Page 96 of Masked Don

“Come to see if I’m dead yet?”

Carmine looks wrong in the hospital bed. I don’t like it at all.

“You kidding? At this point I’m starting to think you can’t die.”

Marta’s in the chair beside him, his hand in hers, like she’s worried he’ll leave the world of the living if she lets go even for a second.

“They tell me you’re being stubborn.” I pull a chair next to the bed and look him over. “How bad?”

“Bad enough,” Carmine says. “But not that bad.” He shifts and winces. “Bullet clipped me a little too deep, but they dug it out. I’ll live. But I’ll be useless to you for a month.”

“That’s good. Useless is good. You’ve earned useless.”

Carmine’s face is serious; it’s time to talk shop.

“Tell me what’s going on. Tell me you didn’t leave them unguarded while you came to kiss my boo-boo and make it better.”

Then he nods to Marta. I can tell she doesn’t want to leave her husband’s side, even for a second. But business is business, and the less she knows, the better.

“I’ll get some fresh coffees,” she says. She rises, leans over, and kisses Carmine, then leaves, giving my good shoulder a gentle squeeze on her way out.

When she’s gone, I tell him about the cabin, three hours north, and about Pyke watching them, the best man I have now that Carmine’s out of commission.

Carmine takes a moment, processing it all in that way he always does. “Good,” he says finally. “Good. Pyke’s solid. He’d die before he let anyone past him. And he’s smart enough to not let it get that far.” He settles back. “Now you. What’s your move? You ready to end it?”

“That’s exactly what I’m planning to do. It’s one thing for Luca to attack from the shadows, but announcing himself out in the open the way he did back at the garage?”

“That’s a goddamn declaration of war.”

“Precisely. Luca wants the attention of the entire Camorra on him. And he’s got it. He put himself in the open, shot you, and made it about Stevie. There’s no reasonable way left, Carmine. I tried to be reasonable, and it got you shot.”

“It got both of us shot.”

“So now, it’s the hard way. Luca wants a war? He’s got one. I’m going to put him in the ground, and I don’t care what it costs me to do it.”

Carmine shakes his head against the pillow. “No. Not like that. Go at him with guns blazing, and to the elders it looks like two dogs fighting in an alley. Do it the way your father did. Luca sent gunmen into your party to drag a woman out the service door. That isn’t a territory dispute. That’s Luca telling every old man at that table that their wives and daughters are fair game too. Make them see that, and you’re not fighting Luca alone. You’re enforcing the rules.”

“Then I don’t go to the elders asking for help in a war,” I say. “I show them Luca already declared war on them, the moment he went after a man’s woman.”

Carmine smiles and sinks back on his pillows. “Now you’re thinking like a Don instead of a soldier. Took you long enough.”

A knock sounds at the door, and it opens. Marta steps in with a tray of coffees. “Sorry to interrupt,” she says. “It’s just… Enzo, I need to speak to you about Genevieve. I’m worried about her, more than usual.”

Just the mention of my sister’s name sends a tinge of frustration through me. “Marta, I don’t have time to…”

“I know, I know you don’t. But I’m telling you anyway, because someone has to and it won’t be her.”

She passes out the coffees before speaking. I take mine and sit back, nodding.

“She’s been off. The last few days, before all of this. Not too-much-to-drink off. Believe me, I can recognize that by now. More like something else. Secretive. She’s been on her phone at strange hours, going quiet when I come into the room. It’s almost like she’s frightened.”

“What do you think it is?” I ask.

“I don’t know. Just that I’ve been running this house for thirty years, and I know when someone is off, in trouble, something. And something is going on with her. Just check on her, okay? Whenever you can. Promise me you’ll check on her.”

“I’ll check on her,” I say. “When this is done. I promise.”

I turn my attention to Carmine. “Heal. Rest. That’s an order. I need you.”