Friends & Forever (7 page)

Maura perked up.
Celia
to the fucking rescue
.
She jetted out of the kitchen, still
clutching the money. "Aunt Celia!"

Carmine turned his head toward the
hall, watching as Celia gasped, dropping the bags of groceries to scoop Maura
up in her arms. "Princess DeMarco! To what do we owe the honor of your
visit?"

Maura beamed. "Tricky
treat!"

"Ah!" Celia grinned, giving
her the once over, gaze settling on her hand. "Money?" Celia turned
to Corrado, eyebrows raised when he joined her in the hallway to grab some of
the groceries. "You paid the girl off?"

"She wanted nothing we
had."

Celia rolled her eyes, looking back at
Maura, and smiled again. "Lucky for you, Miss Pretty in Pink, I just
bought a
ton
of treats."

Celia carried Maura into the kitchen,
setting her on the counter, as Carmine walked outside to help Corrado get the
rest of the groceries. They carried them all into the kitchen and stood back as
Celia fished through them, pulling out candy bars, and lollipops, and ice
cream. Maura sat on the counter, eating a fudge pop, chocolate dripping down
her chin, melting on her hands that she wiped on her dress. Celia put away the
groceries, occasionally pulling out something she bought precisely for this
reason, adding it to Maura's pile of makeshift treats.

The money lay on the counter beside
her as she kicked her legs, untied Nikes banging against the cabinet beneath her.
Her gaze kept flickering to Corrado, her expression curious. After a moment,
she reached for the money, slowly slipping it beneath her dress, into the
pocket of her pants, like she thought he might try to take it back from her.

Sneaky
little girl.

"You remind me of someone."

Carmine's brow furrowed, his gaze
going to Corrado when the man spoke. It took a minute for him to realize his
uncle was talking to Maura. The girl kept eating her fudge pop. "Is it
daddy? Mommy says I'm like daddy."

"No," Corrado said.
"Not him."

"Grandma?" Maura asked.
"Daddy says I have her name."

"No," Corrado said.
"You remind me of your mother."

"Mommy?"

"Yes," Corrado said.
"You remind me of her when she was a child."

Celia stopped what she was doing to
look at him with surprise, but she said nothing, her gaze flickering to
Carmine, a smile on her lips.

"Your mother wasn't afraid of
me," Corrado continued. "She stared at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like
that
."

Corrado stared at her pointedly,
while Maura continued to stare back. The girl shrugged after a moment, dropping
it, as she finished her fudge pop just in time for Celia to pull her off the
counter.

"Come on, your highness,"
Celia said, taking her sticky hand. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Those two walked out, leaving Carmine
alone in the kitchen with Corrado. He glanced at his uncle, seeing the man was
watching him, his expression serious. He looked as if he had something to say,
and Carmine's insides coiled in anticipation, his stomach instinctively
knotting. He'd seen sides of Corrado others hadn't ever seen, sides he wondered
if Celia knew existed. His uncle was most terrifying when he grew serious, and
Carmine was hard pressed to think of a time when a more serious expression was
ever on his uncle's face. Carmine had witnessed him kill men and look more
relaxed about it.

Corrado waited until they were gone,
upstairs, out of earshot, before he pushed away from the counter he'd been
leaning against to stroll over toward Carmine. The closer he got, the more
tense Carmine grew. Corrado paused a few feet in front of him, staring at him,
his mouth opening.

"Thank you."

Carmine anticipated a lot of things.

How dare you bring your kid to my
house
.

How dare you let her beg for
candy
.

How dare you let her take my fucking
money
.

He even wouldn't have been surprised
by an "
I'll kill you
" for old time's sake.

But thank you?

Thank you?

What the fuck?

"I, uh… I didn't…" Carmine
stammered, not knowing what the hell to say. If he didn't know his uncle so
well, he might think that was sarcasm, but Corrado said something sarcastic
even less than he fucking said 'thank you'. "You're welcome?"

Corrado's serious expression melted a
bit, the corner of his lips twitching with the hint of a smile. "You don't
even know why I'm thanking you."

"No," he admitted.
"I'm just shocked I did
anything
to deserve some gratitude."

"You do a lot to deserve my
gratitude."

Carmine stared at him with disbelief.
"You're shitting me."

The smile withered away just as
quickly as it started to appear. "Profanity aside, I have no problem with
you, Carmine. Not anymore, anyway. You were a terrible
soldato
. One of
the worst I've ever been unfortunate enough to come across. But you're a good
nephew. You're a good man. I don't much care for holidays like this, but I can
tell this meant a lot to Celia, you coming here, bringing your daughter… so
thank you."

"You're welcome," Carmine
said. "You might want to tone it down, though, you know… you keep up this
whole family
Kumbaya
shit and I might start hitting
you up for free babysitting."

Corrado laughed. He fucking
laughed
.
Carmine could scarcely remember the last time he heard the man let out a laugh
that wasn't bitter or scathing. Fuck, had it ever happened before?

"We used to babysit you and your
brother," Corrado said. "Or, well…
Celia
babysat you. I've
never been good with children."

"I don't know," Carmine
said. "You just did pretty good with Maura. You might be better than you
think. Maybe it's like a secret talent or something."

Corrado laughed.
Again
.
"I have many talents, kid, but this isn't one of them."

"Is that why you never had
children?"

"One of many reasons,"
Corrado said. "I never wanted to have to be responsible for anyone else...
and yet, now I'm in charge of hundreds."

"Funny how that works."

"Yeah, but I thank God you're
not one of them anymore. Like I said, terrible
soldato
."
 
The smile returned to his lips yet
again as he reached over, grasping Carmine's shoulder. "Even worse than
your father, and I never thought that was possible."

Carmine was utterly speechless. He
didn't have a chance to come up with some sort of response, as there was ruckus
on the stairs then, ending the moment. Maura came running back in, still
filthy, but her hands were at least washed and her shoes were again tied.
Carmine glanced at his watch, realizing they'd been there for well over an hour
already. "We should get going. The others are probably wondering what
happened to us."

Celia walked in, immediately slipping
into Corrado's arms. It never failed to surprise Carmine, how affectionate
those two were in private. Corrado came off cold, sure, but he clearly
worshipped his wife, pulling her close, his arm protectively around her.
Carmine's memories of his own parents were vague, dimming over time, every year
taking away a little more of them. All he had were flashes of images, hazy
snapshots of the two of them together in his head. It was fucked up, he
thought, how time slowly erased the memories filled with love but didn't do a
goddamn thing to take away the visions of bloodshed. He liked to think his
parents had been like that, though. And it was the kind of husband he hoped to
be, the kind that always showed his wife how much she meant to him.

"Well, thanks for the,
uh..." Carmine picked the plastic bag up from the counter. Christ, it was
heavy. He held it up and shook his head. "The groceries, I guess."

"Tricky treat!" Maura
yelled, running over and wrapping her arms around Celia's legs, grasping ahold
of Corrado's pants behind her, hugging both at the same time. Carmine smiled,
watching his daughter, and took her hand once she pulled away.

"Bye, Aunt Celia," Carmine
said, his daughter echoing him right away. He glanced at his uncle, tipping his
head. "Corrado."

"Carmine."

They headed out, to where the crowds
had thinned, a lot of people already done for the night. Maura kept a hold of
his hand this time, since it was dark now, but she still led the way, pulling
him past slow moving groups. She once again bypassed all the houses with their
porch lights on, heading straight for home, clearly not giving a shit. As far
as Maura was concerned, they went trick or treating and she was done with it.

Carmine let go of her hand when they
reached the front porch, and Maura ran up, waiting for him to open the door. He
tried the knob, and it turned smoothly, the door already unlocked. He pushed it
open, and Maura ran inside, screeching excitedly, while Carmine followed. He
stepped in behind her, barely making it into the foyer, not even getting the
front door closed, when something jabbed him in the chest, the force sending
him back a step. Brow furrowed, a surge of anger rushed through him as he
clutched his chest and glanced to the side, seeing his brother.

His
brother, standing near the bottom step, holding a sword and grinning as he
waved it around in the air like a samurai.

A
goddamn
sword
.

"Who the fuck gave Dominic a
sword?" Carmine yelled as he slammed the door and headed for the kitchen,
finding the rest of them gathered around the kitchen table, candy spread out
over every inch of it.

Tess shook her head. "Wasn't
me."

"He found it," Haven said,
glancing up and smiling, Dom's clown mask now perched on her head, her eyes
twinkling with excitement. "One second he didn't have it and the next
second, well…"

Carmine felt the sword poking into
his back, his brother standing behind him, jabbing him in the spine as he
laughed. Carmine shook his head and stepped further into the kitchen, setting
the bag on the counter. "You stole it, didn't you? Stole it from a damn
kid."

Dom just laughed.

"Mommy, I tricky treat!"
Maura exclaimed, climbing up on Haven's lap in the chair at the table. Haven
wrapped her arms around her, hugging her, and pressed a kiss to her hair as the
little girl reached for some candy, snatching up somebody's pumpkin-shaped
lollipop.

"Did you have fun?" Haven
asked.

Maura nodded, tearing the wrapper off
and plunging it in her mouth.

"Did you get a lot of
treats?"

Maura nodded again. "I got ice
cream and monies!"

Haven's brow furrowed.
"Money?"

Maura reached into her pocket,
whipping out the filthy twenty-dollar bill and tossing it on the table.

Haven stared at the crumpled bill,
eyes wide. "You didn't get candy?"

"They not have candy,"
Maura said.

"What? Where did you go?"

"Aunt Celia's!"

Haven looked at Carmine with
surprise, noticing the bag on the counter beside him. "You took her to the
Moretti's trick or treating?"

"I didn't take her there,"
Carmine said, unloading the bag. Fucking fudge pops and cans of fruit and even
the goddamn box of cheerios. "She went there all on her own."

"And she got money?" Haven
asked. "They gave her money?"

"Corrado did," Carmine
said. "She didn't like anything else he offered, but she was more than
happy to take his cash."

Dom laughed, reaching over and
holding his hand up for a high-five from Maura. She smacked his palm, hard,
having no idea what the hell she did right, but the praise excited her anyway.

"Just for that," Dom said,
"you deserve the sword this Halloween."

He held it out, and Maura grabbed it
before any of them could object, jumping down off her mother's lap. She bolted
toward the doorway, already swinging it, lollipop still in her mouth.

"Don't run with the sucker in
your mouth!" Haven yelled. "You fall, you'll choke on it!"

Maura didn't miss a beat, spitting
the fucking lollipop out, right on the kitchen floor as she continued to run,
smacking the doorway with the sword as she shrieked, disappearing toward the
living room.

"Fucking three-year olds,"
Carmine muttered, picking up the lollipop and tossing it in the trash less than
five feet away. "They're assholes, I swear."

Dom stepped over, plopping down in
the spot Maura had just vacated, right on Haven's lap. Haven laughed, leaning
her head against his back, her eyes shifting back to Carmine as he leaned
against the counter. She smiled softly, and he returned her smile, no words
necessary to convey a message. She was happy, and that was all that mattered to
Carmine.