Chapter 1

I came home late from balancing the Family's clean books, and the broken lock on our door still hadn't been fixed.

I called Lorenzo Falcone's name through the door for ages before he finally came out, annoyed.

"Don't you have a key? Why don't you just open it yourself?"

I froze. "The door won't open. I told you this morning to send one of the men to fix it."

He blinked, then said, flat and indifferent, "Forgot. I'll definitely have someone see to it tomorrow."

Of course. That same couldn't-care-less attitude.

The laundry sitting in the machine, he'd forgotten to hang. When I asked, he said, "I never said I wouldn't. I'll go do it in a minute."

The kitchen scraps had gone rancid overnight, and I reminded him to take them down when he went out. He forgot again anyway. "I'll just make another trip later. No rush."

Every single time, he brushed it off like it was nothing.

I changed out of my shoes and stepped inside. "You couldn't hear me knocking all that time?"

He kept scrolling through his phone, not lifting his head. "Sera and I were on a video call."

"She was in the middle of a shower and her water heater broke, so I was walking her through the repair."

I glanced down. He was still looking up a water heater maintenance tutorial.

So while I was locked outside on the wrong side of a door the Family should have fixed a week ago, he'd been on video with the ward this house had raised, dripping wet and wrapped in a bath towel.

All these years bound to him, one call from Serafina Conti, water out, gas out, power out, and the Underboss of the Falcone Family would drop everything and rush to her at once.

Seeing me not move, he set the phone down and pressed a hand to my shoulder to smooth things over. "All right, all right, I'll send a man to fix the lock right now, okay?"

Fixed or not, it didn't matter anymore, because the door I'd kept open for him in my heart, I was about to lock.

1

I went into the bathroom to shower and found this morning's laundry still sitting in the machine.

I'd had a sit-down over the accounts early that morning and left before dawn, and I'd made a point of telling Lorenzo to hang the clothes before he went out.

I turned to leave the bathroom, meaning to ask him about it, when his phone rang first.

A video request popped up, and Lorenzo hit answer on reflex.

On the screen, Serafina was wrapped in a towel, wet hair still dripping. "Enzo, my keypad lock's dead, I can't get in, it's so dark out here, I'm scared someone bad's around..." Her voice dropped half a register into something soft and small, and her free hand reached for the edge of the screen as if for a sleeve to hold.

Murmuring soothing words, he was already grabbing his keys from the entryway, cracking the knuckles of his right hand one by one as he went, heading out with his jacket only half on.

"I'll come charge it for you right now. Send me the lock model."

The door clicked shut behind him. Clean and quick.

He hadn't even taken a second to tell me.

Towel in hand, I stood in the bathroom doorway and slowly looked around this home I'd put so much care into, the quiet of it pressing in like the hush that falls over a room when the Don walks in.

Suddenly it all felt absurd.

All this time, I'd just been too foolish, too earnest.

My phone buzzed. A message from the Capo I answered to in the front operations.

"Adriana, the placement with the allied family in the distant territory has to be confirmed in the next couple of days. You're sure you want to give it up? A sanctioned exit like this comes once in a lifetime. Think it over again."

I stared at that line for a long time.

Before, I'd never wanted to live apart from Lorenzo.

Now, thinking about it, he probably wouldn't care either way.

I wrote back, "Okay. I'll go."

Once I'd sent it, I turned and walked into the bathroom.

I hung the laundry first, then showered, dried my hair, turned off the light, and got into bed.

Lorenzo didn't come back until the middle of the night.

He pushed the door open, climbed into bed, and leaned in close, murmuring, "Did I wake you?"

I didn't move.

He tried again. "Did you hang the laundry? I told you I'd do it. You always rush."

Once, I would have rolled over and sat up and demanded why, when I'd reminded him again and again, he still forgot.

The clothes had sat shut in the machine all day, nearly rotting!

But I'd said all of that plenty of times. I didn't want to say it anymore. My thumb pressed hard against the thin gold band on my ring finger, and I said nothing.

When I didn't answer, he went on by himself. "Sera didn't know how to charge the electronic lock. If the keypad died and someone got in, a girl living on her own like that, of course I had to go over."

I opened my eyes. "Does she not have hands? Can't read a manual? Can't call the man whose job it is?"

The moment it was out, Lorenzo paused. "Do you really have to be this nasty?"

"Sera lost her parents when she was little. This Family took her in on a debt of honor. Is it so strange that I look out for her a bit more? What's with the snide tone?"

I rolled over, turning my back to him.

Behind me it went quiet for a few seconds, then came the sound of him getting up and going into the bathroom.

He showered and came back to bed.

He pressed against me, his arm winding around my waist. "All right, all right, don't be mad, I'll be more careful from now on, okay? Hm?"

He coaxed me, his temper softening a little, his lips moving toward my ear, and in the warm breath there was that perfume Serafina always wore.

A wave of nausea rose in my stomach.

I pulled his arm off me and rushed into the bathroom, retching over the sink.

Lorenzo didn't follow. I heard him grumble from the bed, "Adriana Marchetti, don't take this too far!"

I braced myself against the sink and stood, rinsed my mouth, and came back to the bed.

Lorenzo had already rolled over, his breathing even, asleep.

I stood at the foot of the bed and looked at him for a while, then picked up my phone and messaged the Capo one more time.

"I'm sure about the placement. Please start the process for me."