I killed someone.
I killed someone.
That very fact was finally beginning to dawn on me and a chill ran through my veins. Part of me hoped it wasn’t true, that somehow there’d been a mistake. But if there was video, how could it be a mistake?
I’d grown up around violence. Or, rather, with the knowledge of violence being close. But rarely was it something I witnessed first hand. That’s why I was frozen in shock outside the tent at the carnival. I’d never seen anything like that before. Men pulling guns on each other. My father, perfectly willing and ready to shoot another man.
I never found out what truly happened that night, but there’d been rumors, of course. Paulie Paradiso was found dead inside the tent, and nobody was ever accused of his murder. I’d kept my mouth shut, and apparently, Dante had too.
I’d never forgotten that day and I never told my dad what I saw. But he’d been there, doing whatever Giannetti asked him too. Always loyal, always willing to drop whatever he was doing to please The Boss.
And now he was The Boss. The Don. All his hard work had paid off for him.
Unfortunately, his family had suffered. Oh, I don’t mean suffered like third-world suffering or anything. My brothers and I had everything we could ever want. We were never hungry, we were never cold, we were never neglected, in the physical sense of the word.
But we were neglected of our father’s attention. Giannetti got that instead. He was his teacher, his mentor, so much more than his boss. He demanded constant respect from all his men and he received it.
Now, my father demanded that same respect. It was a different era; life as a Dom in New York was a whole different lifestyle now, but the basics were still the same. He ran things. He made sure things kept running.
When people needed him, he was there.
Just like Dante had been there that day so many years ago. If he hadn’t come along and thrown me out of the path of gunfire, my life would have ended that day. I shuddered to think of it now.
I couldn’t believe it was him. I’d never forgotten him. And now, all these years later, he’s back? Basically barreling into my life in the same exact way. His eyes, his smell, his face had haunted me for years.
Despite my best efforts, I’d never seen him around the neighborhood again after that day. An hour after my father showed up, and amidst all the chaos after Paradiso’s death, I found another moment to sneak off to look for him but I’d never found him again.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about him often over the years. In fact, his memory eventually turned into my first real childhood crush. I’d always hoped I’d see him again someday, but as they years passed, I’d pretty much given up on it actually happening.
And now here he was. No longer a young boy, but a man.
A breathtakingly sexy, gentle, sweet, funny man that I couldn’t keep my hands off of.
I’d never in a million years expected things to turn out like this.
Bear finished his business and kept walking around the back of the cabin. I followed him, grateful for the moment alone with my thoughts. Now that I knew Dante was the boy from the carnival, my thoughts had been in a tailspin.
I needed to sort them out. I needed to come up with a way to convince Dante that my father really would be able to get us out of this. Maybe I wasn’t completely confident of that fact myself, especially now that the police were involved, but if anyone could pull off that kind of miracle, it would be Leo Loprinzi.
All I needed to do was get to him somehow. I hated being dependent on Dante. Once again, I wished I knew how to ride one of those bikes out front. More than that, I wished for my own car. I groaned when I thought about some smelly tow truck driver sitting in my pristine leather seats.
I rounded the corner and ran smack into a shiny black truck hidden behind the house.
“What the hell! You bastard!” I yelled, startling Bear. I turned on my heel, anger shooting through my veins, shocked with disappointment that this fucking truck had been here all along and Dante had never mentioned it.
I flew through the front door, and the boys parted like the sea as I strode angrily up to Dante as he stood in the kitchen.
“Give me the keys!” I demanded.
“The keys to what?” he asked, his eyebrows wrinkling.
“The truck! You never told me you had a fucking truck!”
“The truck? You never asked if I had a truck…” he replied, his dark eyes filling with confusion.
“You knew I was stranded here! You knew I couldn’t ride a bike, I couldn’t just leave on my own. You knew I felt dependent upon you!”
“Gabby, what the hell are you talking about?”
“You! You won’t let me leave!” Tears welled up in my eyes and I felt everyone staring at me.
“I’m not forcing you to stay, Gabby.” I stared up at him, and was taken aback at the gentleness I saw there as a twinge of pain threaded through his voice. “I would never just fucking kidnap you and hold you against your will like that. I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m not that fucking kind of man.”
He turned to the guys.
“Can you give us a few minutes alone?” he asked, which was promptly followed by awkward silence and muttering until they had all shuffled out, leaving us alone in the kitchen.
Dante pulled a set of keys from his pocket and slid them across the kitchen counter towards me. I grabbed them quickly and shoved them into my pocket.
“You’re free to go, Gabby. But I need you to listen to me first. I know you think your dad can make everything magically disappear and maybe he can with the cops. Maybe he’s in bed with all sorts of people, judges, politicians, whatever. Maybe he can make the charges disappear, I’m not disputing that. But here’s what I know for sure. I know the Iron Godz aren’t going to just go away. They don’t forgive and forget, no matter what. They aren’t going to just replace their members and go about business as usual, just because of who you are. Men like that don’t give one fuck about the mob. They aren’t afraid of your father. They aren’t afraid of the consequences. They live to protect each other, to avenge each other’s deaths.”
He walked around the counter, closing the distance between us and peering into my eyes.
“That’s why I want you to stay here. I would have told you about my truck if you’d asked. I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you. I’m just trying to protect you. Now, I don’t know what might happen if you take off on your own. You might be just fine. But most likely, there are lots of people out looking for you right this very second and some of those people are bad, Gabby. Not for n
uttin', but they’d wouldn’t hesitate to hurt you, babe.” His eyes flashed with concern, and my heart melted. “I don’t know what I’d do if someone hurt you.”
Of course he wasn’t trying to keep me here. It all made sense now. I felt like an ass for assuming otherwise, for accusing him of doing something like that. He was a good man.
“We’re in this together, Gabby. For better or worse. It’s best if we stick together. You can go if you want, but I really wish you’d stay. I can’t protect you if you leave.”
“Dante, I’m sorry, I just —,” he put a finger up to my lips, silencing me. A slow grin spread across his face and he brought his lips to mine, kissing me so slowly, so gently, it almost hurt. I sighed, leaning into him, leaning into his warmth, his protective arms wrapping around me.
“No apologies needed,” he whispered, as he pulled me into his chest. “I get it. Trust me, I totally understand.”
We stood there for a moment, breathing in each other’s warmth, his comfort seeping into me. I’d never felt like I needed anyone in my life, but suddenly, in that moment, in his gentle arms, I felt like I needed him.
“I have a plan,” he said and I nodded in agreement. “You just have to be patient. And you have to trust me.”
Trust and dependence. Two things I was totally unfamiliar with. I sighed, trying to find a way to let my walls down just a little. If anyone in the world deserved my trust at this point, it was him.
“Do you trust me, babe? Can you trust me?” he asked quietly. I pulled back, looking up into his eyes again and smiled through my tears, nodding.
“I can try,” I whispered.
“Good,” he said, leaning down to kiss me gently again. “I promise I’ll never let you down, sweetheart.”
Dante
“I want each of you to leave your cuts here, go out and see what you can find out,” I said.
We’d gathered outside with Bear circling us, sniffing our boots and begging for ear scratches.
“Romeo, go to Otto’s. Hang out, drink a few beers, keep your eyes and ears open. Italo and Alonso - go hang out in the old neighborhood. See if you can get a beat on what Loprinzi and his guys are up to. Bats, brother, you go see if you can get in touch with Donny, from the precinct. See if he’ll tell you anything. Anything at all,” Donny was an old friend of ours from the neighborhood. He and his brother Sal had both become cops, following in their father’s footsteps. Their father, Charlie, was close to both Leo and Giannetti and rumor had it that he wasn’t opposed to letting his palm get a little greasy over the years.