His Dirty Bargain (Dirty Billionaires 3)

a full night of sleep, maybe—stop it, don’t even go there.

“I know, I’m sorry. Still up for going out for lunch, or do you want me

to make you something?”

“Out, I want some gnocchi from Dom’s place. I’ve been thinking about it since we had it.”

“Sounds good.”

It only takes me a few minutes to change. Lunch is just as delicious as I remember it. I think Enzo is as surprised as I am Dominic isn’t there. We both shrug, neither of us willing to wonder aloud where he might be.

After we eat, we take a relaxing stroll down the main street, window shopping at a few places, going into others. I stop at the window of a used bookstore. It’s plain, but those are my favorite type. “Ah, it’s closed.” Enzo laughs. “What?”

“This is Tony’s bookstore.”

“Tony as in your uncle Tony? He has a bookstore?” Out of everything he could have said his uncle operated a book store was not what I was expecting.

Nodding, he chuckles. “Yeah, he’s had it forever. His bookie business, where men come to lay bets is downstairs around the back. He’s a huge reader, Dominic too. Apparently my grandmother loved reading, she wanted to be a writer.”

“Wow, that is so weird Nonna wanted to be a writer. She wrote a few stories and even tried to get two published but nothing ever came of it. She still writes but hasn’t tried to publish anything else.”

“Interesting.”

“Enzo, seriously, you don’t think it’s kind of weird?”

“Not really, I’m sure there are millions of people who wanted to be a writer. I would venture to guess it’s as common as wanting to become doctors.”

“You know I keep meaning to ask Bethany, but I’m worried it would offend her, why did she quit practicing after only two years? She doesn’t seem concerned in the slightest about going back either.”

He stiffens as he looks down at me, then back up to the light we’re waiting for. “Something happened that changed her mind about working for the mobile clinic. She decided she’d rather take the time to have and raise the kids her and Dante want. Then once they are grown she’ll figure out using her degree later.”

It hurts he doesn’t trust me with what happened. “You’re seriously not going to tell me?”

A hand goes through his hair, something he only does when he’s frustrated. He tugs me to the edge of a sidewalk. “The clinic had been robbed once before, but when it was closed. Which was stupid, they didn’t keep anything worth stealing, no drugs or anything on site. Then there was an actual robbery, someone stuck a gun in her face. Dom got involved. He’d wanted to get involved the first time but Dante said no; this time Dante said yes. I’m not going to go into it, but Dom doesn’t...he sent a message. Bethany felt guilty about what happened even though Dante tried to explain the people who died, none of them were innocent of a damn thing.”

I suck in air fast. Holy shit. People, as in more than one, as in—I get it now. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—I don’t know I’m just sorry.”

He shrugs as he grabs the back of his neck. “You couldn’t have known. Although this time I think it’s better you asked me rather than Bethany. She still gets upset if the clinic even gets mentioned.”

“So Dom, it’s real like...”

His eyes narrow. “You don’t know much about Tony and Dom, do you?”

My stomach drops at the quiet words, at the way they imply so much more. Shaking my head, “When I moved here I shrugged off the whole Outfit talk. I don’t watch television, don’t even have one. Maybe you should tell me what I need to know to not look like an idiot in front of your family.”

Taking a deep breath, he nods. “Let’s go take a seat in Lincoln Park.”

I slide my hand into his as we cross the street. It’s not far, and as we walk we’re both quiet. People are everywhere with the beautiful weather we’re having. We manage to find an empty park bench.

“The Sabatinis, the story goes one of our forefathers was a founding member from Sicily. My great-grandfather came from Sicily straight to Chicago. After Capone went to jail, the family was in chaos. One of his tenants though was they don’t make waves. His business was pretty basic, book making, booze, and loan sharking. He carved out four blocks by three and they’ve been Sabatini ever since. My father, he hated everything about his family, the whole hit man thing is movie shit. When someone needs to be taken care of, it’s whoever can get close to them. For my grandmother’s brother, that was my grandfather. I don’t know how it happened, but my father found out my grandfather killed his brother-in-law because business said he had to. My father was only seventeen, but he walked away from his family.”

Enzo sighs. “He wasn’t too good to take their money though. Dad got into Yale but he couldn’t pay for it. His father could and did, but still Dad trashed the old man any time he could. Tony, he married young, had two kids. Anthony Junior and Dominic. Tony has always been careful, and I believe he tried to instill that in his kids. But Tony’s wife died of an overdose, she got hooked on prescription pills after a car accident messed up her back. Anthony Junior blamed Uncle Tony, and he tried to go out on his own. He got involved in moving guns; the only problem was he didn’t vet who he was dealing with. When he opened the back of the truck, it wasn’t filled with just guns, it was filled with women. Tony and his father before him were always insistent: they don’t run women, they never deal with trafficking, hell they don’t touch drugs or guns, the hardest they’ll go is liquor.”

His elbows go down on his knees as he leans forward. “Anthony said, no. He didn’t want any part of it. Maybe if he had just walked away...but he didn’t. With all of one backup against five other men, he put a gun in a guy’s face, Michael Corsia, and told him to let the women go. Corsia could take the guns, but the women walked away. The women were worth more than the guns though so Corsia said no, he pulled his own gun and shot Anthony dead.”

I lean against him, laying my head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t know him. I wish I did. I only met Tony four, maybe five times before my father died, when my mother took me with her to go see Tony for money. Our father was determined to keep us from his family. And everything I’m telling you, it’s in the court transcripts, or if you dig a little deep into the newspapers. Tony, he went a little nuts. There were five men there that night, and a guy behind the wheel of the truck. All of them were dead within seven days.”