Chapter Four
Marco
HIS LIFE was finally back on track. He had the Kings on his side, the Destroyers were on the outs, and his restaurant had taken off. The other side of his business was doing well, too. Then there was the other thing. The other person.
Getting to know Neil only made him want more and he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not. It certainly put them both in more danger. He’d never felt so connected to someone the way he did with Neil and even though it terrified him, he still kept coming back for more. They both did.
“You ready?”
He blinked and shook his head, then turned to find his sister standing by the front door with a big bouquet of lilacs in her arms.
He gave her a nod and followed her out the door. It was their mother’s birthday, and they always went to put flowers on her grave. She’d gotten sick so suddenly and no matter how much money his father threw at the doctors, there was nothing they could do. They couldn’t save her. He knew his father had blamed himself as much as the doctors. If he had to make an uneducated guess, he’d say that the man died of a broken heart. The guilt had probably eaten away at him, too. His father had been shut off in the three years between his and his wife’s death.
His mother never wanted the life the Serranos led, but she’d fallen in love with one anyway. He’d never doubted his parents’ love for each other, but they’d fought a lot. After she died, he’d even missed how she used to yell at his father. Her voice carried through the whole house, and he remembered vividly being a teenager and sitting at the top of the stairs with Alicia’s hand in his as they listened to their parents argue.
He never told his mother about his sexuality because his parents couldn’t keep secrets from each other, and he’d always feared his father’s reaction. Though not as much as his mother’s. He knew she would’ve had his back. She would’ve put herself between him and his father and he had never wanted to be the reason their relationship ended. He wasn’t sure he could’ve survived the guilt and shame of that.
Walking through the cemetery always gave him an eerie feeling. He felt as if the spirits were watching him. Judging him. For things that were out of his control. He always had to fight the urge to turn around and run out of there.
He followed Alicia from the path onto the grass. Their family had their own little plot in the cemetery. It had seven gravestones in it and Alicia put the flowers on the ground in front of the biggest one.
“Happy birthday, Mamma,” Alicia said, her voice low and soft.
Marco stared down at the gravestone, reading his mother’s name over and over until a hand slid into his and took his attention away from it.
“Do you think they’re together wherever they are?” Alicia asked, looking up at him with hope shining in her warm brown eyes.
He squeezed her hand and said, “I hope so.”
Alicia’s lips twitched. “Do you think she’s yelling at him about dying so soon after her? She’d be pissed he left us alone.”
“Probably,” he said with a short laugh.
He could imagine it, too. Dantea standing with her hands on her hips, pretending she was looking down at her husband despite the man being a foot taller than her and when he’d walk up to her to pull her against him she would hit him with her purse while yelling half-hearted at him until he made her laugh.
No, she wouldn’t be happy about him dying so soon after her, but the shell of a man he’d been after losing her hadn’t been much of the father he and Alicia had known and loved. He truly hoped they were at peace together.
He turned, gaze moving across the cemetery until it landed on a man in a dark suit leaning against the front of a black sedan. His mood lifted instantly, and he had to clear his throat to keep his surprise contained.
“Are you coming?”
He turned his head, eyes meeting Alicia’s. She was a few steps away, having turned back around to look at him.
“I’ll be there in a sec,” he said.
A soft smile widened her lips, and she gave him a nod before turning and heading toward the car. He glanced at Neil, then turned to the gravestone. He knelt in front of it and put a hand on top of it.
“I know I should’ve told you,” he said, putting his other hand on his chest right over his heart. “I was afraid, but God made me this way and I know that’s how you would’ve seen it, too. You wouldn’t have given Papà any other way to see it, either.”
He closed his eyes, head dropping forward.
“I met someone. He’s everything I shouldn’t want. Being with him is dangerous and yet I… I think it’s real.” He stared at the golden letters on the stone. “He’s who I want.”
Having said it out loud, he felt lighter somehow. Like he’d been holding himself down by trying to deny it.
“I think you would’ve liked him.”
A gust of wind blew through the graveyard, and he liked to imagine it was her giving him her approval.
“Ti amo, Mamma.”
He straightened and with a glance Neil’s way, he headed for Alicia and the car with a smile on his face.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
He was standing in front of his desk, staring out the window in his office when his heart sped up, alerting him to the presence of a certain someone.
“I sent Rome out with Alicia. She wants to spend the rest of the day at the harbor,” he said, his lips spreading in a wry smile as he felt the man step up behind him. Arms wrapped around his middle, a warm body pressing against his back, and lips brushed across his cheek.
“The flowers were beautiful,” Neil said, voice soft.
Marco turned in Neil’s arms and leaned back against his desk, pulling Neil with him.
“I’m sure she would’ve thought so,” Marco said.
“Your mom?”
He nodded, gaze roaming over Neil’s face, memorizing the man’s features. The bushy black eyebrows, the two-day-old stubble on his square jaw, the startling gray eyes, those high cheekbones that were to die for.
“She was always the life of the party,” he said, a smile spreading on his lips. “She kept my father on his toes.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Neil said with a soft smile.
“Yeah, I’m not sure which of them was the most unlucky that she fell in love with him.”
Neil frowned and said, “What do you mean?”
“She loved him more than anything, but she wasn’t a fan of the family business. She feared the effect it might have on her family.”
“They never thought about getting out?” Neil asked, curiosity in his eyes.
Marco pressed his lips together and glanced down.
“There’s no getting out.”
“Not even for you?”
He raised his gaze slowly, his heart jumping at the look in Neil’s eyes. As much as he hated to quash the hope shining in them, he had to be honest.
“Especially not for me. Not alive, anyway.”
Neil nodded slowly, eyes roaming over Marco’s face.
“Speaking of,” Marco said, fingers running down the lapels of Neil’s suit jacket. “Did you ever find out who tried to have you killed?”
Neil grimaced and shook his head. “Those men were ghosts and there hasn’t been another attempt.”
“Doesn’t mean there won’t be?”
Neil closed his eyes for a second, then he looked at Marco and nodded slowly.
“Hey, as long as they don’t try to come after me or my family,” he said with a shrug. If they did, they’d end up sorry very fucking fast.
There was a quick flash of emotion in Neil’s eyes that made him frown but then the man smiled at him and lowered his head for a kiss. Marco indulged him for a second, then smiled against his lips and pulled back.
“Come on,” he said. “Let me show you around.”
He had a feeling Neil would get acquainted with his home fast. At least, he hoped so.