Page 11

He sighs, glancing at me, before picking up the call. “Non ora, Papà.”
I raise a brow. He doesn’t speak Italian with Xeno, at least not from what I’ve seen. Sounds like his dad is making the call, and if my Italian were better I might be able to eavesdrop. I only ever picked up a little bit of the language working different cases. Taking out my phone, I open the app before I go and respond to Gabe’s last text. Vinny can be pissed later, but he’s openly chatting with me in the room.
“Ti ho già avvertito di stare fuori da questa faccenda. Se avessi bisogno di aiuto da questa famiglia, lo chiederò a Xeno. Stai lontano da mia moglie.”
He hangs up as I finish my text back to Gabe, reading the translation box as the words appear. If Vinny doesn’t expect me to be sneaky, he’s greatly underestimating me. He can hate on my dad just as much as I hate on his.
“The self-righteous bastard can’t take a fucking hint,” he continues in Italian, and my brows lift when the app catches onto the rest of what he’s said. It’s not perfect, but I like knowing what everyone around me is saying and Vinny’s distracted at the moment. “Sterling, I swear to fuck if you’re recording this shit to get a translation later save your breath. It’s just more of my father’s bullshit.”
I lift my gaze in surprise. I don’t consider Vinny to be ignorant or non observant, he just seems consumed by his own issues at the moment. “Of course.”
He glares at me, his dark eyes nearly matching his hair this morning. The tattoo across his throat moves as he clenches his jaw, turning his gaze away. “You did record me though?”
“Don’t act surprised.”
“Well, let’s hear it then. What did you glean from my conversation with the great Massimo?”
I’m kind of surprised he just comes out and says it after being dodgy a moment ago. I glance down at the translation app, my mind drifting back to another moment in time where I caught him arguing with his father in Italian. An app would’ve been spectacular fifteen years ago.
“You disappoint me, figlio,” Massimo said, standing with Vinny at the edge of the park. It’s a common area in Citrus Grove, and Jo lingers a few steps behind her boyfriend. His hand is locked on hers, but I’m not really sure who is holding onto who. “I lay out the perfect life for you, and you chose this.”
I’m standing nearby with the reporter I’m shadowing, but the news he’s digging for has nothing to do with Massimo and Vinny. He’s barely paying attention, looking around like we might spot the Citrus Grove Slayer walking somewhere out in the open acting obvious as shit.
“I’m choosing my own life, Papa,” Vinny replies, squaring his shoulders. I’m too focused on them to look away. “Not the life you intend for me.”
“Figlio mio, mi deludi.Questa ragazza ti porterà miseria, non amore. Non voltare le spalle alla famiglia per quella sgualdrina.”
Vinny snapped forward, striking his father square in the jaw. I shifted on my feet, peering around the space. I’m supposed to be taking notes on anything suspicious, but it’s a nice day out and I wanted to enjoy the weather before it’s unbearably hot. The guy I’m shadowing, Desmond, still looks disinterested until people around us move.
A few not so discreet bystanders pull guns. Members of the Ajello Crime Family litter the park, and I guess even Massimo’s heir can’t get away with striking the Don.
But it doesn’t turn into a fight. Massimo stumbles backward from the force of the hit, and a kid blows past Jo to get in between Massimo and Vincenzo. It takes me a moment to recognize Xeno from this distance, holding his hands up between the two. I think it’s the only reason the whole park doesn’t break into gunfire.
“The Ajello’s always draw attention,” Desmond says, looking towards me. “They are only intriguing because you can’t understand them. Take some language classes. Massimo said ‘son, you disappoint me. This girl will bring you only misery, not love. Do not turn your back on the family for that hussy’.”
I wince. No wonder Vinny lost it. I don’t really know them well, but he’s being a good boyfriend not accepting that kind of disrespect from his father. I turn my attention away again, thinking maybe Desmond has the right idea
The group is too far away to hear what Xeno says quietly to his brother and father, but I see Massimo’s hand move from his gun as he huffs. Xeno looks back at his brother, and I can see the pain in his younger brother’s gaze. Massimo’s mouth moves, but I can’t fathom what he’s saying in Italian again. Then he grabs his younger son's shoulder, turning as the two of them march from the park and leave Jo and Vinny behind.
Massimo doesn’t turn back, and Vinny glares until the roar of engines echoes around us as they leave. Jo grips his shoulders afterwards, and again I can’t see what she says. When I look at him Desmond is still totally disinterested, clicking back through his camera as he studies the shots he took so far.
Whatever Vinny said to set off Massimo's rage, it looks like he’s created quite a rift between father and son.
“Well?”
I meet Vinny’s gaze, clicking the app. It regurgitates a robotic translation that’s rough even on my ears: “Not now Papa. I already warned you to stay out of this. Any of the family’s help that I want comes through Xeno. Stay away from my wife.”
“You could ask next time like a polite person,” he tells me, raising a brow. “I invited you into our intimate life, Sterling. Stop being paranoid and ask me something directly instead of dancing around the problem.”
“I didn’t want to intrude-”
“Yes you did,” he quips, “or you wouldn’t use a translation app to follow what I’m saying. Perhaps you’re used to doing everything on the outside, Agent, but here we’re a partnership. Not just associates, or friends, or teammates, but Jo and I are all or nothing in everything we do. If you cannot even ask me what I’m saying to my father before deciding to sneak a translation, get out. I made an error in judgment with you.”
I frown. “About earlier, or about trusting me?”
“Probably both,” he says with a sigh, and for a moment I swear there’s a look of disappointment in his eyes. It's an uncomfortable feeling having Vinny look at me like that. “Jo’s finishing her shower. If this is how you want to be, you may as well be gone before she comes downstairs.”
I have done absolutely nothing that I planned to do by coming over here. Talking to Jo and Vinny about Victim number 6 and what this could possibly mean was the goal, but it looks like I’ve butchered things for now. I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do when a husband and wife let me walk in on them andinviteme to join.