Thin Lives (Donati Bloodlines #3) Read Free

person left behind in Vegas to keep an eye on Affonso’s soon-to-be bride. How would they know the significance of the chip or why he had kept it?
    They weren’t inside Calisto’s fucked up mind.
    A mind that failed him daily.
    Still, he kept the chip on him because like the rosary, it did something for him. Not quite the same thing as the rosary, but something just as important and poignant. Where the rosary almost set him back into a time that he could remember, when he held onto the poker chip, he was suspended.
    Suddenly, unwaveringly, stopped in time.
    The poker chip was nothing more than a simple item. A thing he must have picked up along the way, but decided to keep for one reason or another.
    But it wasn’t an item that had been found on him.
    It was an item that was brought to him.
    Yet he knew— somehow —that he had been the one to have it first.
    The tighter he held it in his palm, the better he felt. That was how he knew it was a part of that one piece he was still missing—a piece he just knew he had to look for.
    His memories weren’t going to give it to him. No one else had the answers. It was something Calisto was going to have to do on his own.
    Church seemed like a good place to start.

 
    Calisto
     
    Calisto was just pulling out onto the highway when his phone rang in the cup holder. He wasn’t as nervous driving in a car now as he had been when he first started after the accident. Still, he now took more precautions when driving, and took the road slower no matter the weather. Keeping his eye on the road and one hand on the wheel, he reached for the phone and put it to his ear as he answered.
    “ Ciao ?”
    “Cal,” came the familiar greeting on the other end.
    Calisto smiled. “ Zio .”
    “Beautiful day.”
    “It’s not too bad for September,” Calisto agreed. “The leaves haven’t started falling yet.”
    “I have nothing immediate today, correct?”
    Calisto did a quick run through of Affonso’s meetings and business for the upcoming days. As his consigliere, it was Calisto’s duty to make sure Affonso ran on time everywhere he went. He was also his uncle’s middle man where la famiglia was concerned, keeping men happy, and everything peaceful. Calisto was the go-between for those wanting a seat in front of the boss.
    “Nothing today,” Calisto said. “There is that meeting tomorrow with Dante Marcello and his wife.”
    Affonso grunted something under his breath, clearly unhappy.
    It wasn’t Dante that Affonso had the problem with, Calisto knew. It was the man’s wife. Calisto hadn’t even been aware Dante Marcello had gotten married, since his lost memories went back farther than even that event, but he had been quickly caught up to speed by Ray, Affonso’s underboss, when Dante called, wanting a meeting with Affonso.
    But Dante’s wife … well, she was a special breed.
    A Queen Pin, from what Calisto understood. The woman dealt drugs to the highest profile people she could get her claws into. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing, if it weren’t for the fact her Cosa Nostra Don husband allowed her to work within his own family, too.
    Women were not to be involved in the business. Dante didn’t seem to believe he had to follow that rule where his wife was concerned.
    Honestly, Calisto didn’t know what the damn problem was. The woman made money—a lot of it. She was good at her job, obviously. It wasn’t as if her husband had given her a button into the family, and she surely wasn’t like most other men’s wives.
    The girl was a dealer—high-class, high-paid.
    He just didn’t see the issue.
    “Is she really as difficult as they say?” Calisto asked, chuckling.
    “More so,” Affonso muttered. “She doesn’t seem to understand her place as a woman because she believes her position is just as good as a man’s.”
    Calisto frowned at his uncle’s words. “Is that all you have a problem with, the fact she’s a woman in a position you think should belong to