Dark Ties (Made Men 9)

* * *

“What are you reading?”

Those words, with his curious tone, told her she had just made a brutal mistake being too enthralled in her book. She hadn’t noticed Dante had been staring at her when she busted out in laughter from what one of the biker bitches in her book had just said.

“Like I said, just some girlie—”

Trying to fight to keep the book in her hands made her lose concentration of what she was saying, but of course Dante had slid the book out of her hands a little too effortlessly, making her think she should slow down on the drinks.

“Sex Piston?” he said, half in shock and in laughter while he slid his eyes across the page to read a passage. “Is that really what the author named her?”

“Her nickname, yes,” Nadia clarified, trying to take it back in sheer embarrassment, though, again, it wasn’t hard for him to hold on to it. She was sort of just like an annoying fly while he began flipping the pages.

OH GOD.

She knew he had gotten to a good part when his eyes grew wide. “No wonder you’ve had your nose stuck in this book all day.” Seeing how far she had read into the book, he couldn’t resist another joke. “You’ve been busy.”

She ripped it out of his hands finally. “It has a good story.”

“Uh-huh.” He looked at her just as sarcastically as the words he had to say. “I’m sure everyone who has read Sex Piston read it for the story.”

Nadia couldn’t help but let the chuckle escape her lips. He might have had a point, even though the story actually was good. “Well, you can’t have a book called Sex Piston in your library and expect me not to choose it, when the only other options are autobiographies and how to invest money.”

Dante opened his mouth to tell her something, but she continued her rant, not letting him speak.

“And while I’m on the topic of things you could change around here … you could let your chef know your kids don’t like his food. That way, he could prepare them something different.”

What he was going to say clearly flew out of his head, as it was apparent on his face that he had changed gears to address something else she had said. “Amo is not a child, nor is he my son. He’s my soldier.”

“I thought you called yourselves a ‘family’.” As soon as she put her hands down from air quoting her last word, she regretted them.

Okay, now she was certain she’d had too much to drink.

Nervousness quickly grew in her stomach from the deafening silence, not knowing how he would take what she had said. Of course, it was apparent now that he was the boss of the mafia family. However, speaking it out loud was a different thing altogether. She had let her guard slip. Being on vacation with him had somehow made Dante Caruso seem less dangerous, but the man before her was extremely dangerous, and she needed to remember that. Actually, the whole Caruso family was extremely dangerous, apart from the two he had brought, Amo and Leo, who she was sure wouldn’t harm a fly.

Kansas City was full of whispers about the family, especially with one member in particular whom they called The Boogieman. And whoever the hell he was, she hoped to never ever cross his fucking path.

* * *

Her words had struck Dante like an ice pick going straight into his gut.

I thought you called yourselves a ‘family.’

It was true, they did. Every member had each other’s back, like a brother, father, or son, depending on where you fell in the family hierarchy, but if he was honest with himself, it had been a long time since it had felt like a family. Then, to make matters worse, it had been even longer since he and his children, who were his own flesh and blood, had felt like family. Dante knew when he and his own children stopped feeling like a family, but he didn’t know when the family had stopped feeling like one. He was sure they were synonymous with each other; it just took some catching up to do.

“I … You’re right,” he finally said, coming up empty with what to say.

Nadia easily sensed the change in him, her tone becoming sympathetic. “It’s okay. No harm done.”

His mind instantly went to each one of his children he had recently wronged in order.

Nero.

Lucca.

Maria.

And now Leo.

The words seemed to shockingly slip right past his lips. “What if I have …?”

Suddenly, Nadia caught on that they weren’t simply talking about the chef’s food with his bone-chilling voice.

“And now it’s too late?” he finished the grave question.

Nadia let go of her book, reaching across to grab his hand. “I have never come across anything that couldn’t be fixed with a sorry and some time.”