Page 86 of Niccolaio Andretti (The Five Syndicates)
“Lovely.” I joke, “So, you’ve taken me to the last twenty minutes of a movie at a place that’s more safety hazard than it is a theater and now a stinky river across from nine million people’s worth of trash. Is this the part of the night when you chop my body up and throw the pieces into the water?” I lean into him as he takes a seat beside me on the hood of his car. “Niccolaio Andretti, you’re absolutely charming. Do what you want with my limbs, but do you promise to keep my ass intact? I’m rather fond of it.”
“Laugh it up, but this is my favorite place in the entire city.”
“Why is that?”
“We live in a city with nine million other people. Nine million. And that isn’t including the shit ton of tourists New York City garners, too. Sometimes, I just need a break. To remind myself that I’m free. That I’m not tied to this town in the ways I sometimes feel like I am. And here, I’m alone. I’m my own man. I can think my own thoughts without them being clouded by so many other people.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of being alone? You lived by yourself in that brownstone.”
“Well, yeah, but that’s different.”
“How so?”
“I’m trapped there, and I’m not here. I’m not sure there’s another way to explain it.”
“I like it here,” I decide.
“Even if it’s smelly?”
“Especially because it’s smelly.”
“No shit?”
“If it wasn’t, I think more people would be here, and then, I’d really hate it.”
He barks out a laugh. “You’re something else, you know that?”
“So says the man that goes to a putrid river to get away from nine million people that don’t even know him.” My expression sobers as I look at the city from our viewpoint. “I know what you mean,” I say softly. “It feels like freedom here. It’s far enough away from the city that I don’t feel trapped by all of my responsibilities and close enough that I still feel like I can be there for Mina if she needs me.” I turn to him. “Thank you for taking me here.”
We sink into silence together, enjoying the sound of the water and the breeze before he asks, “Why don’t you curse?”
I do curse when it comes to filthy words, because there’s just no substitution for that, but I suspect he’s not referring to that, so I say, “I promised myself I’d stop around the same time I p
romised myself that I’d become the person I need to be in order to get Mina back.”
The reference to my gold digging is sobering, laying between us like the elephant in the room. I’m grateful when he doesn’t bring it up, because I don’t want to face that reality yet. I don’t want to gold dig, but I still need to. Mina has six more years in the foster care system if I don’t do anything about it.
But for now, I just want to enjoy this moment of normalcy, with a boy that I really, really like. And I do like him. He’s maddening, absolutely infuriating, but he’s also everything I never knew I wanted. Is it so wrong to lead him on like this? He’s a big boy. I’m sure he can handle it.
“Why don’t you try cursing right now?” he asks.
“It’s a slippery slope.”
“Not even a little?”
“Are you trying to corrupt me, Niccolaio?”
“You’re already corrupt, Minka. Or shall I say Remington?”
I shove my shoulders lightly against his, forcing the memories of that night away but also wishing he’d just kiss me already. I want to know what it feels like to be kissed—really kissed—and like it. But I don’t want to be the initiator. Not when I’m already leading him on.
So, instead, I say, “Tell me a secret.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What happened that night?”
“It was four days after a botched hit on Vincent. We all thought the Romanos were going to retaliate on my dad, so he had me and Ranie stay at our Uncle Luca’s place. I couldn’t sleep and was walking around the place when I noticed that all the guards were missing. I didn’t have my phone on me, and Ranie’s room was on the other side of the mansion, so I drew my gun and cleared the rooms until I reached that hall. Where I met Asher for the first time. He gave me an ultimatum—Ranie’s life or Uncle Luca’s.”
