Chapter 14 #2
“Don’t ever say that in front of him,” he orders. “You may not be Luciani by blood, but you are my goddamned brother, and you are the son of my father’s heart. I may be his heir, but you are his oldest. He loves you.”
Shame and old guilt bite into my chest, and my hold on the phone loosens slightly. I sit back against the car seat. “You’re right,” I tell him. “I’m sorry.”
Dante eyes me for a moment before speaking again.
“Papá only ordered you to get married because he didn’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life,” he says.
“And yes, before you ask me, he told me this himself. You’ve never had family other than us, and he knows you need someone in your life who’s going to be there long after he’s gone.
He’s not worried about me getting married because I’ve already told him I’m open to the idea when it’s time.
He knows I’ll have my heirs eventually, but you…
G, he wanted you to have what he had with my ma. ”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I choose not to say anything at all.
Instead, I let Dante’s words percolate in my head as Alonzo drives.
Admitting that, perhaps, both Dante and Don Luciani are right is as easy as lifting a boat out of the ocean, but I do accept that their actions and demands have never meant me any harm.
If anything, only my brother and adoptive father have ever done things for me with no expectations, only because of their love and loyalty.
Thirty minutes later, my cell buzzes with an incoming call as Alonzo slows and turns onto the street of the address I gave him. Daisy’s name flashes across the screen. I answer it immediately, swiping the green button to the side and putting the phone to my ear.
“Daisy.” Her name is the first thing out of my mouth. “Have you called to inform me of your whereabouts? Not to worry, I already—”
“Heeey, Giulio.” I stop talking at the breathy sound of her voice when she elongates her greeting, sounding like a teenager who knows she’s in trouble. “So, Michelle and I had a little accident, and we could use your help.”
All at once, my body goes cold and then red-hot. “What’s happened?” I demand, flashing my eyes up to Alonzo and flicking two fingers his way in a gesture he knows.
He pulls over into an open space next to the cracked sidewalk.
“I didn’t mean to,” Daisy murmurs. “I really didn’t, but he had Michelle, and I thought he was going to kill her, and to be fair, everyone says that one of the dangers of carrying a gun is getting it taken from you and used against you, so technically—this is his fault.
If he hadn’t threatened us, then I wouldn’t have had to—”
Frustration pours through me. “Daisy!” I bark her name, stopping her tirade. “Tell me what happened. Where are you?” Even as I ask the question, my eyes are scanning the streets around us for any sign of her.
In my periphery, I note that Dante is already moving toward his door as I go to mine, the two of us stepping out as Daisy’s reply comes through.
“I wanted to go see Michelle, but I didn’t want you to tell me that I couldn’t, so I snuck out, and I, well…” She drifts off.
Control, Giulio, I remind myself. You are in control.
“Like I said, it was an accident,” she finishes.
Bye-bye, control. Before I can demand information, a second female voice echoes over the line from a distance.
“For fuck’s sake, Daisy! Get to the damn point!” Her friend, I recognize. Michelle. Though we haven’t actually met, the workup I had done included several videos of the woman.
Daisy’s swallow is audible over the line. “I might have, maybe—”
“Oh shit, did he move?” the other woman asks.
There’s a crackle across the line, and then I hear Daisy’s voice, distant and muffled as if she’s pulled the receiver away from her ear and pressed it to her chest. I clench my free hand into a fist as I repress the urge to shatter the phone in my grip.
I start jogging up the sidewalk, and Dante follows.
“No, he didn’t move, Chelle. He’s dead. He can’t move.”
“Are you sure?” Michelle sounds suspicious. “I swear, I thought he—”
Daisy says something else to her friend, but it comes over the line garbled, and frustration digs at my insides. I practically crush the cell in my hand.
“There,” Dante says, moving past me and pointing to the opening off a small side street. I pick up the pace, rounding the redbrick building along one side of the street and then stopping.
A big, green dumpster that smells of rotted meat that has sat too long under the sun is pushed against the side of the street, but there’s no sign of the women. Daisy’s voice comes back on the phone, and I hear it in dual ways—once over the line and the second time in person.
“Sorry about that,” she says, sounding breathless. “Michelle thought the guy was still—”
Her voice is louder now, coming not just from the phone, but from an alcove off the side of the dead-end street. Both Dante and I make a beeline for it, coming to a halt in the mouth of the alcove so quickly that Alonzo, who followed behind us after he parked the car, plows into Dante’s back.
I stare at the scene before me. I see it, but it’s difficult to believe.
“Well, shit,” Dante says, sounding far more amused than he should be.
I shoot him a dirty look. “Don’t—” But he’s already talking, saying exactly what I hoped he wouldn’t.
“Looks like your new wife has more than what it takes to be your bride.”
I drag a hand down my face before looking down at the bloodied man lying at the feet of Daisy and her friend. When I lift my gaze back to her worried and slightly glassy eyes, my chest clenches.
“Tell me what happened,” I say. And she does. The whole fucked-up story.