Page 240 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet

Ric laughed. “There’s definitely no love lost there. So, maybe I’m the only one that missed you, but that counts for something, right?”

“It counts for everything,” I assured him. “That’s why I called you.”

He gave me an assessing look, then swept his gaze over the tiny coffee shop Yara had once taken me to that was little more than a window cut into the side of a building. “Not your normal style. First, you disappear, then you ask me to meet you at a coffee shop of a known Camorra associate.” His eyebrow hiked into his forehead, but his tone wasn’t judgmental. “Am I right in assuming things have changed between you and Dante Salvatore?”

I took my left hand from beneath the table and presented it to him. The red diamond ring had arrived that morning courtesy of Gatto himself who made me put it on right there in the doorway to see how it looked.

It was stunning.

Four and a half carats of wine-red diamond cut into a gorgeous oval shape and otherwise unadorned on the slim gold band beneath it. Simple, unique, and one hundred percent Dante.

I loved it.

Ric stared at the ring a little gobsmacked. “You married the Don?”

I shrugged. “He was difficult to resist.”

My friend blinked at me, then tossed his head back to laugh, the sharp yips like a hyena but oddly charming. “Oh, Elena, you are an enigma.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I decided, when before I might have thought he meant it as an insult.

“You should, absolutely. Now, I’m curious. Why did you call me?”

“Dennis O’Malley is corrupt. I caught him meeting with the Irish mob a few weeks ago, and when we tried to get him to recuse himself, he laughed in our faces. He has Judge Hartford in his pocket, and he’s determined to use Dante’s case as a springboard to state senator.” I took a sip of the thick, bitter espresso in front of me, rallying my confidence to ask what I needed to ask. When I looked up at Ric again, my eyes were wide with intensity. “I called because I want to ask for your help. I want you to dig up whatever you can find on him.”

He frowned. “The firm already did a background check.”

I gave him a pointed look. “Not through you and not deep enough. I’m asking you to go above and beyond here, Ric. As a friend.”

His mouth dropped open slightly, and I knew he was shocked I would ask him to do something unethical. The old Elena was as morally sound as they came, but I’d left her behind somewhere between Staten Island and Napoli.

He was quiet for a long time, studying me, peeling back my skin and bones to read what was written in my blood. I thought he would say no. In fact, I opened my mouth to tell him to forget it when he leaned back in his chair, affecting a casual pose with his legs crossed and fingers steepled.

“Okay.”

I blinked. “Sorry, what?”

His lips twitched. “Okay, this is no big thing. Of course, I will look into him for you.”

“No big thing?” I echoed, a little foolishly.

“Do you remember representing my cousin when he was busted for possession last year?” he reminded me.

I nodded, but I didn’t think that had any bearing. I was just doing my job and helping out a friend. He hadn’t asked me to do anything illegal or unethical like I was asking for now.

“And do you remember when my sister assaulted the woman who slept with her husband?”

Another nod. That one was hard to forget; Carmen Stavos was a firecracker.

“And do you know, we have worked together for years, and you are the only associate who never made me feel like their servant?”

Ah, well, that I could believe. Most of them were pricks only focused on their own upward mobility.

“So,” Ric concluded. “This is no big thing. We are friends, Elena, I would do this for you even if you had not done so much for me. I’ll look into Hartford too and let you know what I can find.”

I blinked owlishly because it occurred to me that I hadn’t really known if Ric and I were friends. We got along, and I enjoyed working with him, but I always assumed he just thought of me as some vaguely pleasant associate.

It said a lot about my mental state before Dante that I discounted a friendship because I automatically assumed they didn’t want to be friends with someone like me.