Chapter 42
CALIGULA
I wait until Damiano Orsini is sleeping heavily and then I slide out of his arms. As usual, he doesn’t stir. He sleeps like the dead, but I can hear him breathing.
He sleeps all through my packing of clothes. I don’t know what I’d do if he woke.
A part of me maybe hopes he will. A part of me doesn’t want to leave.
But I have to.
I can’t trust Damiano any more than I could trust Uncle Tony or Daniel King or Jesse Foster. Lorenzo Benedetti would say they’re all cut from the same cloth, and he’d be right.
It doesn’t matter how Damiano’s body makes mine feel. Doesn’t matter that I can still feel his lips on mine, his cock buried in my ass.
I can’t control him.
I saw it for myself at the Obelisk when he killed Grisha, but he was so useful with Daniel King that I overlooked it. But then I found out just how untrustworthy he really is.
I can’t believe a damn thing he says.
So I need to go.
I make sure to pack as much dry food as I can. I still remember the cold, the hunger from those months on the streets. But this time, I have an option I didn’t have before.
The Clemenza Loyalists. If I can find them, I might be able to claw back what little remains of our empire.
It means giving up safety. Comfort. Damiano does offer me those things, it’s true, but only so long as he can’t kill me. Once Luca D’Amato lifts the protection order on me—because of course he will, eventually—nothing is stopping my current protector from becoming my executioner.
And my Family is worth more to me than comfort and safety. My Family is worth the risk.
For the first time, I find myself in sympathy with Damiano Orsini’s drive for vengeance, because once I find my people and re-establish myself, I plan to hunt down Tiberius Vicario. Find out if he’s behind the eradication of my Family. And if he is?
I’ll make him pay.
As for Dami…
I harden my heart. He’ll have to explain to his Boss about the dead Bratva and the vanished Clemenza. Good fucking luck to him.
I head to the garage and key in the code I was careful to memorize when Dami punched it in, waiting for the gate to lift only just enough to let me out.
The cold hits hard. Snow must be on the way soon.
I just hope it holds off tonight, at least until I can get to one of the quieter subway stations I used to sleep in sometimes.
Once I’m out, I hit the code on the other side as well, so the door closes again. I wish nothing but the best for Rosa, Vito, even Sammy. I have no desire to see them murdered in their beds, so I won’t leave them vulnerable.
As for Damiano Orsini, he’s big enough to look after himself, so he has no need of my well-wishes.
I pull my backpack onto my shoulders and start jogging slowly across the street before taking a right and heading deeper into Midtown.
I’ve only gone a few more yards when the first snowflake drifts down onto the sidewalk in front of me. It melts. The next ones don’t.
I stop at the next intersection, bouncing on my toes to keep warm. I need to find shelter, and I need to find it fast, but it has to be somewhere Damiano won’t think to look.
I could go back. I could creep back through the garage, unpack everything, crawl back into bed with Dami, into his warm embrace and his protection…
I’m paralyzed with indecision.
And then I remember: he’s a liar. I can’t trust him. And I won’t go back into that fucking basement.
Just as I’ve made my decision, a white van comes down the street behind me and takes a left at the corner, cutting me off before I start walking across. I have to jerk back to avoid getting hit.
The side door rolls open.
I hear quick footsteps behind me, but a black bag goes over my head before I can turn to see who it is. There’s a sharp sting in my arm, and I’m falling—no, hands are lifting me, moving me into the van—
And then there’s nothing but darkness.
The Clemenza Family series continues in
Book 2