Chapter Forty-Five
Ididn’t like leaving him in there with that dangerous asshole of a man.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked the woman, who was clearly the daughter of a mafia Don, and therefore no safer to be around.
She laughed, waving a hand in their direction as she led me down the hall.
“Oh, they’re just talking. My father doesn’t lie, and he certainly doesn’t get his hands dirty.”
That was so comforting.
“I don’t know your name,” I said apologetically, as I flagged down a nurse, and demanded that she go check on Grease, which apparently she was on her way to do. Good luck in there with that stuffy visitor of his.
“Tori. I’m the Don’s daughter, but I’m also just an old lady. I’m with Ryder.”
I had no idea if I’d met a biker by that name, which seemed a little tame for a biker name, because duh, didn’t they all ride?
We stopped by a coffee machine, and she dispensed one for each of us, reminding me just how much I needed sustenance of any kind.
“Sit with me a moment. They need time to settle things.”
“What are they settling exactly, though?” I asked as I dropped wearily into the first seat I found, watching as Tori sat far more delicately beside me.
“I grew up with Tesio, he probably never mentioned that,” she said, cradling her paper cup in both hands.
“At the mafia mansion?”
She snorted. “Yeah, I guess. It’s not like we ran around together, or spent much time near each other.
Mafia life is… well, it’s different than normal lives.
It’s stuffy and pretentious, and not very safe.
Tesio was one of the ones charged with keeping an eye on everything, so that my father and I, and all of his men, were protected as much as possible.
I’m massively underselling everything he did, because I don’t know most of it.
I disappeared for a long time… but I know my dad always cared for Tesio.
He’s… he’s like a son to him. The betrayal hit him hard. ”
I wanted to say something along the lines of ‘boo hoo’, but she was being real with me, so I owed her something other than petulance and bitchiness.
“I don’t think it was a betrayal, though. He knew I was in danger, and he protected me. It sounds like his job has always been to protect those he cares about. Why is it such a problem that he did the same for me?”
Tori sighed, taking a moment to sip her coffee, grimacing delicately as she set it aside on a low table.
“It’s all alpha male bullshit, I swear. You both risked your lives to save him, and to save me. I swear to god, I won’t let him be punished for that.”
“Or me?”
She smiled wryly, gesturing to my cup. “I wouldn’t risk it. It’s disgusting. I promise you I’m doing everything to help protect you both. I’m in your corner, and I won’t give up.”
I felt the burn of tears at her words, because that was what we needed. Someone important in our corner. Someone who could maybe make a difference, and influence the Don, her own father. I hadn’t expected help from anyone, least of all her, but it was such a relief.
“Aw you poor thing. I’m sure you’re exhausted and feeling like hell. If you need to go and freshen up, and get some rest, there will be plenty of people who want to check in on Tesio.”
I swallowed hard, wishing I could speak without falling apart on her.
“I’m… I’m too scared to leave, in case he’s gone when I come back.”
Tesio / Grease / Dead Meat
We sat in silence for long painful moments after the women left the room, and while, unlike Jamie, I knew he wouldn’t kill me in this moment, the silence was kinda doing that for him. Finally I groaned.
“You know the whole deadly silence thing is agonising, right? Guessing that’s why you do it.”
Rossi chuckled, dragging a hand over his face. Truthfully, he looked drawn and tired, and he almost looked like he hadn’t shaved this morning, which was unheard of with him.
“Sometimes there’s a reason for it, and sometimes I’m just being…
vexatious. I don’t know. I’ve found people will always tell you more than they planned to, if you leave them to flounder.
This time, however, I’m truly lost for words, son.
” He hadn’t called me that in forever. He slumped a little in the chair, again, something you never saw from him.
He never showed tiredness or weakness. Hell, the guy would get up from a burst appendix and walk into a meeting standing tall and ready to command a room. In fact, he literally did do that a few years back.
“I fell… I have feelings for her. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. It wasn’t about betraying you, it was about saving her.”
He paused, and I really thought the silence was back already, but he smoothed his jacket and responded. It was a weird sense of relief and confusion, to have a conversation with him which went both ways.
“I can understand that, son. I know you’d never knowingly betray me, but our life…
it’s built on rules, isn’t it? We have to know we can trust each other, in everything, or people die.
You received information, and instead of reaching out to me, you acted against me. Against my men. You broke Guido’s jaw.”
Huh. I never liked that prick anyway, but I knew how it looked.
“Would you believe I’ve just never liked his face?” I tried, with a small grin, stunned to see it returned by the Don.
“Nobody does, son, but he was sent to do a job, and you prevented him from doing it.”
“Prevented him from killing a woman. My woman.”
“A police officer, digging into our business.”
“MY fucking police officer. My woman, who was doing something foolish, but not something she should die for. A quick conversation could have resolved it. Sending a fucking hit squad was going in too heavy.”
The Don sighed, smoothing his jacket again, his pinkie ring catching the light briefly. I was so familiar with this man, with every gesture, and reaction, but right now, he was acting anything but like himself.
“You jumped between me and a bullet. Between my daughter and danger.”
“It’s the job. One you can always trust me to do.”
He smiled. “Your woman did the same, you know. Threw herself into danger to protect us. Not in front of you, but us. Her instincts are good. Her carelessness is a mirror of yours.”
Yeah, and if we survived, we’d be having words about that crazy shit she did too.
“It bothers you,” he said softly.
“Not that she was protecting you, but that she put herself in danger at all. I feel like Ice needs to get punched out for letting her out of the van too.”
“I strongly doubt that anyone makes decisions for her, son. He couldn’t have stopped her, any more than you, or a whole legion of others could have. She makes her own decisions. She chooses her own path.”
Fuck. To an outsider, that’d sound like a good thing, but in the mafia, we saw it one way. As trouble coming for us. Either way you looked at it, her decisions could get her killed.
“We can come to some kind of arrangement, boss, please. I need her. I… I want her in my life.”
His eyes pierced mine, daring me to say the words I kept swallowing back. It didn’t seem right to say them to anyone but her, and since I hadn’t actually said them to her, it was doubly wrong to out them without her in the room.
“You haven’t told her you love her. I thought you braver than that. You jump in front of bullets, but can’t say three little words to the woman you love.”
“I’m an emotionally stunted prick. Like I was raised to be, like we all fucking are. Emotions make us weak. They get us killed.”
The Don stood up so suddenly that I flinched, I actually fucking flinched, but he frowned at my reaction. Like he wasn’t making the decision on whether I got to keep breathing or not.
“I don’t know where this leaves us, son. I thought I’d always have you by my side, but I think that’s impossible now.” Fuck. But did that mean death, or life at last?
“So where do we go from here?”
He straightened his jacket, tugged on his shirt cuffs, and lowered his arms.
“I’ll send for you both. We’ll discuss it at length. For now, focus on recovery, although…” he chuckled then, “it’s merely a bullet wound, boy. We’ve all walked those off, haven’t we?”
Fucker. I watched him leave, my mind mulling over his words. It didn’t sound like he wanted me dead, but then, maybe a little of Luca and Enzo bending his ear would make that clearer to him. I had no fucking idea at this point.
Jamie didn’t return as quickly as I expected, and when my next visitor was Micro, I found out why.
“Hey man, you look like shit.” Jackass.
“Probably look better than you every time you get shot.”
He laughed, dropping into the chair Rossi had sat in, crossing one ankle over the other knee.
“So. Cushy private room, eh? The Don must have arranged that, because I don’t have that kinda power.”
That hadn’t really occurred to me, but maybe it was because of him after all.
“Whatever. Where’s Jamie?”
“Jeez. Hey Micro, nice to see you, man. Thanks for stopping by, Pres. You’ve been a real godsend looking out for us both. We’re so grateful.”
I flipped him off, eyeing the door with concern. “Do I need to go look for her?”
He snorted. “Well, I mean, you’re lounging around a lot for a guy who just got shot. It’s not that big a deal.”
As if he’d walk this off, the fucker.
“Where. Is. She?”
“Fuck’s sake. Sophie took her to get something to eat. She was like the walking dead, you know, kinda like you look, you wuss.”
At least I didn’t want sensible conversation, huh?
“She’s okay?”
He shrugged. “She’s walking. I think that’s the best we can hope for after that shitshow yesterday.”
“The Don was here,” I blurted out, then facepalmed, because I used to be able to keep secrets, didn’t I?
“Yeah, I heard. How’d it go?”
I lifted both hands, ignoring the twinge of pain in my side. It’d been patched up again, and the pain relief had helped, for a while.
“I’m alive?”
He leaned forward, scrutinising me from just far enough away that I couldn’t slap his head.
“I mean, I guess you could call it that.”
He sobered though, after being a dickhead like we all knew he enjoyed being.
“I’m glad you made it, though. Some people were worried about you,” he glanced down at his hands for a moment, “and those same people are on standby to get you both the fuck out of town. Just say the word.” His eyes met mine then, and I saw steely resolve in them.
This guy would risk it all to help us, and it shouldn’t have surprised me.
The MC was a fucking family. A real one. Not a manufactured one.
“Thanks. I mean, thanks to those people, whoever they may be,” we both grinned, “but I need to meet with the Don again after I’m out of here. We’ll see where that goes.”
“Is that wise?”
“No other option. He wants to see Jamie with me, and I’m hoping that’s a good sign.”
Micro scratched his jaw, deep in thought.
“Or he enjoys shooting fish in a barrel.”
Yeah. Or that.