Page 7 of By Blade, I Love
“Yeah. It was nice to be outside.” She only took a couple bites before she started to push her food around on her plate.
“What’s up, baby?”
“I don’t know… I guess I kinda feel bad for feeling better.”
“You shouldn’t feel bad about that. You can’t live in the shadow of grief forever. Just because you’re up and about doesn’t mean you aren’t still devastated. You can meet the happiest person on the street and not realize they’re on the verge of suicide. Depression is a constantly evolving emotion.”
She played with her food for another moment before she took a bite of her bacon. “I’ve got to kill Leo anyway. I’m not gonna let him get away with this.”
“We won’t.”
“Is that why you went to see Don Russo the other day?”
“Yes.”
“And what was said?”
“I asked for help because I need manpower to accomplish this. He said yes.”
“Good,” she said with a sigh of relief.
“But they want me to help them defeat Icarus in return.”
“Oh.” She stilled when she understood the full stipulation. “How do you feel about that?”
I gave a slight shake of my head. “I know Warren isn’t an easy adversary, so I understand. They’re fighting on two fronts, so them doing this at all is a favor in itself.”
“But what if it takes years to defeat Icarus?”
“Then it takes years.”
She studied me for a moment across the table. “It almost feels like…you’re one of them again.”
“For the short term, I suppose that’s true.”
She stared at me for a while, her shoulders dropping from an invisible weight. “I don’t want this. This is not the situation I wanted us to be in.”
“It’s best not to play that game, baby.”
“I know you don’t want to work with them again.”
I gave a shrug. “When Warren’s men were looking for me, Cosa Nostra could have snitched, but they didn’t. They covered for me like I was still one of them. Don Russo put his money where his mouth is.”
She continued to stare at me.
“I didn’t know who the snitch was, but Leo was the last person I expected. When I look back on everything, I realize it’s pretty obvious. So it’s nice to feel some real loyalty for once.”
She still had some food on her plate, but she set down her fork like she was full or her appetite was gone. “What was obvious?”
“Well, when your father confronted Luigi at his warehouse, it was a setup, and they put a gun to Leo’s head to get your father to comply. Leo didn’t flinch, showed a stiffer spine than I thought he possessed, and I had a higher opinion of him after that. But now, I wonder if that whole thing was an act.”
Her face had already been pale, but now it started to blanch to the color of snow.
“If he originally worked with the Lombardis to overthrow your father, but then I complicated that for him.”
She took in a slow breath and released it as a quick sigh, her eyes wide in horror.
“And then when I killed them, he went to Warren next. That was why Warren confronted us at the wedding. He had the upper hand, and he wanted to gloat—even though we didn’t know what he was gloating about at the time. But then Warren took one look at you and got sidetracked…and hit your house unexpectedly. I think Leo didn’t know that was on the agenda.”
