Chapter 17: Rain on the Drive

Dario's POV

It rained all afternoon.

By five the drive of my own house was lined with black cars, and none of them were mine.

Luca turned the car in at the gate, slowly, so I could count them.

"Eleven," he said. "Four more than a normal Sunday."

"Whose?"

"The three capos' families. The oldest man brought his sons."

"Good," I said. "Let them see it all."

I had spent the day on the road, in the rain, at two doors.

The two capos who still sat on my side had both said the same thing.

They would vote with me if my wife sat in her chair and voted with me too.

Neither would say what they'd do if she didn't.

I had not told Elise that.

She sat beside me in the back seat in a dark green dress with long sleeves and a high neck.

Under the neck of it, against her skin, was the collar.

She had her hands folded in her lap, and she looked out at the wet lawn.

She had not spoken since the gate.

"Are you afraid?" I asked her.

"A little."

"You can stay in the cottage. Teresa can say you are unwell."

"No."

"Elise."

"I'm going to walk in the front door," she said. "You're going to walk beside me."

Luca stopped the car at the foot of the steps.

He got out with an umbrella, as he always did, and then he stopped and looked at me through the glass.

I knew what he was asking.

"Give us five minutes," I said.

He nodded and shut the door.

Through the window I watched him cross the gravel and stand with his back to the car, in the rain, with the umbrella tilted to hide us.

The glass fogged at the edges.

Elise turned her head.

"Five minutes for what?"

"To stop looking at you like this."

"Like what?"

"A man who is not going to make it up those steps."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Rejected by the Heir, She Married the Don from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.