“Do actual truces exist in this business?” I asked, finishing what was left of my breakfast.
“They have to. There may be nothing but criminals in this business, but if we didn’t all uphold certain things, it’d be the wild west. Whether or not anyone wants to admit it, our collective successes have hinged on us never breaking a few coveted rules. If Carducci broke a truce with us, that would let everyone else he has an alliance with know that he isn’t good to his word. They’d turn on him, their allies would turn on them, and we’d all be dead before any of us left the house.” He looked at me. “People will try and convince you we’re just honorable men who place our values in abnormal places, but it’s all selfish. Always has been, always will be.”
I stopped talking. I didn’t like talking to Varasso Crime Boss Alessandro. He scared me and made me feel small and dumb. I missed my husband, the same goofy kid I met all those years ago. He was inside this Alessandro somewhere, but he didn’t come out very often anymore.
My phone started to ring. Alessandro looked at it and knew what it meant. He slid his chair back, and I grabbed my phone, walked over, and sat on his lap. I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and answered the call, and when the video went live, Alexis was looking back at us.
“Hi, baby!” I yelped.
Alexis poked at the phone. “Mama!”
“That’s right, it’s Mama and Daddy,” Ricky’s voice answered from off screen. “Say hi.”
“Hi, Mama.” She touched the phone’s screen. “Daddy!”
“Hey, Daddy’s girl,” Alessandro replied, sounding more like his normal self. “I miss you.”
“Miss Daddy,” Alexis replied. “Miss Mama.”
She’d grown so much since I held her last, it was painful. My own daughter was growing up without me. It killed me. “I miss you, baby. Are you being good for Uncle Ricky?”
“Say, ‘I’m the only one being good for Uncle Ricky,’” Ricky responded for her.
Alexis smiled brightly at the phone, and I sniffled back a few tears. “That’s my girl.”
“We’re gonna see you very soon, okay, my baby?” Alessandro said.
“Should we show them, Lex?” Ricky said. “Say, ‘Yay!’”
Alexis started to clap her hands. “Yay!”
Alessandro and I freaked out. We looked at each other, wide-eyed and smiling. “Our daughter is so smart!” I screeched.
“Yeah, she is,” Alessandro responded, and his arm around my back squeezed me.
I laid my head on his and let the fantasy wrap me up for a second. His fingers caressed my leg, and for a brief moment, we were a family again, happy and loving.
“Tell Mama and Daddy, ‘Bye,’ Lexi,” Ricky said from off screen.
Alexis held up a hand and clasped her hand together, though backward. “Bye!”
“Bye!” Alessandro and I replied together.
Alexis stood up and fluttered away immediately, off to play with her cousins, and the camera shifted so that Ricky came into view. “Hey.”
“Thanks for taking such good care of her, man,” Alessandro said. “She loves you.”
“I love her. I know I’m biased, but…” He leaned toward the screen and whispered, “She’s the cutest one.”
“That’s not bias. That’s just facts,” Alessandro said back, looking at me, and we both laughed.
The allure of the moment faded, and I realized we were getting too comfortable. I stood up off of Alessandro’s lap. “Hang on, Ricky.”
“Yeah.”
I gave Alessandro one last look and then carried the phone back to the bedroom and shut the door. I sat on the bed and tried my hardest not to burst out into tears. “I miss you,” I said.
“I miss you. You guys seem better,” he said.