Page 40 of Soulmate of the Mafia King (Kings of Philly #8)

KILLIAN

T ommaso arrived so soon after I called him that I distantly expected police sirens on his tail.

Having him back here was strange. He and Paige had been over for a few dinners since the Egypt incident, but it felt like old time to meet him in the entryway and lead him back to my office.

The shadows on his face reminded me just how different his home was, how much time I’d spent there with him behind the big desk.

Seeing him settle down across from me in his old chair called back old habits.

I watched light shine through my drink onto my desk.

“I’ve been patient,” Tom said. “Let you do your whole scary set-up. Now, you have to tell me who your successor is.”

What an odd thing to have. I never really expected to leave this desk behind. But with Sera, I wanted more for the first time. A life where she didn’t have to look over her shoulder. Time.

“I thought for a long time,” I said.

“And it’s me, right?” He grinned. “You figured I could probably run two whole syndicates without missing anything or anyone deciding I’d gotten too big not to fail.”

I sighed and stared at my old friend. He sipped the awful scotch I kept for him.

“Adrian McGraw,” I said.

Tommaso raised his eyebrows and leaned back in his seat. I watched him. Adrian was the right choice, I knew that, but I’d told Tommaso first for a reason. I wanted to hear his thoughts.

“He didn’t grow up in the life,” he said after a long moment. “Hell, he was an IT guy when you picked him up. Why him? You’ve got other good people.”

“More than I can count.” I sipped my drink. “But the life gets more and more complicated every day. It’s no longer just about who knows who, who owes who. Family names are only half the battle. And Adrian, for all his newness, is smart enough to keep up.”

Tommaso nodded slowly. “Can he lead? Will anybody listen to him?”

I’d asked myself the same question. “As a test, I left him in charge when we were in Egypt.”

“I noticed he wasn’t there,” Tom said. “How’d that go?”

“Smoother than imagined.” I ran my fingers over my desk, remembering Sera’s glowing report of his work. “He’s a natural, and I know he learns well on the job.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Tom tipped the remainder of his drink into his mouth.

“So you approve?” I smiled wryly.

“Do you give a shit?” He grinned back at me.

“No,” I replied. “But I am curious.”

He shrugged his massive shoulders. “To be honest, I would’ve backed your play no matter what it was. I know you do your due diligence.”

I stared at him for a long moment, this man who I’d spent my whole life with.

This past year was the most time we’d ever spent apart.

When I was looking at islands, I narrowed my search to options with other islands nearby more than once, with a thought in the back of my mind that he might someday follow in my footsteps.

He’d recovered from his stabbing well enough, but I caught him wincing when he reached too fast sometimes.

But with the new shelter he was opening, I got the sudden and strange sense of our paths diverging.

If Tommaso ever bought an island and left the city behind, it wouldn’t be for a long time.

“You’re a good friend,” I said. “A good second.”

Tom smirked. “And you’re a good ex-first.”

The weight of the wedding, of everything changing no matter how much I looked forward to the changes, bore down on me. “Thank you for everything.”

He cleared his throat and looked abruptly away. “Yeah. Uh, you, too.”

I blinked quickly. Sera had been bursting into spontaneous tears for days, every time someone mentioned something a little too close to the wedding, but I didn’t have any inclination toward the same. Not even knowing I was leaving behind the life I’d always known for something new.

“So!” Tommaso said overly brightly. “Wedding in a couple of days.”

I stood to refill my drink and put out a hand for his glass. “That’s true. Have I told you about our honeymoon plans yet?”

He grimaced dramatically. “I’m okay being spared those details.”

I shook my head as I refilled both our glasses. “We’re going to the island. For a long time.”

“How long?” he asked.

I turned back to him with his glass and admitted the real reason I’d summoned him here. “I don’t know.”

Tommaso took his glass and blew out a long breath. “Wow.”

I sat back at my desk. The island was beautiful, everything Sera and I could have ever dreamed. It would be so easy to never return.

“So… the wedding might be goodbye.” He sipped his drink. “I’ll be here for Adrian, if it is. Whatever he needs.”

I smiled. “I knew you would be.”

A long moment of silence split us like a chasm I hadn’t noticed growing until now.

He would stay in the city, run it with the team he’d built up, and shepherd it into a new age.

The old guard had been turning over for a while, and abruptly, I felt like part of it.

Mano Della Morte was a force Philly no longer needed.

Tommaso raised his glass. “To forty good years.”

“And forty more.” I knocked my drink against his.

He chuckled as he took a sip. “I guess Sera will drag us by our hair to come visit sometime.”

I sipped my drink and nodded. It was easier than saying I might do the same.

Tommaso stood. “Well, I snuck out between meetings to check on the new shelter. I have to get going.”

I stood with him. “Of course. I’ll see you in two days for the rehearsal.”

He nodded and ducked out. I wandered through the cavernous halls of my house, listening for the giggles—or tears—that had come to mark the heart of the last-minute wedding planning.

Luckily, when I found Sera in an upper room talking with Olivia about what seemed to be a mock menu, giggles led me there.

“And after the second course, we’ll—Killian?” Sera looked up as I walked in.

Olivia faded instantly out of my view. I strode across the room to my fiancée, my soon-to-be bride, and swept her up in a kiss. For her, I would turn my life upside-down and become a man I didn’t know I had within me. She kissed me back with the same passion.

“What was that for?” she asked when I pulled back.

“Because I love you,” I replied.