17. Franco
17
FRANCO
R omeo and I stayed out after our run-in with the Devil’s Brothers. Another call came in about issues with a Giovanni spy lurking around another one of our properties, and we went there to check it out.
After the shooting at the A&J Deli, we had to relocate and shift around some parts of our drug packaging and distribution efforts. With so many properties throughout the city, we had options to count on. It still required patience and planning, and in the process of moving things around, we had to consider the increased security needed in setting up the packaging area.
We met up with Liam and another soldier, and before I realized it, it was late at night by the time we decided to head back to the houses.
Dante texted me earlier, letting me know that the women invited Chloe to stay in a guest room in the big mansion instead of the other accessory house where she was first taken. He wasn’t asking for permission to move her. He was the boss, after all. But I appreciated the heads up so that I would know where to find her.
Once I arrived, I checked in on her and saw that she was sleeping well. As tempting as it was to wake her and bring her to the brink of coming with me again, I resisted. She needed her rest. Danicia had a good point—she might suffer for a while longer from the emotional hits of trauma from the shooting at the deli. I imagined she was running ragged from years of being on the run from Wes and hiding from her stalker.
I stood there for a long while, wondering if I had all her truths now. She’d been holding back from telling me about her stalker ex, but now that I knew about Wes Morrison, I wanted to assume she wasn’t keeping anything else from me.
But I feel like she’s still hiding something. I didn’t blame her for being guarded around me. Not with the way her parents tried to turn her against me for so long back then. Yet, I couldn’t put my finger on why she seemed so cautious around me. She couldn’t lie and suggest that she didn’t want me. I felt how she did. I saw the love in her eyes. But something else was bothering me.
Who is Caleb?
That was the biggest thing that I kept circling back to. I caught her speaking with someone but I had yet to push on who she could’ve been speaking to. While I could have the tech guys try to track her call, I wanted to be able to trust her to come clean.
With a sigh, I turned and went back to my room. It was early yet. She’d only been here for such a short time, and I didn’t want to pressure her.
If she loved me, she’d come clean. Right?
The next day, I was pulled away on security issues again, this time with the bikers messing with the soldiers we had positioned near their property. A couple of the MC men were trying to claim that a Constella member had raped one of their club whores. The whole thing was nonsense, another annoying example of the trouble we faced from them. Liam and I spent most of the day following up and settling the matter.
When we returned again, I was eager to spend time with Chloe and ask her who she had called. Who this Caleb guy could be.
Yet again, I was foiled from having a chance to talk with her. This time, it was a happy occasion, not another security concern that kept me from being with the woman I’d always love.
“Right now?” I asked Dante after he found me and Liam returning. “You’re going to marry her right now ?”
He nodded. “We’re going to elope. Here.”
Liam raised his brows and glanced at me. “That’s, uh, sudden.”
“It’s also what Nina wants. And what Nina wants, I’ll give her.” Dante lifted his chin. “I don’t care how and when we get married, just that she’s my wife. So if she wants to suddenly elope, right now, here, then that’s what we’re going to do.”
“Damn.” I blinked wide. “Those pregnancy hormones are wild.”
Dante grunted a wry laugh but smiled. “That’s a fair assessment.”
Dispatched to get ready for the very sudden ceremony, I stopped by Chloe’s room and found her getting ready. She’d come here with nothing but the ragged clothes she wore from her shift at the deli, but it looked like Eva and the other women hadn’t wasted any time in getting her something to wear.
“Wow.”
She stood, catching a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. “It looks just like?—”
“Fucking prom.” I laughed as I walked in, careful not to touch her light-blue gown. It was a sleek, form-fitting spring dress, but the colors and cut reminded me of the dress she chose for prom. “Damn, you are beautiful, Chloe. Always were and still are.” Standing behind her, I pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder. “Always will be, too.”
She laughed lightly, pulling away from me with a teasing smile on her plump lips. “Oh, no. None of that. That was how you started the process of messing up my makeup and getting my prom dress off that night.”
I smiled, thinking back to how this felt like déjà vu. I had kissed her shoulder on prom night and showed her how good it could be when I fucked her from behind. We were still in the early days of having sex then, so soon after she’d lost her virginity to me then.
I growled a bit, staring at her hungrily. “As soon as this wedding is over…” I beckoned her to come to me, crooking my finger.
She continued putting her earring in and walked up close.
“As soon as the celebrations are done tonight, we’ll have a reenactment of that night,” I promised her. With one last, deep kiss, I left her room to get dressed.
An hour later, I sat next to Chloe in the conservatory. With the evening light, it looked ethereal out here. While the air smelled of chlorine from the pool and hot tub in the distance, the tables and chairs set up over by the plants seemed separate. If they were to search for a venue to rent equal to what was here, it’d cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But this seemed right. It seemed appropriate. Flowers had been arranged, and we were all present. I supposed simple and minimal were what Nina changed her mind to wanting.
Liam and Eva sat together with Olivia on Liam’s lap. Tessa and Romeo were seated together on the other side. And I was here with Chloe. A few others took seats, but it really was just the handful of us waiting for the priest to begin.
“How come she wanted to do this tonight?” I whispered to Chloe. She was new here, but she’d been spending time with the women for the last couple of days.
“We got to talking about childbirth and she was worried about what could go wrong,” she whispered back.
I furrowed my brow, worried. “Is there a cause for concern?” Her pregnancy had been fine so far. Dante was obsessive about making sure she was healthy and comfortable.
“No. Just the general fear and anxiety of the unknown, I think.” She shrugged. “But she started worrying that something could happen to her during the birth, and she wanted the baby to be born in wedlock, to have Dante’s name in case anything went wrong. She didn’t want the baby not to have a father.”
I shook my head, smirking. “Dante would never let his child go without. He’s loved this baby since the moment they found out Nina was expecting.”
Chloe nodded, looking out for Nina to come to the small altar area where Dante waited. “And he’s such a good sport to do what she wants.”
“He always will. Same for the baby. I used to wonder if he thought he'd messed up being a single parent to Romeo.”
She frowned at me, so serious all of a sudden. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you know that Romeo’s mother died shortly after he was born.” I cringed. “Oh, shit. I wonder if that’s why she’s wanting to elope like this. Because Dante’s first wife didn’t make it long after Romeo was born and Dante was a single father.”
Chloe’s shoulders slumped. “Oh…”
“Dante had to find his footing with Romeo. He was running the whole Constella empire while figuring out how to be a dad.”
“That’s… a lot.” She cleared her throat. “I mean, I can only imagine.”
“Yeah. But Dante is such a natural. He’s a good dad and he wouldn’t change that for the world. Ever since Liam brough Olivia, he’s been like a grandpa to her. And he’ll cover it with being overprotective and worrying about Nina, but he can’t wait to be a dad again.”
I glanced at Chloe and wondered about her sad, almost apprehensive expression.
“I bet it’s hard to balance work and family with your kinds of, um, careers.”
I rolled my eyes and took her hand. “We do all we can to keep the danger out of our homes. Look at Liam. He was in the military, right? In combat under a large employer. Now he’s doing the same, but here. There will always be evil in the world, Chloe. The Constella Family only deals with it in their own way.”
“I can see that.” She sighed. “With Wes having his connections with the law, I get it. More than anyone else could. He’s used his connections and powers in a corrupt way, and I am very familiar with how the ‘good’ guys can be evil too.”
It seemed like such a sign of growth, hearing this from her.
“I’m still surprised about Dante, though.” She smiled as Nina entered the room dressed in an off-white dress that emphasized the baby in her belly.
“How so?” I whispered to her. She met him before, back when we were younger. I brought her to a few cookouts and parties and introduced her way back then. This past week, she’d been with the women more than Dante.
“He’s such a businessman. Committed to working and being so gruff.” She furrowed her brow and seemed distant with a frown. “It’s hard to imagine him wanting to be this present family man.”
I leaned closer to whisper in her ear. “We all are. We're all softies under the gruff exterior.” I winked at her, wishing she could see that. If I were to ever bring a child into the world, it would be with her. She was the only woman I ever saw as the mother of my children, and if we could be so lucky, I’d move heaven and earth to welcome our child.
Later, after the sweet but short ceremony, we shared a simple yet elegant meal and cut the cake.
“We can have a fancier wedding later,” Dante told Nina as she sat on his lap and fed cake to him. “If you want.” He rested his hand on her stomach.
“Or,” Nina teased back, a bright smile on her lips, “I can live vicariously through Eva marrying Liam.”
“What does that mean?” Eva asked as she held a sleeping Olivia against her chest. The toddler was too tired from all the excitement and fun of the night.
“You’re the spoiled Constella princess and want it all,” Tessa joked. “Your wedding will be outrageous, I’m sure.”
Liam shrugged and I laughed.
“Hmmm.” Eva grinned at Liam. “I might already have it all.”
I smiled at her holding Olivia. Eva had really come around in becoming a mother.
But the smile on Liam’s face seemed suggestive.
“I think…” Eva drew in a deep breath and looked at all of us. “I think I might be pregnant.”
Nina shrieked her delight, so excited.
“We’ve been trying,” Liam said as he brushed Olivia’s hair back from her face. “We want to make sure Liv has a brother or sister.”
“So maybe we’ll elope too,” Eva said.
Tessa laughed. “Count me out. I want to wait.”
We all joined in the joke, chuckling. Even though tonight was sudden, it was no less special. We had the ceremony, dinner, cake, and a little dancing. It was family, and that was all that mattered.
With all the changes and hints of more shifts to the family, I couldn’t stop looking at Chloe seated next to me and wonder if she was one of them, if she was a new change and addition to the Constella Family. To my family.
If she could be mine for real, officially one of us.
She smiled at me, noticing that I was watching her, and I sighed. In this setting and with this mood, it was hard not to see her in a different light.
Not as my ex whom I’d missed, but maybe my bride.
Not as the woman I wanted to protect from a stalker, but my partner.
And not as the witness I needed to question further, but as the woman I loved for the rest of my days.
As we sat with the rest of them, late into the night, I couldn’t help but wonder how differently my life could’ve been if we’d married long ago, like we’d wanted to.
Would I be a father already? Would she be a settled wife and fitting in with the other women?
I couldn’t go back and make up for lost time, but when we finally left to head up to my room, I wanted to start the rest of my life with her now, in whatever way we could.