“And the cleanup operation?” I asked.
“Sal will still be in charge of that,” he went on to continue explaining. “He’ll decide when he’s ready to hand it over and to whom.”
“Looks like things are finally looking up,” Ciro commented, smiling.
“Except for one thing,” Luca said, ruining Ciro’s smile.
“What one thing?”
Luca’s black eyes glanced my way before settling back on Ciro. “Robert Regal,” he answered. “She’s still a…factor.”
The look on Ciro’s face was pure loathing. “The fuck she is,” he argued. “How do you figure?”
“She’s Francesca’s friend, Ciro. She’s going to be on the fringes of whatever Francesca does.”
Ciro’s amber eyes shot my way. “You’re allowing Frankie to still be friends with her?”
I understood his anger, but he wasn’t married to his sister. He was guaranteed Frankie’s love because he was her brother. That was an advantage I didn’t have. And that was proven when Ciro was the only one she contacted while she was gone all those years. Sure, they were random texts and nothing more, but it was a hell of a lot more than Luca and I had gotten from her.
“Robbie’s injuries came about because she caught Randy texting Frankie,” I explained. “In Frankie’s eyes, Robbie took a beating trying to protect her from Randy. Frankie insists that Robbie is loyal and would never knowingly place her in danger.”
Ciro’s eyes glowed, and he jumped off the couch. You could feel the flames flickering from his anger. “I don’t give a fuck about knowingly putting Frankie in danger,” he spat. “My concern is her carelessness. We don’t need someone like that around my sister. Hell, around any of us.”
“I agree.” And I did. But Frankie wasn’t going to budge on this one. “I’m not saying I trust her, Ciro. What I’m suggesting is that we give her a chance. She’s Frankie’s friend and I’m not going to fight with my wife every single time she wants to hang out with her friend.”
“No,” he contended. “She doesn’t deserve a chance.” His eyes danced back and forth between me and Luca before he exploded. “Goddamn it! She almost got Frankie fucking killed! How can you guys forgive that?”
Luca scoffed, clearly offended. “I haven’t forgiven that,” he snapped. “I’ll never forgive that. But what do you propose, Ciro? Because I can tell you that if we forbid Francesca from being friends with Roberta, it’s just going to place Frankie in more danger.”
“He’s right,” I added. “Frankie will sneak out if she has to, in order to continue her friendship with Robbie.”
“Not if you forbid her to,” he dared me.
Luca let out a deep sigh. This was a touchy subject as we all had valid points. “Look, Robbie lives in Cedar Creek. Is very unlikely that Frankie will even have time to go visit her, much less hang out.” Ciro was listening, but you could tell he was still on edge. “Between going to school to finish her degree, living an hour away from Cedar Creek, and beginning her job as my accountant, she’s going to have very little time to offer Robbie.”
“Yeah, Ciro. There’s a good change the friendship might fizzle out slowly on its own,” I added. “But if you, or rather, I forbid Frankie from seeing Robbie, it’s going to cause problems. That’ll be the only thing Frankie ends up focusing on.”
“Give Robbie a chance to prove herself, Ciro,” Luca suggested. “You don’t have to like her, but you don’t have to hate her either.”
“Have you two lost your minds?” he asked. “She almost got my fucking sister killed!”
“She made a mistake,” I corrected. “She made a mistake, and she paid for it, Ciro. You saw the damage they inflicted on her just as we did.”
“How do we know that wasn’t just part of the plan, huh?” he countered. “We don’t know anything about the woman’s character. Her injuries could have just been her sacrifice in their ten-million-dollar scheme.”
“And that’s why we’re waiting, Ciro,” Luca replied. “We’re waiting to see what she does and how she handles everything.”
“Christ, Mancini, we’re not inviting her over for Thanksgiving,” I added dryly.
Ciro shook his head. “I don’t like it,” he muttered. “I don’t fucking like it.”
I stood up and walked over to my brother-in-law. “I get it, Ciro,” I told him. “Believe me, I do. But when my wife has conceded to everything else, I have to grant her this one concession. I don’t just want her, Ciro. I want her happy.”
“Robbie will be watched, Ciro,” Luca mentioned. “Their friendship will be monitored. I promise, Francesca will be safe.”
Ciro looked between me and Luca. After a few seconds, he finally said, “If anything else happens to my sister because of that women, I will kill her myself. Agreed?” Ciro didn’t relish killing women, so we knew he was serious with that condition.
“Agreed,” Luca replied.
I nodded my head. “Agreed.”
“I mean it,” he stressed. “Frankie gets hurt again because of her, I will fucking kill her.”
It wasn’t too hard to agree because I chose to believe Frankie. I chose to believe Robbie hadn’t taken part in the kidnapping scheme. “Agreed,” I repeated.
“She’s all yours,” Luca remarked. “Now let’s call it a fucking day and get some sleep, boys.” Luca unleashed one of his rare smiles. “We have an empire that needs our attention.”
Indeed, we did.
Epilogue
Phoenix – (One Month Later)~
He lasted longer than any of us thought he would, but then, Massimo has always done the most with the odds stacked against him.
His funeral was this Saturday at St. Peter’s Church, followed by his burial at the Morgan City Cemetery. Luca spared no expense, and only those who arrived early would be getting a seat in the church. Every neighborhood kid from the last forty years would be attending and those who couldn’t attend would be sending flowers. The church was going to be packed.
However, right now, it was just the six of us in
