Beautiful Nightmare (Dark Dream 2)

“Monte didn’t like that,” I speculated, because the recently deceased Italian-born mafioso was notoriously jealous and possessive.

For the last five years since Lane Constantine had died under a cloud of suspicion, most people had assumed Bryant (and me by extension) had had something to do with his death. But this offered a second, even more intriguing option. If Lane had taken Monte’s daughter out from under his nose, he would have painted an enormous target on his back.

Italians didn’t often forgive and forget.

Hence the Morelli family motto: et vindictam retribute in alis nigro.

Vengeance on black wings.

“He sent someone after them a few times,” Santo confirmed. “I was able to intercept them the first couple, but someone finally found them Upstate. They abducted Bianca from school.”

“She said it was you.”

“She was a kid and it was a fucking traumatizing experience. It’s not surprising she doesn’t remember the details.” He had the audacity to roll his eyes at me. “A guy named Bruno Puglisi kept her in an abandoned house for two days even though he was ordered to bring her back to Monte.” Santo’s jaw went white with strain as fury transformed his face. “He was thinking about taking her away for himself.”

His fury echoed through me like a gunshot in an empty room. “Tell me you killed him.”

“I carved him up like a Christmas ham using his own knife,” Santo promised with a gleaming smile, white against the blood on his chin. “When I found her, she was locked up in a room using a fucking pan as a toilet. When Lane showed up, he had his own go at Bruno.”

It stirred something in me to know the perfect Lane Constantine was as vengeful, corrupt, and deceitful as any Morelli. The man had done dealings with the mafia, stolen one of their women as his mistress, had two children out of wedlock and hidden a fortune from his wife in their name. In a way, I admired his ability to keep his dirty deceptions as far removed from his public persona as he had.

Us Morellis hadn’t been so successful.

“I told them I wouldn’t be able to help them again without jeopardizing my position.” Santo’s voice took on a faraway quality as he looked into the past. “I wanted to make something of myself so I could take care of Aida and the kids myself.”

“You were a kid yourself,” I noted, because Santo was even younger than me, only twenty-seven years old.

He shrugged. “Sometimes, being a kid’s got nothing to do with your level of responsibility.”

I thought of Bianca laying upstairs, how innocent and young she looked in sleep. It was such a contrasted to the wisdom she wore on her soul like battle scars and the slope of her shoulders carrying too much weight from too young an age.

My heart stopped and restarted in my chest as I thought how lonely she must have been all her life.

Almost as lonely as I’d been.

“How did you lose touch?” I asked, shaking myself momentarily loose of Bianca’s hold on me. “Obviously, you weren’t around of I’d never have been next in line for guardianship.”

“When they moved, Lane decided not to tell me where he’d placed them just in case my loyalty to Monte outweighed my loyalty to my own sister,” he spat the words.

“So, no one knew where they were in Texas until I found them,” I concluded.

“Not quite. Lane told his best friend––”

There was a knock at the door then that had me glowering at Hank when he stuck his head through the opening.

“Sorry to interrupt, sir, but Mr. Fairchild is still here and he’s asking to speak with you urgently.”

“Tell him to fuck off,” I barked, before turning back to Santo. “If you’re so loyal to Bianca and Brando, where the fuck were you when Aida died?”

“I didn’t realize she’d passed away until a few weeks ago,” he admitted. “I found them a few years ago and had a man check in every few months, when he went this time, he reported they’d been taken into foster care. I was still searching for them in Texas until Gabriella told me her new friend Bianca was a ward of Tiernan Morelli.” He glared at me. “I think it should be me playing the protective older man here, Morelli, what the fuck have you been doing with my niece and nephew?”

Sudden exhaustion settled into my bones. I sagged against a metal table set against the wall and crossed my arms. “Making a fucking mess of things, of course.”

He continued to glower at me for a moment before humor twitched in his upper lip. “You always were good at that.”

I shrugged. “I’m humble, but you’re right.”

This prompted a laugh from my old friend before he sobered. “These kids are all I have left of my sister. They should be with me, Tiernan. Even you should understand, kids are off-limits in our games.”