“Oh, I know,” she said, giving me a tilted smile. “Believe me, if there is anything I do well, it’s being pissed off. Most of the time without even just cause. I have a PhD in rage-outs. But just this once, I feel like I would be a major hypocrite to be mad at you. Hey, at least you suspected me. I was completely blindsided by your little criminal connections,” she teased, holding out a mug to me.

“I don’t have a lot to defend myself with other than I was all but assured he was going to jail. For a while. I didn’t think I’d be bringing that mess into a new club.”

“I get that. We all have shady shit in our pasts. And, believe me, no one knows better than I do what moral hoops you’re willing to jump through just to get a leg up in the world. You were young; there was no way you could have known how it would follow you around for years.”

“He also wasn’t always the dick he is now. He’s been on a downward spiral for years.”

“If it makes you feel better, Primo will handle it.”

“Is he… a friend of your organization?”

“Something like that. There are five families in the city. Each has a different territory. Primo runs The Bronx. And until very recently, our two families were allied against the other three families.”

“What happened to stop the rivalry?”

“Two forced marriages.”

“I’m sorry. Did you say forced marriages?”

“Antiquated, right? Primo kidnapped one of the Costa women and gave her an ultimatum. Marry him to end the war. Or he kills her family.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah. I mean, they totally fell in love and are this power couple now. But it was a big deal back then.”

“You said two forced marriages.”

“Renzo wanted a truce with the Costas as well. The Costas are like the ‘top’ family. Lorenzo Costa is the capo-dei-capi.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“The boss of all bosses. Each family controls their own area. But he controls all the families.”

“Okay. So Renzo got a truce with the Costas by forcing one of their women to marry him?”

“Well, Lore actually volunteered. She had a lifelong crush on Renzo.”

“Let me guess. They fell in love too.”

“It made me stop seeing the plots in the books I read as completely absurd,” she admitted. “Soren, I’m so—”

“You had a job to do,” I cut her off.

“Which I wouldn’t be feeling guilty about at all. If…”

“Yeah, that if…”

“I never should have let it happen,” she said, speaking mostly to herself, likely thinking about how pissed off her boss had been, how much she clearly respected him and wanted that respect in turn.

“Do you regret it?” I asked, my chest constricting at the idea of what was between us being one-sided.