Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Dante
The restaurant Tatiana chose for dinner has a cowboy theme. We shift into a booth with a rustic table and padded benches covered in vinyl. Noah sits between Tatiana and me. Jasper is squeezed in next to Reino opposite us. Ulysses and Kent are on door duty.
Tatiana doesn’t have to fish for scrap paper from her bag because the placemats are big sheets of paper with black outlines of cowboys and horses for coloring. A container with crayons is placed on every table.
Noah’s eyes sparkle as he looks at his mother. “Is it my birthday?”
Tatiana laughs a soft, affectionate, sad kind of laugh and cups his cheeks between her palms. “No, sweetheart. Your birthday is in December.”
I don’t need to ask to know that coming here was an annual occurrence saved only for a very special occasion.
“On the sixth,” he announces with pride.
She kisses his forehead before letting him go. “That’s right.”
Like everything else I could dig up about my son, his birthday is imprinted in my mind.
I’m yet to find out why there’s no hospital record of his birth.
Yesterday, I ran a check on Tatiana’s false name but found nothing other than a birth certificate for Noah Delacy.
That will change. Soon. My son will take my surname and get the recognition he deserves.
Noah looks around and asks in a whisper, “Then why are we here?”
Tatiana’s smile doesn’t falter, but her manner becomes a little stiff. “Dante invited us.”
“My treat,” I cut in.
Noah turns his face to me. “Is it your birthday?” He sucks in a breath. “We didn’t get you a present.” Perking up, he says with enthusiasm, “I’ll draw you a picture, Dante. You can put it on your wall.”
Unfamiliar emotions tighten my throat. “I’d like that, but we’re not here to celebrate my birthday.”
He tilts his head, studying me with big, innocent eyes. “What are we celebrating?”
I smile through the knot into which my vocal cords seem to have been tied.
The eighteen dollar-special on the menu is less than the tip I normally leave for the waiter.
I’ve never had to look at the price on a menu.
In most of the establishments where I dine, the menu doesn’t even come with prices.
I just order whatever I feel like eating.
Eating out is more a necessity than a treat for me. I travel often, and I don’t have time to cook. And if I’m celebrating, it’s with oysters and champagne.
But I don’t tell Noah that. He doesn’t know he’s been deprived for all of his short life while I’ve been living in luxury, and making him aware of the fact will only be cruel. If coming here is a celebration for Noah, then I’ll make it a fucking celebration. There’s nothing I won’t do for him.
When he continues to stare at me, I settle on the first excuse that pops into my head. “You and your mom are coming to live with me.”
Tatiana’s shoulders go rigid.
“Are we?” He looks at his mother. “Are we going to live with Dante at the big hotel?”
Her smile is so brittle it’s a wonder it doesn’t crack.
“Yes, we’re going to live with Dante.” She looks straight at me.
“For a while. Dante and I haven’t talked about how long yet.
” Turning her attention back to Noah, she continues.
“But not at the hotel. Hotels are just where we stay for short periods of time.”
“Like when we have to leave quickly in the night?”
The muscles around my eyes tighten involuntarily at the sound of that.
She clears her throat. “Like when we’re traveling or on holiday.”
I put a reassuring hand on Noah’s shoulder. “You’re coming to live in my house.”
He blinks up at me. “Is it as big as the hotel?”
It takes effort to hold my smile and not give in to the crushing feeling that squeezes like an iron band around my ribcage. “Bigger.”
His eyes grow round. “Really?”
I nod, not trusting my voice to sound normal if I speak.
“Is it far?” he asks.
Tatiana gives me a glacial stare, her beautiful green eyes cold and hard.
I let Noah go and fold my hands on the table. “It’s in New York City.”
He swings his legs. “How long do we have to drive before we’ll get there? Are we going in Mommy’s car?” He looks at Tatiana. “Are you going to pray, Mommy?”
I raise a brow. “Pray?”
A blush tints Tatiana’s cheeks pink.
Noah turns his face back to me. “Mommy prays when we have to drive far. She asks all the angels listening not to let us break down.”
Tatiana shifts in her seat. Jasper coughs.
I cut my gaze to Tatiana. “We’ll take a plane.” I haven’t told her yet I had that danger-on-wheels driven to a scrapyard. Smiling at Noah again, I continue. “We’ll be there before you know it.”
“A plane!” He bounces on his seat. “Wow, cool! Did you hear that, Mommy? We’re going to fly in a plane.”
“That’s exciting, right?” Tatiana says with forced enthusiasm, no doubt for Noah’s sake. Averting her eyes, she takes the menu from the holder and opens it in front of him. “What would you like to eat?”
The menu has photos of the dishes and desserts, making it easy for kids who can’t read to choose.
Noah takes his time to go over the pictures.
He studies each one with the concentration a serious task deserves.
After a few minutes of deliberation, he pushes a finger on the cheeseburger and fries.
He steals a longing glance at the pink, blue, and green milkshakes printed on the dessert side before handing the menu back to Tatiana.
“What about dessert?” I jut my chin toward the menu. “And you’ll need a milkshake to swallow all of that down.”
He looks at Tatiana with so much expectation that my heart compresses into the size of golf ball. She nods and opens the menu on the dessert page.
He points at a waffle and a chocolate milkshake.
Once he’s showed his mother what he’d like to eat, he reaches for the crayons. In the span of a second, his attention is absorbed by coloring.
I’m amazed at how fast he changes gears. Come to think of it, Sav’s girls are a bit the same. The minute they’ve finished a task or a game, they happily lose themselves in the next activity, completely present in the moment. I admire the ability that seems to come naturally for kids.
For the last seven years, I’ve been living in the past, stuck on my vengeance.
That can’t be helped, considering how my history played out.
With Tatiana, it was different. Whenever I got my hands under her dress, I’d live for that moment only, for the taste of her pussy on my tongue and the sound of her moans in my ears.
And then she left and took my only anchor to the present with her.
Unintentionally, Noah is forcing me to live in the moment again, and I feel alive in a way I haven’t since Tatiana went on the run.
After coloring for a while, Noah wants to go to the enclosed play area that has a jungle gym and slides. I offer to take him, but Tatiana tells me she prefers to watch him herself.
I’m about to excuse myself and join them when the waitress arrives to take our order. I shift on the bench, ensuring I have Tatiana and Noah in my sight, and signal for Ulysses to keep an eye on them.
Once the waitress is gone, Jasper pins me with a look.
I stretch my arm along the backrest of the bench. “What?”
She snorts.
“If you’ve got something to say, Jasper, then go ahead and say it.”
“Fine.” She leans forward and rests her elbows on the table. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
I shrug a shoulder. “Having dinner.”
“Very stupid.” She pulls a face. “And not funny. You know what I mean.”
“If you’re worried about Tatiana, you don’t have to be.”
“Oh, I have reason to be worried, and if you think I’ll believe a single word that comes out of your mouth, you’re delusional. Look what happened the last time.”
I nod at Reino. He slides out of the booth and walks toward the play area, giving us privacy.
“Tatiana should’ve trusted me,” I say when Reino is gone.
“Trust you?” Jasper sits up and bites out in a lowered voice, “You killed her family. We thought she was next on the list.”
That comes as a surprise. “Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know, Dante.” She heaps on the sarcasm. “Maybe because you took everything that belonged to her family the minute they were dead. You were running her father’s territory before his body was cold. It sends a clear message, don’t you think?”
“What went down wasn’t about the territory or the money.”
“Yeah, Tatiana told me. You had a vendetta. But you must realize how it looked from her point of view.”
“She shouldn’t have run from me. Killing her was never my intention.”
She huffs. “Excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but you were never honest with her about your intentions. Did you expect her to simply sit there like an obedient little girlfriend and wait to see what was going to happen?”
“She should’ve given me a chance to explain.”
“Jeez, Dante.” She gives me a duh look. “How did you think that was going to go? You’d tell her you killed her father and mother out of revenge, and she’d simply forgive you and the two of you would’ve moved on and lived happily ever after?”
“It would’ve taken time. I never deluded myself about that.”
Her smile is pitiful. “If that’s what you think, you’re either stupidly optimistic or genuinely clueless.”
I tap into my infinite patience. I don’t have to explain myself to Jasper, but she’s Tatiana’s best friend. The two of them obviously talk, and it will help if Jasper knows both sides of the story. Maybe she can make Tatiana see reason.