Page 53 of Souls and Sorrows

Pushing up on my tiptoes, I feel above the exterior light for the spare key she keeps hidden there and let myself in. The scent of tobacco and stale wine clings to the small condo, and I glance around the tight living area and attached dining room, noting the chaos.

Color bursts free, an orange rug and pink patchwork quilt offsetting the sofa covered with a white linen sheet. There are books piled neatly inside the fireplace where the grate would normally be, and several votive candles line the mantel while dead plants are scattered across the room, begging for even a single ray of sunshine.

Peeking into the kitchen, I see that it’s also empty, and discomfort wedges itself in my chest.

What if someone else got here before me?

A flushing sound sweeps down the hall, and my body goes rigid. Snaking my hand into my purse, I wrap my fingers around the handle of the dagger sheathed inside, prepared for an onslaught of violence.

Instead, the woman who stumbles into the dining area resembles little more than a shell. She’s altered her appearance quite a bit over the years, since hiding in plain sight doesn’t offer the same security as distance does.

Platinum-blonde hair hangs in a loose bun at the back of her head, which seems disproportionately large in comparison to the rest of her body. She’s ghastly, her thin, bony shoulders wrapped in a thick cotton robe that does nothing to hide her sunken, gaunt features.

She’s had her nose and jaw altered, and if I hadn’t been the one to suggest the changes in the first place, I don’t think I’d recognize her at all.

“Well, well,” Mamma says, her pinched voice immediately making me feel five years old again, “the prodigal daughter returns.”

I roll my eyes. As if I would ever really come back to this woman with my tail tucked between my legs. “It’s not easy, making time to visit someone that the entire world thinks is AWOL.”

She was initially arrested for some of Papà’s lesser crimes, but got out on some sort of technicality the same day they found Papà, who’d fled the state as soon as Elena turned them in. Still, the district attorney’s office saw Mamma as unfinished business and has been looking for her ever since, hence the drastic measures she’s taken to essentially disappear.

“I’m sure it isn’t for you,carina. You never did develop very good time management skills.”

Even in her frail state, she can still manage to be a raging cunt. My fingers twitch, itching for the blade in my purse, desperate to put an end to this parasitic relationship once and for all.

Hobbling over to the couch, she lowers herself onto the cushions, leaning her head on the arm rest and extending her legs across the length. She grabs a rag from the coffee table and folds it over her forehead, then reaches for the glass of red wine sitting near the edge.

“What do you want?” she bites out. “You don’t visit for no reason.”

Learned from the best.“I want Ricci Inc.”

She pauses, glass hovering in front of her mouth. “I don’t believe it’s for sale.”

Gnashing my teeth together, I cross my arms over my chest and take a step toward her. “It’s not for sale, but you have the power to relinquish it. I want it.”

For a moment, she just looks at me, sipping her wine with an unreadable expression. It lasers in, and I know she’s searching for a vulnerability. Something to cut me down and distract me with, like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

But then she sets her glass aside and pushes up into a sitting position, running a hand over her cheek. The gold rings she wears sends a shiver over me, but I ignore it, unwilling to give her the satisfaction of knowing she still gets to me, even after all these years.

“And what exactly are you planning to do with it?” Mamma cocks an eyebrow. “You don’t have the wit to run an organization that deals with moving drugs, illegal gambling, and protection notices, nor do you have the strength to protect yourself from direct involvement. You’d either drive it into the ground or get yourself killed.”

I shrug, moving in the direction of the couch. My hand fishes into my purse, feeling for the knife. “I’m not planning on running it at all. You know Ermes Barbieri sold me?”

Her eyes don’t change. No surprise, or even guilt, flashes in her dark irises.

Confirming what I suspected.

“Of course you know. You told him to do it.”

After Papà’s arrest and her release, Mamma paid several government and law enforcement officials to help erase her from the map. The only thing she kept ties to, via an offshore account and through a couple of Papà’s most reputable men, was Ricci Inc.

She’s been running things from the shadows since then, calling the shots and okaying orders. Papà thinks his men have the reins, but in truth, Mamma took over when it seemed they weren’t capable of keeping what was left of the company intact.

Which meant it was likely that she knew I was going to the Barbieri auction that night, and that she knew what it meant if I got involved. Odds are, she told them to up the ante and offer marriage to me in the first place, maybe so I’d be less of a problem for her.

As if I would ever be anything less.

Not when it comes to this woman.

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