“We’ll see you later, son,” said his father. He firmly steered his wife out of the room.
After the nurse changed the dressing and checked the wound, his cousin Louis walked in.
Saks wondered if he’d get more rest at home. At least he could lock the door and not answer it.
“Hello, Anthony.”
“Hey, Luigi.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Saks grinned. It was a joke that never got old.
“You look better now than in your apartment.”
“Don’t say that to my mother. She nearly had a nervous breakdown.”
“A bullet does that.”
“I guess so. What did you find out?”
“About those two lugs?” He shook his head. “They didn’t talk. Lawyered up. They aren’t from Connecticut, though. The DMV has nothing about them. I’ve got a request in to the FBI to research their IDs.”
“So that means one thing, doesn’t it?”
“Yup. Someone in Connecticut hired them, or one of the families from out of state sent them in.”
“Great,” said Saks. Here the Spawn were worried about war with the Rojos. Now, because of Saks, they could be going to war with a Mafia family.
Only, nobody knew which one.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Chrissy stepped into her office at an abnormally early hour, annoyed with herself for not buying a latte on the way in. No one was in the office yet, not even her assistant who arrived promptly each morning at eight. The whole office was unearthly quiet, and she couldn’t shake the sense she was sneaking in with plans on thieving anything she could lay her hands on.
She shook her head at the ridiculous notion. So, she was early. Big deal. She hadn’t slept last night, especially after the harrowing family dinner where her grandfather laid down the law that she was not to see Anthony Parks again.
It was a waste of time.
She had no intention of doing so.
The whole family seemed genuinely shaken by the whole ordeal. Her grandfather didn’t eat a thing, though he attributed that to Maria Parks’ lunchtime lasagna which, he said, rivaled anything his sainted mother prepared. Chrissy suspected, however, it wasn’t her great-grandmother’s lasagna he missed, but that of Anthony Parks’ grandmother, the woman stolen from her grandfather by Saks’ grandfather, though the circumstances how that happened apparently remained a taboo subject at the table. The only thing sure was that Pandolfo Serafini still held his grudge against the Parks family.
What a fucking mess!
A big part of Chrissy’s jumble of emotions was her ambivalence at being from such a twisted family. She loved her family but hated what they did. And she didn’t understand how otherwise-loving people could put misery on others for profit. It just didn’t make sense to her. But, she supposed, that was the reason Mafia men kept the details of their lifestyle from their wives and daughters.
Another part of her angst manifested from the lust Saks evoked in her. She’d never wanted a man as much. He was the shore to the tides of her passion which would inevitably and irrevocably flow—a magnetic draw regardless of the irrefutable logic of her mind. Not just lust. She wanted to give him her heart. To be with him. The fairytale wedding and happily ever after kind of life.
It was stupid.
There was no way getting involved with a member of a crime family was good for her.
Which only made her want him more.
Her conscience knew better, but her body stubbornly rebelled against her decision. Her heart ached with each beat, and her body warmed at thought of his.
It was torture.