"It was a joke, Seraphina." Giancarlo's voice was smooth as polished marble and just as hard. "You want to make a federal case out of a prank? Do you understand what you'd do to Rosalia if you brought the Feds into this?"
I stared at them. The shock lasted only a heartbeat before the rage swallowed it whole.
"What about me?" The words tore out of me like something alive. "My Nonna nearly died in that room. Her heart almost gave out. And you stand there worried about Rosalia?" My voice climbed, raw and ragged. "She wasn't afraid of destroying me? Of destroying the entire Genovese Family? Of killing the last Matrona of our bloodline with her poison?"
Salvatore moved before I finished speaking. He shoved Rosalia behind his broad back, shielding her with his body, and drove his open palm into my shoulder hard enough to send me stumbling.
"Are you finished, Seraphina?" His jaw was set like a locked vault. "Your Nonna is alive. She's breathing. She's fine. And besides, flies don't land where there's no rot. You must have done something shameful first for these rumors to take hold. Where there's smoke, there's fire."