reticent

68

• LORENZO •

I walk out of my study at eleven at night, seeing Amalia begin to walk up the stairs. I smile at her, and she glances at me, pausing on the fourth step.

     "Hi, baby." I say. "You okay?"

     She nods.

     My expression softens as I look at her, clad in her pyjamas with her unicorn slippers on her feet. It makes me miss the times when she was younger, and when she'd tell me anything. When she'd follow me everywhere and stay in my bed almost every night on the school holidays, saying we were having sleepovers.

     "Where are you going?" She asks.

     "I just need to go do something. Are you going to bed?"

     She nods. "I watched a movie with Silas."

     My lips tilt up at the corners, and I resist the urge to grin. I'm glad they're rekindling the old friendship they had. They were practically conjoined at the hip as babies. I suppose even an iota of that coming back is something Silas's father, Salvatore, and I should be happy about.

     "Yeah?"

     "Yeah. White Chicks." She tells me. She looks at the front door, then back at me. "Can I come? Can we get Starbucks?"

     I'm about to say no, because I don't want her to see what I'm doing, but I realise that she hasn't asked to go anywhere with me in a long time, so I nod.

     She walks back down the stairs. I open the front door, then unlock my car and she walks over to it, climbing into the passengers seat. I get into the drivers spot, and within a moment we're off.

A few minutes later I'm pulling into a Starbucks drive through. Amalia tells me what drink she wants, and once I pay I pass it to her, then make the familiar route to our families base.

When we get there, Amalia furrows her eyebrows in confusion but doesn't say anything. I get out of the car, and so does she, half drunken drink in her hand. She follows me inside, and I lead her up to the top floor, where my office is.

I'm about to open the door when I hear my older brothers voice. "Enzo?"

I turn to see Pietro standing there, Emilio (senior) beside him.

"What?" I question, opening the door and motioning for Amalia to go inside. She does, and then I close the door softly. They both walk over to me, Pietro sporting a nervous look on his face.

"You know that kid you brought in?" Emilio questions.

"Huh?"

"The blonde kid. Real mouth on him—" Pietro begins. I swiftly cut him off.

"Frankie?"

He nods.

"What about him?" I ask.

Pietro hesitates. Then he sighs and grits out: "he's gone."