11. Dante
11
DANTE
“I’ll take a grande, quad, nonfat, one-pump, no-whip mocha at a hundred and twenty degrees.”
I stare at my nephew as he scrolls through his phone and rolls his eyes before tossing it to the table in front of us.
“And what can I get you, sir?”
A gun.
Liam is the most annoying little prick I’ve ever had the misfortune of having to deal with and now I’m tangled in a mess that my brother made for the both of us.
Are you really going to hang your brother’s only kid out to dry, Moretti?
My immediate answer is yes . However, when I really look at Liam, I see Marco clear as day. The same chocolate eyes, the same slight curl to his dark hair, the same prestigious nose—before I broke Marco’s when we were sixteen and fighting over a girl who’s name I can’t even remember.
My time to get the hell out of here is running out and this conversation will either change everything or sink me deeper into a hole.
“Americano,” I grumble to the waitress. I’m not a morning person.
She gets the hint, not bothering to ask if I want anything else, and flutters away with her notepad and pen while Liam leans back in his chair across from me.
He’s scared, desperate, and in need of help that his mother isn’t going to give him. I can either handle this shit for him or dump it on his ass.
“How did the rest of the party go?” I ask, my voice barely a croak. Sleep evaded me last night as I obsessed over what to do and how to keep my brother’s kid out of the mob’s business.
The only solution I came up with was paying the debt. The debt he can’t pay without involving Victoria.
“I didn’t find Victoria,” he reluctantly admits.
Good.
“You and your mother claim you want to marry her because of her trust fund.”
He hesitates, then shrugs. “Sure.”
I don’t know what that means. It’s the obvious answer, so why not just come out and say it?
What else could they possibly need her for?
“Your father left you in a fucked-up position,” I acknowledge, leaning forward. “You don’t have many options.”
“Marrying Victoria will solve plenty of problems,” he claims. “Mainly, the debt, but I’d love nothing more than to break her into a million pieces for doing this to me.”
“Doing what to you?”
“Making me a laughing stock in front of my boys.” He glances down at his cell when it lights up with another notification. His attitude— break her into a million pieces? —disgusts me, but I maintain my easy-going expression. His pride is broken and it clearly stings. “It doesn’t hurt that she’s hot as fuck.”
“Since you didn’t find her last night, I’m assuming she’s not open to the idea.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s done.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means it’s already done. It’s out there. The announcement, the engagement, the photo… everything.”
Color me confused.
“How did you finally get Victoria to agree?”
Liam’s brown eyes slice to mine and I see a kid with nothing to lose and everything to gain. A kid who has found a way to avoid a lifetime on the run. “I don’t need Vee to agree. I don’t even need her to like it right now. My father left me more than six million dollars in debt with no way out.”
Hence the reason for this conversation, dumbass.
But my nephew is purposely being vague.
Just like his mother, he doesn’t trust me. I’d honestly label both of them stupid if they did. I haven’t even been here for a full year. They may call me family, but I haven’t earned their trust in any way, shape, or form.
In fact, since my brother’s death I’ve made it very clear that I want nothing to do with them.
Liam sighs heavily then snatches his phone from the table and brings it to his ear. “What, Victoria? I’m busy.”
I can’t hear her voice but I can see the rage building on my nephew’s face.
He may look like Marco, but he isn’t my brother.
My brother would never steal a woman’s fortune to get out of a situation that she had no part in making.
Liam is a carbon-copy of my sister-in-law, point blank, end of story. If he and Marissa believe they have this in the bag, then who the fuck am I to figure something else out? Angelo must be hitting all sides of the family to get what he wants—a true mob boss.
“You didn’t leave me any choice, Vee,” Liam whines. “You’re playing games.”
Denial. It’s an easy trap to fall into. I thought the woman of my dreams did everything she said she would and left her husband. Every lie was perfectly constructed to convince me. But the house of cards fell when her still-husband greeted me with blunt-force trauma to the head. He and his friends beat the ever-living shit out of me.
I managed to send one man to the hospital and almost beat another to death, but I still have the mental scars from that night. I’ve never been that close to death before or since. Never thought about what it would be like to live my last night on Earth. And fuck if I’ll let some two-bit mobster put me back in that kind of situation for something I had nothing to do with.
“Too bad,” Liam responds to whatever Victoria is saying. “Pick a date. Buy a dress. We’re getting married and, if you play your cards right, I won’t leave you high and dry when we’re done.”
That’s all I needed to know.
Liam and Marissa forced the engagement.
Victoria must’ve gotten wind of the announcement and she doesn’t even realize how fucked she is.
“Go fuck yourself,” Liam huffs out before hanging up the phone and tossing it on the table with a definitive thud.
He seethes, obviously pissed that she isn’t bending over and accepting it like, I’m sure, he imagines most women would. Except Liam has no money. A fact that hasn’t hit the gossip mill yet.
“Getting pissed isn’t going to help matters, Liam,” I advise, trying to sound like I want to help him. “You’ve already sunk yourself by forcing her to marry you. Give it time, it’ll be something to focus on while the Lombardi mess is handled.”
I want nothing more than to wrap my fingers around his throat because I can’t forget how Victoria looked at me last night, equal parts hope and desperation that I might help her.
I can’t.
Things were already in motion way before I got involved. There was no getting ahead of it.
“She knows her place,” my nephew states sourly just as the waitress comes back to give us our drinks. His eyes fall to her ass as she bends over. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that she’d be married before she’s twenty-one.”
Strike one against her mother.
These are things that I don’t want to know about but the universe seems determined to inform me anyway. Victoria has no one in her corner. I don’t want to play the knight in shining armor.
But who else is going to do it?
Walk away.
I can practically hear the angel and devil on my shoulders bickering back and forth.
“A girl like her sounds like she has dreams,” I acknowledge, trying to keep my voice calm. “Let her have them and you won’t have to deal with her.”
Liam doesn’t look at me, reaching for his prissy fake coffee and bringing it to his lips. “I don’t give a fuck what she does because when that shit hits my account, I’m gone.”
And there it is.
Liam is going to take the fucking money and run. He has no plans to pay the mob. Marissa already confirmed they don’t have any money. So why give it to someone else when you’d still be broke after?
“Italy is nice this time of year.” I reach for my own coffee and keep my focus on the white linens of the table. “I could show you Portofino, where your dad and I grew up.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t go back there the first minute you saw the mob.”
Oh, I wanted to.
However, I’m not looking to get chased halfway around the world. I have some calls out to see if Lombardi has any pull overseas.
“I’m not going to leave my brother’s only kid here with a mother who doesn’t know what to do.” I glance up at him and don’t bother hiding my severe annoyance with how Marissa got her kid involved. “Moretti men take care of their own.”
Liam gapes at me for a second before giving me a curt nod. “Right.”
“How much does she have? Is it going to be enough for you to survive?”
“More than enough,” Liam evades, not giving me the number. “I might take you up on that offer. Mom wants to go to Greece, but I’m not looking to fuck women with armpit hair.”
I really want to drop this kid on his ass.
“This coffee is cold,” Liam complains then returns his white mug to the table before raising his hand to get the waitress’s attention.
Victoria and I are linked now, whether I like it or not. There’s no way I’m going to leave some innocent girl behind while I and the kid who screwed it up run to Italy. She’s the only level-headed person in this scenario. I might just be able to come up with a plan to get us the hell out of this mess.
Liam and Marissa already made their choice.
Now I have to make mine.
Clock’s ticking.