Dominic (Made Men 8)

“I needed to talk to you.”

“So you said in your text. What’s up?” Even in the dark, Dom could tell how frightened the kid was. He was trying hard not to be seen inside his car. At three in the morning, no one was stupid enough to be out during the howling rain unless they had to be.

Dominic was too familiar with the fear Marco was exhibiting for him not to know it wasn’t manufactured to distract him into a sneak attack from one of the Luciano’s enemies.

“What’s up?” Dom asked again in a more authoritative voice, trying to ease the boy’s fear.

Marco finally started speaking. “My uncle Luis got in a fight with my aunt last weekend and ended up in jail.”

“You need to borrow bail money off Lucifer?” Dom frowned, about to kick his ass out of the car with a threatening warning, liking the kid enough not to want to see him become in debt to Lucifer.

“No,” Marco hastened to correct him.

Dominic didn’t know where the conversation was going, becoming more curious about what Marco was trying to explain.

“The cops put Luis in holding until my dad could post bail. He wasn’t alone. He had company waiting to be bailed out.”

“Who?”

“Gabriel Evans.”

“Kayne Evans father?” Dom wasn’t surprised. Gabriel was locked up more time in jail than out.

“Yes.”

“You had me come out in the pouring rain just to tell me something that happens all the time?” Dominic started to kick the kid out of the car, reaching for the key to turn it back on.

“No.” Marco shook his head. “I had you come out because he was bailed out but refused to leave.”

That got his attention. He moved his hand away from the key. “He wanted to stay in jail?”

“He was yelling that he wasn’t going to take any help from a cop, even if it was his piece of shit son.”

Dom sucked in his breath. Kayne was a cop? Dominic knew Gabriel wasn’t talking about his other son.

“Luis sure he heard him right?”

“Oh, he’s sure. Luis said they had to taze Gabriel to get his drunk-ass out of the cell.”

Dom raised a brow. “You sure they didn’t take him to the morgue instead of releasing him?”

“I checked him out in the morning at the gas station when he came for another bottle. I’m sure.”

“Who else knows?” Dom asked the kid hastily.

“No one.” Marco started to shake his head again. “My uncle Luis hit the road, afraid he’d get deported.”

Dominic didn’t believe that for a second. “If Luis knows, then your whole family knows.”

Marco just kept shaking his head. “I was the one who picked Luis up from the jail, and I told him to keep his mouth shut or Lucifer would cut his tongue out.”

That Dom believed. “You tell anyone?”

“No, just you,” Marco swore.

“Do me a favor.” Dominic took out the wad of bills in his pockets, peeling off two hundred dollar bills, then held them out to the kid. “Let’s keep it that way.” No one would believe Blue Park’s biggest drunk’s son, Kayne Evans, had become a cop without proof.

Marco wouldn’t take the money. “I don’t want your money. I owe you my life.”

Dom didn’t argue with the truth. Returning the money to his pocket, he was inwardly relieved he wouldn’t have to make up an excuse to Lucifer for being short on the expected amount. “We’ll call it even. Thanks for the info.”

“Sure thing, Dom,” he immediately agreed, starting to get out of the car.

“You graduate next week, don’t you?”

“Yes. I got a scholarship, too, out of state.”

Dominic decided to impart some advice. “Convince your dad to move with you and forget you were ever a part of this shit yard, kid.”

“You’re lying …” Maria’s harsh tone drifted off the second she turned back to look at him for his blasphemy when the word cop passed her brother’s lips. One look into his eyes, and she saw the truth.

Lucca looked at her pitifully. “How does it feel to know the man you claimed to love didn’t tell you the one thing that would make you despise him?”

“How do you know?” she whispered, racking her brain to think of how she had been deceived.

“Because I know,” the underboss told her. “Very few did. He was given the perfect cover, one the family wouldn’t even expect. I assume, since they never lucked out with men who were made, they would try to do it through the children. Nero, Amo, and Vincent were all in his class. Leo was his last shot, but then … he met you.”

Maria felt her knees wanting to give out again as the world slowly spun, thinking about every moment she had shared with Kayne.

It was as if Lucca could read her thoughts. “Your relationship and everything you shared with that man was a lie.”