Ruling the Benedetti family came with its challenges. Now that I was boss, things were different than I’d always thought they were. I had no one I trusted. Salvatore didn’t want to have anything to do with the family business, and the taint of Roman’s betrayal still tasted bitter on my tongue. I retained Henderson’s services, but I had learned that everyone had their own agenda. I wouldn’t be played again, not by anyone.

I married Gia over Christmas. We flew to Calabria, Italy, for the wedding. That house was the only one of the family homes I’d kept. I hadn’t spent much time in it during my youth, and it didn’t seem to hold the stain of betrayal in its walls. Salvatore and Lucia attended with all three kids. So did Isabella and Luke and their new baby girl, Josie. Effie was our flower girl, and Salvatore and Lucia stood as witnesses. Gia’s mother and aunt attended, but that was all, and it was fine. I guess we were both loners. But together, just us, it didn’t seem to matter.

I didn’t show Gia the newspaper that arrived on our doorstep the morning of our wedding. I didn’t tell her that Victor Scava had disappeared, along with all the evidence against Angus. I didn’t mention the small box tucked inside the paper either. Angus Scava’s wedding gift. A box containing Victor’s tongue. Or what I assumed to be Victor’s tongue. I guess it could have been Joe Blow’s tongue, but I didn’t think so. The card with it was addressed to the “happy couple” and wished us a long life.

I threw the box and the card into the fire.

This was mafia life. No rest for the wicked and all that shit. Both Gia and I had our eyes wide open, and we’d face whatever challenges came our way together. I’d keep her hands clean, though. I’d keep her pure and carry all the weight. All the blood.

I understood Salvatore for the first time in my life, then. I understood his decision to leave and respected it.

28

Gia

Dominic thought I didn’t know about Angus Scava’s release. He thought I didn’t know Victor’s disappearance most likely meant his death. I would let him believe it for now. This day was too important to spoil with talk of the Scavas. I was going to marry the man I loved. A savage beast of a man who’d been through hell and walked out on top of his world. I don’t think he realized how lonely it would be at the top, not until he stood in his father’s shoes.