“Right. Wow. You’re serious?”
“Deadly.”
Huh. She wasn’t just a lay. Guess that’s why he wouldn’t send her back to her family as requested.
“And here I thought you were using her to screw that mafia family.”
“For best mates, we think a lot of each other, don’t we?”
“Truthfully, you’re one of the few people I know who’s as horrible as me. That’s why I like hanging out with you.”
“Horrible as in…judgy and shit? That’s what you mean, right? Not horrible in like use a woman and toss her?”
“Truthfully, I can’t recall you dating. Ever.”
“You know, I remember the day you met Caroline.”
So do I.
“Love at first sight,” he says.
“That’s a stretch.”
“No. ’Twas.”
Probably.
“How’d you fuck it up? You never did say.”
She left.
“Right, then,” he says. “You don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. But it’s on you if you don’t want to talk about it with her.”
“There’s no point.”
“Get your ugly arse out of your cave and go spend time with her! No one in their right mind makes that trip without wanting something. Maybe it’s you.”
He has a point. I expect she met someone and needs a divorce, even though she denied it.
“Let me know how it goes. I’ll be on the lam.”
“On the… Where are you?”
“Not telling. Tracing the call will be a waste of your time.”
“Bounty’s off, right?”
“Doesn’t mean I’m not someone’s target. Can you think of anyone with a quarter billion to burn?”
“Who wants you dead?” What he did to the Italian mafia didn’t win him friends.
“Your old man?”
“My father likes you.”
“Bullshit.”
“He’s the old generation. He’d be judicial with his money, hire the best, and spend less.” That rationale should clear my father’s name without my having to share the truth.