Page 109 of The Boss

“Not you!” Luna points at him. Then me. Her eyes don’t soften even an iota when she says, “You. Talk.”

“The Italians were the easiest to frame at the time,” I say. “Because of the problem on the Sound, Command thought—”

“Who the fuck is command, who is O?”

“O is short for Otets,” I say.

“It means father,” Mark adds.

“I know the Russian word for father but wow, thank you, what’s the Russian word for fuckface?”

“Luna,” Ellie exhales her name and grabs her forehead.

“Uh, sorry not sorry. Iknewyour husband was a snake! I knew it.”

“At least I’m not the spawn of a man who killed his own wife and made it look like a damn car accident,” Mark hisses back.

“That’s it,” I say, then I turn and punch Mark in the face so fast he doesn’t even get his hands up in defense.

“Mark!”

“Quinn!”

“Van!” Mark grabs his jaw, “What the actual—”

“Get out or I’ll keep going. You’re old, slow and out of practice. It won’t even be fun for me,” I almost growl at him.

He stares at me, contemplating, then looks at his wife. “Do you want me to stay?” Ellie shakes her head. “Fine! When you all want to actually make some kind of progress, plan, get answers that no one else in this room has, let me know.”

As he stomps off, I look at Luna, she’s panting. Ellie is staring at the doorway, conflicted.

Finally, my wife says to me, without looking in my direction, “I wish I’d done it myself, but thank you for that.”

I don’t reply. Might as well quit while I’m ahead.

“He’s not a snake,” Ellie says softly.

“I love you, Ellie, I do, but how the hell is he not a snake? Keep talking, I guess, because I still feel like I’m stuck in a fucking vipers nest here,” she gets more animated, “Slimy, sneaky, enemy, lying, liarvipers!”

“Mark’s real name is Marco,” Ellie whispers. “His family was burned to death.” Luna’s head rears back a fraction. “When he was eight.”

“Damn.”

“By my uncle,” Ellie finishes.

Luna’s jaw drops, but she quickly shuts her mouth.

Her best friend presses on, “His father had a cafe in Delgado territory and missed a payment, Luna. One payment. They made an example of not just him but his mother and Mark’s abuela too. And Mark’s mother and younger brother and sister as well. Children burned to death.” Luna sniffs, Ellie does too, as she adds, “Mark heard their screams. He was in the walk-in fridge. He opened the door but the flames were too big. He was trapped. He tried to get out, he has…scars.”

Luna frowns, then I see her realize it. I’m sure Ellie mentioned early on that Mark never wears short sleeves. I remember Mark saying Ellie changed all his clothes before she even knew why. She only knew he was miserable in the Texas summer heat and started swapping out his clothes for lighter fabrics shipped infrom Europe. We all gave him a lot of shit about that. About how she was falling for him.

Lucky bastard.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Ellie continues softly, “One story and I flipped on my whole family, my blood. And the answer is yes. But also no. Because it’s a million stories, Luna. It’s your mama,” Ellie pauses. Luna sniffs again before Ellie goes on. “It’s Van’s twin brother, it’s thousands of innocent bystanders who have ended up injured or dead so what, our families can ship more drugs? Make more money? Yes, I’m a traitor to my family, Lu. And to yours. Maybe you’ll never forgive me for that. But I’m loyal to something bigger, something more. And before I agreed to anything,anything, I said Mark had to get you and Mia out.”

Luna’s voice is small when she replies, “What if I didn’t want to get out?”

“I know you, Luna Mancini. You may be a cunning, cutthroat mafia princess but you would never burn children alive. You would never force a boy to murder his own twin. You would never stage a car accident to—”