Page 73 of The Don
She might be safe, but I need to see that for myself. I rush around the table toward the door.
“Salvo,” Giulio calls. “What do you want me to do about Aldo?”
“Whatever you want,” I call over my shoulder.
The gunshot rings out before I can finish that sentence. It looks like I wasn’t the only one who got some justice today.
26SHAE
I don’t letSalvatore out of my sight for the next two days.
Or he doesn’t let me out of his sight. Whatever, the tenor of our relationship after we get back to the penthouse is co-dependency, but I think that’s temporarily okay. I mean, wewerekidnapped. Besides that, though, the next couple of days are frustratingly normal. Salvatore cooks for us. We sleep. We fuck. He washes my back. I hear my cousins arguing outside of the door sometimes, wanting to see me. But besides our quick family reunion when they brought me back from the villa, I don’t have the energy to talk to anyone but him, and he takes the blame with my cousins.
Although, truth be told, we don’t talk nearly as much as we should. I just want to rest.
Until this afternoon, when I woke up from my post-breakfast orgasm-induced nap and needed to speak to someone in particular.
“Hello.”
“Auntie Caroline, this is a FaceTime. Do you have the phone up to your ear?”
“A what time?” she asks.
“Put the phone in front of you and look at the screen.”
I wait for a few seconds until her face comes into view. “Move the phone back just a little bit.”
She does, and I see her squinting at me. “Hey! There you are! Where are my glasses?” Once her attention wavers, her hand dips, and I have a great view of her chin.
“They’re on your head, auntie.”
“Huh? Oh. Oh!” She comes back into view. “Alright,” she sighs. “That’s better. Well, look at you! Have you called your mother?”
“No, ma’am. Not yet.”
“But you found your cousin?”
“Oh, yes! We did!” There’s no need to tell her we found Zahra almost immediately. What the Council don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.
“Well, good. You coulda told us,” she mutters. “But I’ll let the other aunts know. So, when are you coming back?”
“Um…soon. Soon. That’s actually why I’m calling.”
“Oh, the ticket is open-ended. All you gotta do is call the airline. But I can do that for you if you want. Just tell me when you three are coming back.”
“No, not that. Um…”
Caroline stares intently at me, and it doesn’t matter that there’s thousands of miles between us; I feel her gaze, and I know what she’s waiting to hear. This is the reason I called her.
“I’m pregnant,” I admit in a quiet voice.
“Well, duh, girl. We’ll talk about the baby shower when you’re back. We’re gon’ have to find you somewhere else to stay, though. Ain’t no way Zoe’s gonna want to live with a newborn. Oh, it’s not Steve’s, is it?” Caroline’s frown is excellent.
“No, auntie.”
“Oh, good. ‘Cause girl…”
“I know, auntie.”