Page 53 of Capo
“You’re quite the surprise, Miss Becker.”
“I left that life behind.”
“You couldn’t save your brothers, though. What’d they do time for? Guns? Drugs? They are bad boys. You’re quite the broken family, aren’t you? And with a sister that went missing. Murdered parents. Rough start.”
She winces and shakes her head. “Getting into the court system, the police files… that was way over my level.” Narrowing her eyes, she regards me. “But apparently not yours?”
I grin and throw out my hands. “My organization is vast. There’s nothing we can’t do.”
“You’re mob.”
“We’re just businessmen.”
“Some business.”
“You’d know. That old man must have had connections with organized crime. You don’t run a business like that without protection.”
“That’s… for the most part that’s why I didn’t stick around. They came looking for me. I wasn’t home, but I knew as soon as I saw the state of my aunt’s place. I disappeared that same day.”
“And now you’re here.”
“Out of the ashes into the fire,” she says with a scoff.
“It doesn’t have to be bad, Chloe. In a way you’re safe here. Safe from Christine. No one will ever come looking. The past has a bad habit of catching up with you. In my house, yours won’t.”
“Why am I here, Salvatore? Please be honest with me. You can fuck—” Her eyes dart to David, but he’s still pushing around his bread on his plate, making patterns, and seems oblivious to our conversation. “Any woman you want, you just have to snap your fingers. Why do you keep me?”
“I’m bored,” I say. And it is the truth. I’ve fucked whores my whole life. I long for something classier, someone by my side, someone I can show off and who’ll stick with me. I can’t tell her that, though. It’s a silly dream and makes me look fucking whipped.
“So am I.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Are you now? Were you bored yesterday?”
Her gaze darkens. “I was terrified. And hurt.”
“But you weren’t bored.”
She groans. “You’re a big stinking—” Snapping her mouth shut, her eyes still relay the rest of the message.
‘Pile of shit’.
I know.
“So, Chloe Becker, what would make you less bored?” I lean back in my chair and rest my hands on my lap, interlacing my fingers, as I study her. I take in her long, blonde hair, her big blue eyes, straight nose, and those very kissable lips, realizing I’ve, in fact, never been even close to kissing them. I can’t remember when I last kissed a woman at all. Maybe Elena? Twenty-some years ago.
“Let me get back to my life?”
“Not happening.”
She deflates. “What’ll you do when you grow tired of me?”
“Well, don’t let it happen. Keep me entertained.”
“By…” She glances over at David. “By giving in?”
“Among other things.”
“What other things?”