Did you do that to him?” I was surprised by the amount of venom in my voice aimed at this man that I didn’t know but hated on principal.
Bobby shook his head, but his eyes never left Capo’s. I wasn’t sure if he was sizing up my husband, afraid that he was going to pounce, or was still in shock at seeing him. “Nah, that wasn’t me, girl. I had no hand in his murder. At one time, we were close.”
Capo laughed, but it was low. “Is that the lies we’re telling these days, Bobby?”
Bobby shivered at the sound of Capo’s voice, and then he raised both of his hands. “I swear on my Ma’s head, Vittorio. I heard things, ya know? But that stood between Arturo and Achille. We all suspected, but you know how it is. What’s done is done. We can’t go against the boss, man. Achille admitted it to a few of us a few years ago—it was implied that our fate would be yours if we didn’t do what we were told without question.”
Capo grinned, and I shivered this time. “You should’ve never come looking for me, Bobby. You should’ve stayed within the protection of the pack you call famiglia.”
Before I could even take a breath, Capo charged him, slamming his head against the wall. The scariest part was that it all took under a second and he hardly made a sound. When Bobby went down, Capo took him by the shirt collar and started dragging him toward the storage room.
“Mariposa.” Capo’s voice was cut-throat. “Move.”
It took me a second to focus, but once I did, I hustled to keep up. Once we were outside, he picked Bobby up and flung him over his shoulder.
“You can’t kill him!”
“Consider him dead.”
“But he didn’t do it, Capo! He’s innocent.”
“You stand by and watch, I consider you guiltier than the one who uses the knife. He’s a fucking poltroon. And his wife talks too much.”
“The second reason is not good enough!” Besides, I didn’t know what a poltroon was—maybe a coward?
“It’s a bonus. Maybe she’ll shut her mouth for five seconds, long enough to shed a fake tear.”
We made the side of the building, going straight for the car parked directly in front of Mamma’s.
“Someone might see!” I hissed.
“I’m dead. Let them try to find me.”
As soon as Capo opened the doors, two cars came to a stop right next to our car.
“Get in, Mariposa! Adesso!”
I flung myself in, right as bullets pinged against the exterior of the car. I covered my stomach, afraid that one might penetrate the bulletproof layer.
Capo was inside the car a second later. He put the car in gear and peeled out, swiping the side of one of the cars as he sped off. The cars that had stopped in front of the restaurant blocked the flow of traffic. Horns blared.