Chapter Twenty-One
Dante
I was up first, my internal clock accustomed to early morning gym trips so I could squeeze in a workout before any Family meetings. I felt like I thought more clearly when I gave myself those moments of activity early in the day.
If there was ever a morning I didn’t need clarity, though, it was the one where I woke up with Hazel on my chest, her soft body melted into me, her warm breath on my skin, her hand resting gently on my shoulder.
All the noise of life, of my own mind, fell away, leaving only her, and the surety of this moment.
It wasn’t some grand revelation.
It was a quiet recognition.
Her, my soul seemed to scream. Yes, her.
So I settled into the stillness.
Until something in her sleep had her stirring, grumbling, then rolling off to my side.
I slid out of bed, pulled the covers over her, brushed my teeth, then made my way downstairs to get coffee and breakfast started.
“Fucking Christ!” I snapped, my heart stuttering, when I walked into the kitchen to find Domenico already sitting at the table, eating the leftovers from last night’s dinner.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I asked, making my way over to the coffee pot and getting it started.
Even if his little jump scare was enough to wake me fully up.
“Have a key and the code.”
“Still doesn’t mean you let yourself into someone else’s house unannounced.”
Dom’s gaze cut to mine, dark, keen, seeing everything.
“What? Afraid I might interrupt a morning fuck?”
“Dom…” I warned, slapping the lid of the coffee machine shut and pressing the button.
“Saw you,” he said, shrugging.
“What?”
“House was quiet.”
“Because it was early and we were sleeping.”
“Had to check,” he said, shrugging.
“You came into my room?”
“Stood in the doorway. You didn’t close it.” I wasn’t even aware a growl was building, let alone escaping, until Dom’s lips curved up. “Relax, didn’t see much. Just some of her back. Your body was doing a good job keeping all her secrets.”
“Dom, I swear to fucking God, I’m not above hitting you.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “And you’re really gonna wanna in a minute.”
“What did you do?”
“I had to look.”
“Look,” I repeated. Then it dawned on me. “You broke into her place? Dom, I fucking told you not to.”
“And you’re thinking with your dick and not your mind. You don’t like it, tough shit. You’re not my capo, Dante. You don’t give me orders. Sometimes you forget that.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Yes, he worked for me… at the garden center. As a cover for his parole officer. But we were equals in the Family. Hell, he might even have more brownie points than me, given that he’d gone away for the organization.
“Maybe not,” I agreed, digging in my heels. “But this is my situation that we’re dealing with.”
“Yeah, funny, that. We’ll circle back. But back to the pretty thing upstairs.”
“You didn’t find shit.” Maybe that was stubbornness, but I refused to accept that she was involved.
“Well, I found stuff.”
“What?” I asked, my heart sinking.
“She took a trip to Phallus-ophy,” he said, meaning the local sex toy store. “Got herself something that gives all the good vibrations. Wanna guess when she got that?”
“Dom, that’s none of our fucking business.”
“Couple days after she met you.”
That wasn’t exactly some sort of revelation. There’d been heat almost from the jump.
“I only care about anything you found to link her to this. Everything else is her business to tell me. Or not.”
“I didn’t find shit,” he admitted.
“I knew you wouldn’t.”
“You hoped I wouldn’t,” he clarified.
“Someday, Dom, I’m gonna rub this in your face. When you’ve got a woman and she comes with her own complications.”
“The only complicated thing I want from a woman is to figure out which position she wants to get fucked in. But keep dreaming.”
I sighed, making my way over toward the fridge to start gathering up ingredients to make breakfast.
“Back to things that are actually relevant,” I said.
“Right. Big Ed’s place.”
“Are the dramatic pauses necessary?” I asked, shooting him a look.
It went against everything I knew was important, but I wanted Family business over with so I could get back to some alone time with Hazel.
“Moody as fuck for someone who got his life force squeezed out last night,” Dom said with a smirk.
“Fucking mystery why no woman wants to lock you down with a charming mouth like that.”
Dom ignored the jab.
“Big Ed’s place was cleaned out.”
My head snapped up.
“Cleaned out?”
“Just the curtains on the walls and a half-full trash can left.”
“Did he move and we just didn’t know?”
“Same question I asked myself. So I dragged the super out of bed. Big, angry guy. From what he knows, the apartment was still supposed to be occupied. Rent’s paid up. Even had a request to get the spare bathroom shower drain snaked.”
“Huh. Does it look like it was professionally cleaned out?”
“I dunno. It’s possible. It felt more careful than that. Why would a pro clean out furniture? Ain’t like there’s gonna be evidence on the coffee table or in the lamps.”
“True,” I agreed. “So, we’re assuming he moved. But he didn’t say shit about moving. Again, possible. But unlikely. Ed was a talker.”
“Yeah. I got word out to have everyone ask their crews if they heard anything about him moving up in the world. He’d have bragged about that. If he didn’t, figure we can assume he did this shit silently for a reason.”
“Fuck,” I sighed. “Sounds shitty, but I was hoping he was killed to make a point, not because he was involved in some shady plot against us.”
“Yeah. Think we were all hoping that. So, we need to figure out where he moved. And what his moves have been lately. Who was he working with recently, what jobs did he do, that kind of shit.”
“Heading to work on that after this,” he agreed, scraping his plate.
“Where’s my ma?”
“She’s over at Massimo’s house. Valley’s gonna head there after work too. Trying to consolidate the guards even more, since this shit ain’t looking good.”
“Good idea.”
“You need more guards here.”
“Yeah. I was trying to leave more at the garden center, but I’ll ask one of the capos with a bigger crew to loan me some over there so my guys can be here.”
Dom nodded at that, going over to the coffee machine to pour himself the biggest cup I had in the cabinet.
“I’ll keep you updated. You staying here to have a fuckfest today?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing today,” I lied. “Think I need to look over shit at the garden center, though. Might head there later tonight.”
“Sounds good. I’ll meet you there.”
We said our goodbyes, and I stood there watching the door, wondering if maybe I should change the fucking code.
It was right then that Hazel came drifting in, her hand self-consciously touching her hair.
“I thought I heard voices,” she admitted.
It was then I noticed her other hand down at her side. My gun hung there.
“It was Dom,” I told her, moving over toward her to gently take the gun she was clearly uncomfortable holding, placing it down on the counter, then pressing a quick kiss to her forehead.
“Is everything okay? Is everyone okay?”
That new certainty in my gut intensified.
“Yeah. Yeah, everyone is fine. We’re still doing some… figuring shit out, is all.”
“Is there anything I can help with?”
“You could grab me a cup of coffee while I get to work on breakfast.”
She rolled her eyes at me.
“I meant about the whole… situation. But I will get you coffee,” she said, already moving toward the coffee machine.
“I was just telling Dom we might head over to the garden center tonight. If you’re comfortable with that. If not, that’s not a problem. I can drop you off with my mom and brother’s family.”
“Why would it be a problem? I was planning to, you know, go to work.”
“You’re not going to work,” I scoffed.
“Why not?”
“Babe, you were attacked.”
“Yeah, but there is still work to do.”
“There are other people there to do the shit that needs to get done.”
“Half-ass it, maybe,” she said, shaking her head.
My lips curved up at that. “Half-assed is just going to have to do.”
“Absolutely not.”
I liked how much she saw the garden center as hers. That she cared about it as much as I did. Maybe more.
“Okay. You can do some bossing around when we go, but it won’t be until later. I trust the staff you’ve trained. They can manage without you for this afternoon.”
“Fiiiine,” she agreed, sipping her coffee. “So what are you making?”
“Omelets, if that sounds good to you.”
“Sounds perfect. Let me do something.”
“Absolutely,” I agreed, taking her cup from her hands, putting it down, then reaching for her hips and hopping her up onto the counter. I handed her back her mug. “Keep me company,” I said, loving how she flushed pink.
“I can do that,” she agreed.
“How’re you feeling? We forgot to dress your hands last night.”
“I think they needed to breathe.” She tucked her mug between her legs to flash her palms at me. “See? Getting better.”
They were. They were red and angry but looked to have sealed over, at least.
“Good accident then,” I agreed.
“I should be the one cooking. You cooked and cleaned yesterday.”
“And yet, I will be doing the cooking.”
“Don’t trust me?” she asked.
“Like being able to spoil you is more like.”
“Oh, well. In that case,” she said, shooting me a flirty smile before taking a sip of her coffee.
She sat there, occasionally making small talk, but mostly just keeping me company as I chopped vegetables and shredded cheese.
The problem was, she was a damn distraction.
The bare legs, the way the shirt wasn’t buttoned all the way up, so I could see down somewhat.
I’d been dealing with a semi pretty much since she came down.
I stopped halfway to the fridge, turning, and making my way back.
“Everything okay?” she asked, head cocked to the side as she tried to read the determination on my face.
“Yeah. I’m starving,” I said.
“Oh, well, I can take over cooking while you have a quick sna—”