I woke up and rolled onto my side. The clock on Dante’s bedside table said it was just after six in the morning. I rolled over again, but Dante wasn’t in the bed anymore, and his pillow was cold.
I got up and found a pair of gym shorts. I pulled them on, found an old t-shirt, and slipped it over my head. I put my hair up using the black hair tie on my wrist and walked into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth using his toothbrush then headed downstairs. I could smell coffee in the pot, and I found Dante standing near the back window, looking outside. I paused just inside the kitchen as Gino looked up from the table.
“Morning,” I said to him, a little surprised.
“Morning,” he grunted, and looked back down at his phone.
I got a cup of coffee then walked over to Dante. I joined him, feeling strange and tentative, like a baby fawn crossing the road for the first time. The day before still lingered in my mind.
Dante wore a tight white t-shirt and long, slim black sweats. He had on running shoes, like he was about to work out, but he wasn’t sweaty yet. He nodded to me as I joined him by the window.
“Gino’s here,” I said.
“I noticed.”
“I thought we’d have some alone time.” I frowned up at him. “Since the Don told you not to do anything for a little while.”
He smiled at me and touched my cheek. “Gino’s just here for protection. Don’t worry about him.” He dropped his hand and stared out the window again.
“What are you looking at?” I asked.
He hesitated then nodded toward the back door. “Come here. I’ll show you.”
I followed him out the back, down the short concrete steps, and onto the back patio. It was a concrete slab with simple metal outdoor furniture and an umbrella lying on its side on the ground. The small patch of grass was cut short, and there was only one plant, a tree with a skinny trunk and leaves in long teardrop shapes arranged almost like a palm tree.
He walked over to the tree and looked at it, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Looks like an overgrown weed.”
He laughed. “That’s exactly right. It’s called a Tree of Heaven. Fancy name, right?”
“Sure.” I tilted my head and shrugged. “What about it?”
“It’s an invasive species,” he said. “Incredibly resilient. It can grow anywhere, especially in the city. Thrives in just about any climate and it’s incredibly hard to kill. You have to destroy the root system or it’ll grow up again somewhere else, like whack-a-mole.”
I walked over and reached out to touch it, but he stopped me. I frowned at him and he smiled.
“I wouldn’t,” he said. “Some people have a reaction to it.”
I snorted. “So it’s invasive and poisonous?”
“I’m not sure I’d call it poisonous, but something like that.”
“Are you thinking about doing some yardwork today?”
“No,” he said with a little laugh. “No, I was just thinking about this tree. It’s all over the city, you know. I bet that if we dug down deep enough and followed all their roots, we’d find that all the Trees of Heaven in this whole city are really just one giant organism.”
“Oh, sure,” I said, smiling. “I bet it is.”
“It’s a noxious plant. Its roots kill anything they come into contact with, can even damage pipes. But it’s always there, always growing, aggressive and unstoppable.”
“You seem to really like this plant.”
He tilted his head. “I think I see a lot of similarities between that awful weed and the mafia families.”
I leaned back away from him, frowning. “What are you talking about?”
He reached out and plucked a leaf. I sucked in some air as he threw the leaf down on to the ground and shrugged. “Underneath this city, the mafia families are all interconnected. We pretend like we hate each other, but if one of us were to finally win the war and take control of the city, the powers that be would just stamp that family out and be done with the whole enterprise. It’s a delicate balance, one that we’re all aware of all the time.”
“You have a mutually beneficial war going on,” I said.
“Something like that. And just like this plant, we kill anything we come into contact with.”
“That sounds bad, though. Why do you work for an organization like that?”
He smiled at me. “Because I don’t think it’s evil. I think it’s the purest expression of this city. I don’t hate this plant because it’s aggressive or it’s toxic. I hate this plant because it’s ugly. But I don’t think the Leone Crime Family is ugly, Aida. On the surface, all those things might seem bad, but we take what we want and we grow strong. We protect our people, help those we love flourish, and destroy our enemies. There’s nothing more honorable than that.”
I stared up into his face and wondered what kind of man I was getting tangled with. I knew he was a killer, but I didn’t know he thought so deeply about the monsters he cared for.
“If you could take over this city, would you?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “There’s no profit in that. Where there’s possibility, there’s profit. But once you’re in charge, there’s no more growth, no more possibility. I don’t want any of that shit.”
I smiled and slipped my hand into his. Maybe he saw the mafia as just some weed curling its roots in through the city, but I saw it differently. I saw men that took what they wanted and lived a life outside of the law, outside of normal society, a life of death and violence and honor and devotion. They were loyal to their family above all else, and that was amazing in itself.
I open my mouth to argue when there was a
