Chapter 10
Dante
I was gonna kill Matteo for whatever he said to Kuroi. Until I had left for the bathroom, everything had gone well. Yeah, I had found out that my father had invited his treacherous brother back into our lives so he could kill me. But Matteo and Kuroi had been getting along.
What could Matteo have said to him? I had never seen Kuroi like this. It was like he was a different person. I wanted the Kuroi I knew back.
Hoping all he needed was a good night’s sleep, I headed to my room and bed. Remembering the feeling of Kuroi in my arms, I couldn’t fall asleep. By morning, I had slept three hours at most. And when I returned to the living room to find the guest bedroom door still closed, I wasn’t sure what to do.
“Are you up?” I asked knocking on his door. “Kuroi?”
“What?” I heard him say from within.
“I need your help. Can I come in?”
“It’s your house,” he said not sounding good.
Entering, I found what he was wearing the night before on the floor while his pillows were smeared with makeup. I hadn’t known Kuroi long, but this didn’t seem like him. Looking down at him as he buried his face into his pillow, I said, “I could use your expertise today.”
“What is it?”
“I need to find my Uncle Vinny. If he’s in town, I’m gonna need some back up.”
“Why don’t you ask Matteo?”
“I don’t trust Matteo with this. I trust you.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Like you said, you kill people. And if it came down to it, I need someone who won’t hesitate out of family loyalty.”
What I had said was true, wasn’t it? Uncle Vinny was family even if he wasn’t a member of our pack. Both Matteo and Lorenzo could hesitate if things went south. Kuroi wouldn’t. He really was the only person I could trust to have my back.
“Come on, Kuroi, I need you.”
Kuroi turned to look at me.
“I’m serious. You’re the only one I can trust with this,” I told him sincerely.
Kuroi looked down, wiped his face on his pillow and then got up.
“Fine. Give me a few minutes to get dressed.”
Returning to the living room, I learned what my new husband meant when he requested “a few minutes”. Forty minutes later, he emerged looking more like himself.
“You took your sweet time,” I said failing to hide how annoyed I was.
“You wanted my help, didn’t you? I had to put myself on.”
He spoke as if the person I knew as Kuroi was just a mask he wore. Was it? How much did I know about Kuroi? How much could I know about him? I hadn’t known him that long.
“Coffee? I made a pot,” I told him as I held up my mug.
Kuroi poured coffee into a to-go mug and we headed out.
“So, what’s the plan?” He asked me on the drive to the office.
“We’ll meet with Lorenzo.”
“Are you sure you can trust him?”
“If I can’t, we’re in deep shit. Because he knows everything.”
“Everything?” Kuroi asked me suggestively.
“Well, there are a few things he doesn’t know. But he knows a lot.”
Kuroi didn’t reply to that. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but the more we talked, the more my Kuroi reemerged. Wait, when did I start thinking of him as ‘My Kuroi’?
That was what he was though, mine. And if anyone tried to get between us like Matteo had, they were gonna have to deal with me. My brother was going to have to learn that. But first, we were gonna have to deal with my father and his attempt to get rid of me.
Arriving at my office later than usual, I found Lorenzo already there. Sitting in the chair in front of my desk, he did a double-take when I walked in with Kuroi. With his eyes locked on Kuroi, he asked me,
“How did things go last night with Matteo?”
As I settled behind my desk, Kuroi took the club chair next to the window. Although he had worn a man’s suit, I spotted his heels as he put his feet on the coffee table. They looked like thigh high boots that would make him three inches taller.
“It was educational,” I told Lorenzo checking my calendar for the day.
“Don’t leave me in suspense. Was it him who took a shot at you?”
“I don’t think it was.”
“Then who?”
“Did you know Uncle Vinny was in town?” I said watching Lorenzo closely for deception.
“Uncle Vinny?” Lorenzo asked surprised. “Since when?”
“Don’t know. But if he’s back, there’s gotta be a reason. He’s been persona non grata with Pa our entire lives. Now Pa’s pissed a me for getting married and Uncle Vinny’s back?”
“This is Pa’s move,” Lorenzo said realizing it.
“That’s what Matteo thinks.”
“So, what are you gonna do?”
“We gotta find him and figure out why he’s here.”
“And if he’s here to do Pa’s dirty work?”
“We eliminate him.”
“We?” Lorenzo asked losing a shade of color from his face. As dangerous as Lorenzo was, his wolf had never killed anyone. There was a part of me that liked that. Having blood on your hands wasn’t a badge of honor. It was a necessary evil.
If I could protect my little brother from that, I would. It was the least I could do. Growing up the way we did, there were certain things that were unavoidable. Prey needs to know how to survive among predators. But watching as the light went out in someone’s eyes wasn’t anything Lorenzo needed to experience.
“Kuroi and me,” I clarified.
“You and Kuroi?” he said looking back at my husband.
“Yeah. This is family matters. I’m keeping it in the family,” I said sending a message to Lorenzo about who Kuroi was to me.
“Got it. So, do you know for sure that he’s in town?”
“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” I explained.
“I can find out,” Kuroi said to my surprise.
“You? How? You don’t know anything about him,” I asked my deathly calm husband.
“I don’t need to. All I need is his name. Which is?”
“Vincent Ricco.”
“Give me to the end of the day,” Kuroi said before getting up and walking out.
When he was gone, Lorenzo turned back to me and lowered his voice.
“Are you sure you can trust him, Dante?”
“Who Kuroi?”
“Who the fuck do you think I mean?” he snapped.
I stared at him not liking the way he raised his voice.
“Sorry, Dante. But yeah, Kuroi. Think about it. They call him the spider demon. Everyone he’s with dies. Everyone!”
“That’s another thing. I don’t want to hear any more about that spider demon shit.”
“You don’t want to hear any more about it?Dante, you married him and immediately almost died. Do you think that was a coincidence?”
“Do I think that marrying Kuroi pissed Pa off enough to try and kill me?”
“But that’s the thing. Let’s just say that it was Matteo who shot you. How did it go down?”
“What do you mean?”
Lorenzo got up and walked around the room as he thought.
“Okay, you’re saying that when we drove up there, your plan was to talk Sato out of the deal, right?”
“Right.”
“So, there was no way you could know that he was planning on marrying you right then. And if you didn’t know, Pa definitely didn’t know. So, why would he have Matteo follow you with a sharpshooter rifle in case you did something to piss him off?”
“I don’t know. Our father is fucked up,” I explained.
“He’s fucked up. But what’s the reason you needed to take control of the business?”
“Because he’s not strategic,” I realized.
“Exactly. And it would require some strategic thinking to be that many steps ahead. I could do it. You might be able to do it. But Pa and Matteo…?”
I had to admit that Lorenzo was right. I was giving Pa a lot more credit than he deserved. Yeah, Matteo might be the only one capable of making that shot. But why would he have been there to take it?
“What are you suggesting, that I made up getting shot?”
“I’m not suggesting you made up anything. But, what if the feeling in your neck wasn’t what you think it was?”
“What else could it be?”
“It could be a random nerve pinch. It could be a phantom pain. I get them all of the time. For no reason, something will hurt, then it goes away.”
“So, you think it was all in my head?”
“What I’m saying is that the most obvious answer is usually the correct one. There is only one person capable of making a shot like that and there was no reason for him to be there. That leaves the kiss from the spider demon being the most likely cause of your crash.”
“I told you to stop with that spider demon shit.”
“Then you give me another explanation. You’re there. He kisses you. Less than five minutes later you’re driving into a tree. What else could possibly have happened?”
I turned my attention out the window knowing there was one other thing.
“What is it?” Lorenzo asked, always the perceptive one.
“When I was in the hospital, the doctor, Sato’s doctor I’ll add, she had this crazy idea that it could be something else.”
Lorenzo tilted his head like a dog hearing something it’s never heard before.
“The doctor suggested that it wasn’t an attack on my life. She thought it was…” I paused trying to think of a reason I shouldn’t say it. I couldn’t come up with one. “…A panic attack.”
Lorenzo stared at me speechless. I could see his mind working.
“No,” he concluded as confidently as he had said anything.
“And that’s what I said. Of course it wasn’t a panic attack. I don’t get fuckin’ panic attacks.”
“You don’t.”
I stared at Lorenzo’s unwavering confidence in me.
“Right. But, how would you know that?” I asked curiously.
“What do you mean, how? I know you.”
“You don’t know everything about me.”
“Are you talking about how you sometimes fuck guys?”
“Watch your fuckin’ mouth,” I said reverting back to my pre-Kuroi response.
“You married a fuckin’ man. I think you can admit that you’ve fucked guys before. What? You think I’ve never done it? You think Matteo hasn’t?”
“What?” I asked stunned.
“All I’m saying is, I know you. Even when you think I didn’t, I did. And I’m telling you, it wasn’t a panic attack.”
I fell back in my chair dumbstruck. For years I had hid the things I was doing. How long had he known? Who else knew?
“Who else have you told?” I asked ashamed.
“What? About what you do in the privacy of your bedroom that has nothing to do with the pack or anything else?”
“Yeah. You seemed to not have a problem telling me about Matteo.”
“I also told you about myself. You’re not gonna ask me about that?”
“The guy in the hallway that night when I came over. He was coming from your place. That’s why you had enough food for two people.”
Lorenzo shook his head in acknowledgement.
“How long have you been with him?”
“Not long. I wouldn’t call it anything serious. Our world is a lot to put on someone who has no idea what they’re getting into.”
“Then you get it.”
“You mean, why it is that you’re blind to Kuroi trying to kill you?”
“No. I mean, why it’s not Kuroi. Think about it. What you feel is what he feels. He’s not some fuckin’ monster. I get his world. Fuck, I’m a part of it. Why would he try to kill the only man who gets him?”
“Because it’s his nature. Spider demon’s don’t kill because the want to. They do it to survive. Who knows, maybe he loves you. But that’s not gonna stop him from eating you after you’ve given him what he needs.”