Chapter 26CANDI

Chapter 26

CANDI

"I get you were worried because I didn't answer the phone, but what are you doing here ? You knew I would call back." As soon as I woke up anyway.

Mom and I are alone in the living room while my sister plays with the dog in the yard outside the windows so we can see her.

She has an entourage of two guards and the older man, Boomer. Angelo is consulting with Derian and Mario, probably telling them how much to reveal about last night to my mom and sister.

Although it sounds like Stefano told them pretty much everything. That tattletale Freddy must have told him that Angelo's men had to tape me up like a mummy to get me to go with them.

Mom looks at me like she's trying to catalog injuries. "Your biological father came to see me."

"Cookie said that in the hall."

"Yes, well clearly you aren't a kidnap victim, but he didn't lie about everything, did he? Mr. Bianchi told me that Angelo works for the mafia and he would know."

"He's the top enforcer for the new godfather." Mom's never been part of the mafia life, but a New Yorker would have to be living under a rock not to know what that means.

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

The easy answer is because I didn't want her to worry, but mom doesn't want easy. She wants truth.

So, I give it to her. "I didn't want you to think it was like it was with mom and Stefano."

"How is it different?" Mom gives the look that says she thinks I don't have an answer for that. "You're a dancer like Bonbon was. He's in the mafia like Stefano."

"Both of those things are true, but they aren't everything."

"Stefano wouldn't have bought your grandmother a scooter to get around more easily, that's for sure."

Not that he ever met my grandmother, but then neither had I. Mommy grew up in and out of foster care until she ran away at fifteen. Her mom never got sober and died before I became an adult and might have gone looking for her.

If mommy ever knew who her dad was, she never mentioned it. I might have been only ten when she died, but she shared pretty much everything with me.

Some would say she was guilty of oversharing, but I would say she did her best. She loved me and tried like hell to be a better parent than her own mom.

"For starters, Angelo is not married to another woman. That's a pretty big difference. For another, Angelo is not paying me to have sex with him." I don't look down on my mom for turning tricks, but the fact my dad paid her for sex and treated her like a commodity even after she gave birth to his child?

That makes him the douchebag my sister called him.

"But you two are having sex?" Mom doesn't try to soft pedal the question.

It's not her way.

My answer is just as direct. "Yes. Not that it is any of your business because I am an adult."

She says a little prayer in Polish. "I am very worried for you, Kathleen."

Kathleen? Okay, this is serious. She's really worried.

I don't know how to fix that. All I can give her is the truth. "I have never felt as safe as I do when Angelo is nearby."

Not even when I'm at home, but I leave that left unsaid. Mom would understand it. It's hard to feel completely safe when you're a few busted locks away from a break-in.

I wonder if Angelo would be willing to install a steel door for the apartment? Even if he's serious about us all coming here to live, it can't happen overnight.

"How can that be?" mom asks, sounding bewildered. "He's a mafia enforcer. He's no better than a killer for hire."

"I am top enforcer for the godfather." So much for Angelo leaving me and my mom to talk privately.

Mom glares at him disapprovingly. "You said you would give us a few moments alone."

Angelo nods, his expression serious. "I thought that if you were going to discuss what Bianchi told you about me, I should be here."

To defend himself?

Mom looks at me like this should upset me. "Is this what you want from your life? A man who won't respect your boundaries?"

"It's not my boundaries he's imposing on. I didn't ask for time alone. You did." I had said I wanted Angelo to be here.

I've never liked the game of telephone and didn't want to play go-between with my mom and lover.

Lover.

I have a lover.

"I don't know why you are smiling right now, Kathleen. I'm worried for you," she says again.

"If I ask him to leave right now, he would go." I'm confident of that.

Mom gives Angelo that gimlet stare that always gets me and Cookie to tell the truth. "Is that true? When Candi asks you to go, are you going to leave us alone? "

"If Candi asked me to go, I will leave."

"But I'm not asking him to go," I tell my mom. "He can answer your questions better than I can."

"Can he tell me honestly you weren't kidnapped last night? That he's not using you for his own purposes. Mr. Bianchi seems to think you're in danger if you stay in New York."

"He would say that." Stefano has wanted me out of New York at least since I was eighteen and probably since my birth.

The one and only time I was approached by a representative of my father's happened after I turned eighteen and aged out of the system. Stefano offered to pay my tuition and living expenses for college, on one condition. I had to go to a university in another state.

If that was his idea of taking care of me like he promised mommy, it was a nonstarter. I couldn't leave mom and Cookie and turned the stipulation down.

I never told mom about the offer because she would have wanted me to go.

"Look, mom, we're both safe to say whatever we need to in front of Angelo. He won't get angry, no matter what that is. He's not going to hurt us." How do I know that?

That's a question I hope she doesn't ask, because the only answer I have is my heart trusts him. And that's way too lame to say out loud.

"You can say that about him?" Mom's derision hits me on the raw.

"Angelo isn't the one who ordered my death. In fact, if he hadn't declared me off limits, I wouldn't be alive right now. Yes, his men kidnapped me, for my own safety ," I stress. "After they stopped one of Stefano's men from shooting me."

I'm still going to make them regret trussing me up, but that's neither here nor there. If Angelo and his men are going to be in my life then they have to learn I'm not a pushover.

Mom's face drains of color. "Someone was going to shoot you?"

"Gino was definitely going to kill me."

"Your old boss?" My mom asks with confusion.

I shake my head. "Another Gino. This one worked for Stefano and he was definitely going to pull that trigger."

"Worked for? Did Mr. Bianchi fire him for what he was going to do."

"Not likely."

"Then why are you using the past tense?"

"Because someone shot him before he could shoot me."

Mom gives Angelo a concerned glance. "Should you be telling me this? I'm assuming no police were involved in whatever happened."

"No police, but in the mafia, my people are as good as law enforcement." Angelo walks toward the door. "I'll order some tea and be right back."

"Who's going to make it?" I want to know.

"The housekeeper probably. I'll introduce you to all the staff and security later."

"That doesn't sound intimidating at all," I mutter under my breath.

Mom sighs. "I guess killing for the mafia pays well."

"That's what I said. He told me he inherited money too."

"Made by criminals, no doubt."

"Yeah, mom, like every other multimillionaire…" I look around the house, consider the staff comment and the size of Angelo's security force. "Or billionaire with squeaky clean ancestors who never took egregious advantage of anyone else. Legally, or not."

Mom sighs, knowing I have a point.

I lean forward and gently take mom's gnarled hands into mine. "I'll say whatever I need to in front of Angelo. And I want you to know that there's no danger for you speaking your mind in front of him too."

Maybe I should give mom and Cookie a chance to adjust, not that my sister seems to need one, but things are moving fast with Angelo and I need my mom to see what I see in him.

Because I want to be with him and I don't want to be at odds with her to do it. She's too important to me, but so is he.

Whether that makes sense, or not.

"The three safest people in New York are you, me and Cookie," I promise her.

"Not if he's the top enforcer for the godfather. The godfather comes first."

"First, while I augment security for Severu when I feel it is necessary, his head of security is responsible for the godfather's safety on a daily basis." With a considering look at mom, Angelo turns on the fire before fetching a fluffy throw from inside the square leather ottoman coffee table.

"Stop sneaking up on us," I grumble.

"There was no sneaking." He lays the throw over mom's lap. "Your mother saw me return."

Because the armchair she's sitting in has both a view of the door and the floor-to-ceiling windows, whereas where I'm sitting faces the windows directly.

"You walk really quietly."

"You'll get used to it." His eyes laugh at me as he settles onto the sofa beside me.

Memories of him cutting off my tape covered clothing play a montage in my brain. So, I almost miss my mother's grudging thank you.

But Mira Czabok taught me and Cookie manners and always led by example.

"Do you need anything else?" While Angelo's tone isn't exactly solicitous, the way he waits for my mom to answer shows it's not a perfunctory question either.

"I'm fine, thank you," mom replies politely, but her eyes hold no humor.

She's not swayed that easily.

Angelo nods. "The tea will be here shortly."

I've got zero doubts that there will be green tea for mom and vanilla black tea for me. Not that I get to drink it that often, but it's my favorite and Angelo seems to know all my favorite things.

Does Angelo even drink tea?

"You said first," my mom prompts Angelo.

"Second, there will never come a time that it will be a choice between her safety and Severu's."

Mom frowns. "That's easy to say, but how can you be so sure?"

"Because if the situation arose, I would allow Derian's team to protect Severu, but would personally insure Candi's safety."

"How can I believe you?" Mom asks with a tremulous voice.

Now she's really pulling out the big guns. It's one thing when mom is angry, but when she acts all vulnerable?

I know she's doing her best to get me to agree to whatever she wants me to do. She's not one for showing weakness and allowing herself to do so always gets to me.

However, even though she catches me right in the feels, it doesn't always work. Like when she tried to get me to quit dancing at Pitiful Princess. It was the one way I could make enough money to support us and still go to school, so I refused to get a different job.

Just like then, the only way to reach my mom is to be as open as she is.

"Mom, I want you to meet my soulmate." I take Angelo's hand, and he immediately laces our fingers together. "This is Angelo Caruso."