“Luciano,” he says, and his voice has lost none of its timbre. He even smiles. “You made the right choice today, and I thank you for it. I’m glad that my last night on this earth was spent with you and Finch and Connie last night. All of you, truly, are my Famiglia. And now, I pass my family into your care.” He pauses, as the guns get closer. There’s a muffled scream, and I see that Connie is huddled up against him, her face pressed into his chest. “I am sending Connie to you with Angelo. Please protect her. And my child, eh? Trust Angelo to help you—he is a good man. I hope he will serve you as faithfully as he has me.”
The screen stops, frozen on Tino’s face. He’s smiling, even in his darkest hour.
I look up. “Where’s Connie?”
“The hospital,” Angelo says, his face creasing with regret. “They shot at the car as we drove away, hit her. There was nothing I could do except keep driving, get her to the hospital. Tino made me take her and leave him. I didn’t want to leave him, but he…he ordered me to go.” Angelo drops his face into his hands, shoulders shaking, and not for the first time, I wonder exactly what his feelings for Tino are. Were.
“You’re sure he’s—”
“I’m sure,” he says, wiping at his face. “I just got Connie out through the back when I heard them break down the door… He shot at them, they shot back. Then afterwards, they were cheering about it…” He looks up, face wet and gray but determined. “I’m going to kill every last one of those motherfuckers. Slowly and painfully.”
“We’ll hunt them together.”
Angelo shakes his head. “Not you, Boss. You’re too important to the Family.” At my frown, he continues: “You heard what Tino said. The Family is yours now.”
“But he—he only meant—”
“No. It was his dying wish. He has passed the Family into your care…Boss.” Angelo inclines his head respectfully.
“Holy shit, Georgie,” Frank whispers.
But words have failed me. I’ve just had everything I ever wanted handed to me on a silver platter. This is the moment I’ve been working toward my whole life.
I never thought it would taste so bitter.
“There’s one more thing,” Angelo adds. “About Finch.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
FINCH
“I don’t hear guns,” Celia whispers after a while. We’re huddled up on the bed together and I have my arm around her. She burst into tears as soon as she saw me, and I’ll admit I got a little teary, too.
Marco is standing at the door, gun out, like a statue. You have to admire his work ethic.
“Maybe we should go down and see…” Celia trails off.
“No,” I say, rubbing her arm. “Luca and Frank want us in here. We should do what they say.”
She gives a tremulous smile. “Now I’m really worried, if you think we should do as we’re told.”
But before I can reply, there are footsteps outside, and a tap on the door. Connie and I tense up, but then a voice says: “It’s me. Open up.”
Luca. I relax. But once Marco’s unlocked the door and I see Luca’s face, I get worried again. He comes over to the bed and actually smiles.
“Oh, God. What is it?”
“I need to talk to you, angel. Alone, if you wouldn’t mind, Cee?”
Celia scrambles off the bed without a word, and runs downstairs calling for Frank. Marco goes out after her and Luca locks the door again.
“Baby, you’re scaring me,” I say, and pull back the covers.
“Stay there,” he says quickly, coming over to me. “I need to talk to you about…things.” He pushes me back gently, and I let him rearrange the covers so I’m all tucked in.
“It doesn’t look like good news.”
“It’s not,” he says simply, and then he tells me.
He tells me that Tino, the great Don Augustino Morelli, legend and lord of New York City, is dead.
That Connie is in the hospital, and probably won’t make it.
That half the Morelli Family have defected to Sam Fuscone, and half of the ones who stayed loyal are now dead anyway.
And that he, Luciano D’Amato, is the new Boss of the Morelli Family, such as it is.
It’s a lot to take in. “Isn’t it the D’Amato Family now?” I ask, because my head is swimming and I have to start somewhere.
Luca gives a small smile. “It doesn’t work that way. We’ve been the Morellis for generations, and I’m not going to change that now. The name has power. Besides, angel, there’s something else I need to tell you. Angelo gave me a copy of Tino’s will. He changed it not long ago, after Connie got pregnant, I think.”
“Okay?” I say with a frown. I don’t see how this has anything to do with anything.
“He left half his fortune to his child by Connie, predicated on the fact that it is born, and, well, that it’s his.”
I snort. “He’s no fool. But neither’s Connie, and I bet that baby’s Tino’s. She wouldn’t risk running around on him. She was so happy when she told me…” I trail off. “Luca, we have to protect her. And if we can’t—if she dies—we have to take care of their kid. Promise me.”
He takes my hands. “I promise you we will. But there’s more.” He takes a deep breath. “The other half of his fortune goes to you.”
I give a faint huff of laughter. “Yeah, okay.”
Luca says nothing.
“Wait, are you serious?”
“Baby bird, I wouldn’t be making jokes at a time like this.” He swallows. “Tino left it to you because…I really didn’t want to tell you like this, but, uh—”
I feel cold all over. “You’d better just tell me,” I
