Mafia

Date followed by a drive-by... Just great.

I sat silently beside Luca as we drove back towards town after my visit with Elena. My mind replaying what Elena had told me about her past with Romero, trying to figure out whether or not I should tell someone what she'd told me. 

I had no idea whether Elena would ever bring herself to tell Dmitri about it, and I knew that he should know, that it might shine some light on the entire situation, but I feared that she thought herself too vulnerable to him to share something so deeply personal.

I could tell Luca, but what Elena had shared was shared in confidence between two friends, and I didn't want to betray her trust like that. But someone needed to know. 

"You okay, you've been quiet since we left?" Turning to look at Luca, I offered him a distracted smile and nodded. 

"Just tired I guess, and hungry. I haven't eaten anything since breakfast," it wasn't a complete lie. I'd already made the mistake of opening my big fat mouth prematurely once before, wasn't about to make the same mistake again. 

"How was your visit with Elena?" Thankful that he wasn't going to pry anymore, I settled back into my seat and pushed my worries to the back of my mind as I told him about the riding and that it looked like Elena was finally starting to heal from the loss of her parents. 

"How did it go with Dmitri? Did you get all your scary boss-business out of the way?" 

Casting a glance my way, one that came with a raised brow, his voice was heavy with amusement when he said, "scary boss-business?". 

Smiling, I shrugged and watched his sharp profile as he turned his attention back to the road. 

"Well, he's a scary russian mafia boss, and you're a scary italian mafia boss, it fits, doesn't it?" 

Chuckling, he shook his head and I was surprised when he grabbed my hand, lifted it to his mouth and brushed it across my knuckles before lowering it to his thigh where he kept it, only one hand on the wheel as a result. 

"The scary boss-business went good." He didn't elaborate any more than that and I didn't ask. If there was one thing I knew with a hundred perceint certainty it was the fact that if our relationship was ever going to work, it was the fact that I wanted to know as little about his business as possible and I suspected Luca wanted it to be that way as well. 

Even our first go-around, he'd never told me anything about the work he did. I knew of course, but he didn't tell me anything more than the basics of what I was already aware of and I was perfectly happy with that. I wasn't stupid, hadn't deluded myself into thinking that if I simply ignored the state of the facts, it wasn't really happening, but that didn't mean I had to take an active part in it in any way. 

"That's good," I murmured my reply, squeezing his hand as I rested my head against the window, keeping my eyes locked on his profile. 

"So, where are you taking me for dinner? I hope it's somewhere fancy," I teased, knowing he would never take me anywhere else, even though chances were we were going to Vincente's, which was also a fancy place come to think of it. 

"We have reservations at La Boheme," he informed me, and I stared at him, surprised that we weren't going to his cousin's place after all, but also wildly excited because La Boheme had gotten nothing but rave reviews from all the food critics and I'd wanted to go since the French Gourmet restaurant had opened a year ago. I wasn't in the city then of course, but I'd still wanted to go. 

But, once I'd gotten back home and researched the possibility of actually going I'd realized two things right away. One, it was impossible to get a reservation unless you were famous or had a million dollar checkbook, and two, you needed that million dollar checkbook just to pay for the food, it was so damn expensive.