by Bethany-Kris
CHINESE. My place. Tonight.
Three sentences.
Four simple words.
Nothing had ever sounded better.
Dino texted Karen back a quick confirmation, his attention stuck firmly on his phone instead of the meeting at hand. All he had to do was drop off his dues for the past month and then he could go, so it wasn’t like his attention was currently needed.
Men chatted all around him, discussing issues that had come up over the last month and ventures they were currently pursing. It was, usually, one of the few times Dino cared to jump into conversation with the Capos and upper bosses of the Outfit, if only because it meant money, and he liked making money.
But … Karen.
Another text came in, making his phone vibrate in his hand and snagging his attention once more.
Grab me a bottle of wine?
Dino smiled, amused. She did like her wine, especially after working all day.
Sure, he texted back.
And chocolate. Definitely chocolate, too.
Chuckling low, Dino texted back a confirmative answer on that request, too.
It’d been a month since that night in the back of his car—many times followed that one, though Dino usually went back to that one because that was where it all started. And wasn’t the beginning of something always the best?
He thought so.
Karen’s involvement in the personal side of his life was like a breath of fresh air. He often found himself looking forward to their quiet nights, laughing over dinner or staying up way too late in her bed. It was simple, and simple things were the best kind of things to Dino. His life very rarely offered simple moments to make time actually seem like it was passing him by.
For the most part, his days were black, filled with people he didn’t care about with demands and problems he couldn’t give a shit for, making requests of him that he didn’t want to fill, but had no choice in the matter.
Karen was not the same.
She was a small bit of light in his dismal life. Someone he didn’t have to share with others because she had no idea about just how thinly strung Dino really was. She just enjoyed him, and the time he was able to give.
There were no rules or labels put on whatever relationship he had with Karen. She didn’t expect things from him, or ask for more than he gave, for that matter. It made it easy—like breathing. He headed to her place three to four times a week, never bringing her to his because someone could show up at any time. She wasn’t attached to the Outfit or its business, and he didn’t think it was fair to involve her in it if only because she was involved with him.
That, and he wanted to keep her safe.
There were far too many people in the Outfit side of his life that would gladly use his involvement with an outsider to hurt him.
One, more so than others.
Speak of the devil …
Dino shoved his phone into his jacket pocket as Ben sat in a chair beside him in the restaurant. Ben never gave Dino an ounce of his attention as his gaze swept the many men waiting and chatting in the business. While it seemed like his uncle was entirely focused on the meeting at hand, Dino knew better. Ben was watching him—probably had been for a while—because he always did that shit.
“Do you have better things to be doing, other than playing on that phone of yours, Dino?” Ben asked.
Shit.
“Of course,” Dino replied.
He was usually more careful where his attention was concerned, especially if it meant seeming distracted in front of his uncle. Ben was a shark—he’d latch onto any sign of weakness Dino had and history would repeat itself where he’d rip that chunk of weakness out, with no care of the harm or detriment it might cause.
Karen was not a weakness to Dino.
She was just a woman—one he found by chance and cared for if only because she made him happy.
It had been far too long since he had a small slice of happiness in his life.
He wasn’t going to allow Ben DeLuca to take that happiness away from him.
“Well, you certainly seem …”
Dino sighed inwardly, knowing it was coming.
“Distracted,” Ben finished.
Yeah, there it was.
“One of my managers is having a problem with an employee. You know they defer to me on problems,” Dino replied, wanting to keep Ben as far from his private, personal life as he could. He knew it was impossible, or rather, he wouldn’t be able to keep Karen a secret forever. He was sure as hell going to try for as long as he could. “I’m here—where is Terrance?”
At his question about the Outfit boss’s whereabouts, Ben seemed to accept the change in topic.
“On his way, Dino. He is on his way.” Ben drummed his fingers to the table, peering across the room to where Theo sat at another table beside Damian Rossi. “Your brother is very cozy with the Rossi family.”
Dino resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “He’s cozy with no one but himself and whatever woman he’s chosen to fuck for the weekend.”
It was the best he could do for Theo. It may have come across as brash or rude, but it was true enough to keep Ben from Theo’s personal life. What more could he ask for?
“You and I have different views of what being cozy means,” Ben murmured, still watching Damian and Theo chat between one another.
“They’ve been friends since they were kids, Ben.”
“I offered Damian a spot in the DeLuca family once.”
Dino’s brow rose at that statement. He, too, had a history where Damian Rossi was concerned, though he doubted it was near the same as Ben’s. A long time ago, when Damian was much younger and much more … volatile, Dino had hidden an incident caused by Damian that would have taken his life by the Outfit’s rules. It was an easy choice to make, because he had been that age once, and he’d made mistakes. He knew Damian was a good kid after watching him with Theo and their younger sister Lily for a good many years when they were just young, for the most part, and so he did what he needed to do.
It left Damian with a debt of sorts.
Owed to Dino.
He would collect when he needed to.
“He refused me, of course,” Ben said, still talking to himself. “I hadn’t a need then to explain how wrong he was. I’m starting to regret that choice.”
Dino’s gaze flew back across to his brother and his friend.
Ben’s statement could mean nothing good.
Not for Theo and certainly not for Damian.
It seemed innocent enough on the outside, a regret was what it was, but Ben rarely made those kind of statements without a follow-up that was almost always violent in nature, and left the victims bereft. History was a great predictor of future behavior.
Ben could not change his stripes overnight.
“Theo is too loose with his loyalties,” Ben said.
“That’s not true—he has a very small circle.”
It just so happened that Damian was in that circle.
“Yes, but look at it this way, Dino. If it was you vying for the boss’s seat, or Tommas Rossi, who would your brother choose to back? His friend’s family, or the brother he can barely stand to talk to?”
Dino didn’t care, but he was beginning to understand Ben’s circle talk a bit better.
It left him feeling cold.
Should Ben decide to control whom Theo associated with outside of the DeLuca family, it would not end well for his younger brother. It also wouldn’t end well for Damian.
Dino didn’t want to see Theo or Damian in a pot of Ben’s boiling water because his uncle was a fucking bastard.
It also didn’t escape Dino’s notice how Ben had once again mentioned someone in the DeLuca family taking the boss’s seat, or vying for it, as he’d said. It might have only been in passing, but Ben was not the kind of man to make that statement without some kind of worth behind it. Perhaps that, more than anything else, was one of the most worrying things.
Dino
didn’t know where to focus first. He could only divert Ben’s attention on so many things before he let others slip, or worse, Ben figured out what he was doing and came after Dino for fucking up whatever plans he may have.
Theo …
The Outfit …
Of course, Theo would always be infinitely more important than the Outfit to Dino. That was a no-brainer. It wasn’t even a fucking question. Dino, no matter his brother’s feelings about their shared past or the wounds between them that were not quite healed, would protect his brother at all costs. Even for something as simple as a friendship that was not approved by their uncle.
Blood before water, after all.
“… more important things,” Ben said quietly.
Dino had only caught the tail end of Ben’s sentence. “Pardon?”
Ben nodded toward Theo and Damian. “I will deal with that eventually, but at the moment, I have more important things to handle.”
“Like what?”
Ben smiled, thin and cold. He stood from the table without a word, giving Dino a pat on the shoulder as he started his trek back to sit with the Outfit’s front boss, Riley Conti. But over his shoulder, Dino heard his uncle’s ending words.
“Be careful with your distractions, Dino.”
Karen.
Suddenly, Dino had a heavy realization sink in.
He had three things to keep his uncle distracted from.
It wasn’t just Theo and the Outfit.
It was Karen, too.
Or rather, Dino’s involvement with Karen.
This was exactly why he didn’t get mixed up in relationships or people.
It couldn’t end well.
Glancing over his shoulder, Dino found that Ben was still watching him from across the restaurant. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and knew it was likely Karen messaging him again. He chose not to answer it, for his benefit, and hers.
He didn’t think she would understand for a minute.
But he hoped it wouldn’t hurt her too much.
Dino had to protect what he could, and Karen fell in line with that. It wasn’t her fault she’d gotten mixed up with him, or the crazy, violent mess that was his life. She hadn’t asked for anything more than a fun time with him.
She didn’t ask for pain.
He had to try to keep her from the pain that was always a constant in his life in one way or another.
Almost all of it was caused by Ben.
So, when an hour had gone by, Terrance had finally arrived to accept his payments from his Capos, and then the men were dismissed, Dino went straight to his car, and then he went home. He didn’t pick up that bottle of wine. He didn’t go to Karen’s place like he said he would.
She texted him later that night.
He read the incoming messages—one after the other.
Where are you?
Is everything okay?
You could answer me back, Dino.
Are you ignoring me now?
Each one became progressively more annoyed, and also worried. He could feel her concern, but also her anger, bleeding from every word.
Then, the final one came.
She didn’t send another after that last one.
Fine. Whatever.
Dino didn’t answer a single one back. He knew, for Karen’s safety and to keep Ben from figuring out exactly where Dino’s distractions were lately, he would need to stay away for a while.
That wouldn’t bode well for him … or the relationship he had with Karen. She wouldn’t understand why he was ignoring her. It wasn’t really her fault, though. How could he expect her to understand?
He wouldn’t be able to explain.
“THIS is the biggest load of shit I have ever seen,” Theo snarled.
Each and every word was thrown like daggers in Dino’s direction. He was well aware that Theo was not pleased to be given yet another load of work, but it was what it was. Theo wouldn’t care, nor would he understand, that his brother was keeping him busy in order to keep Ben’s opinions of his personal business at a more pleasant level.
No, all Theo understood was Dino was unloading more responsibility onto his brother.
Including running the strip club.
Managing three more young guys in the crew.
Collecting payments on a schedule instead of having guys come to them.
They were little things, to be sure. It would all still add up and keep Theo working constantly on their side of Chicago. Damian, on the other hand, would be busy on his side of Chicago doing whatever his cousin and uncle needed of him for their family. It was a shitty way of going about it, but it would keep Ben from picking at Theo, or worse, really putting his hands into the friendship between the two young men to put a stop to it.
Of course, all Theo could see was Dino taking his own workload as a Capo, and tossing it onto his shoulders.
That was fine.
Dino could take Theo’s anger. He could even roll with whatever idea Theo had about why Dino was doing all this so that his brother didn’t know how truly awful their uncle was, and that Ben was up to his old tricks again.
Fact was, Theo, like Dino, still felt the aftereffects of growing up under Ben’s violent hand. So his brother did know how terrible Ben could be, but there were still some games their uncle played that Dino wanted to keep Theo safe from.
It was better for everyone not to bring those memories to the surface.
Over the period of two weeks, since that day of the meeting, Dino had been very carefully adding one thing at a time to Theo’s workload with their crew.
He had apparently met his limit.
“I’ve got a fucking life,” Theo barked.
“So do I,” Dino said absently, digging through the file cabinet.
He was missing paperwork, he was sure of it. Papers and information that came from offshore accounts, showing where his illegal funds were going and coming from. In order to know what he needed to hide, or rather, how much money he needed to hide, Dino needed those numbers.
He could always pull his records again, that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was that he was positive he had put the records away, but they weren’t where they should be.
“Right—a life,” Theo said, his snarkiness growing. “Is that supposed to be a joke? It felt like a joke.”
Dino sighed harshly, over the entire argument with his younger brother. “Listen, I am well aware you think I do nothing but sleep, eat, and breathe Outfit business, but the fact is, I do other shit, Theo. I have other interests. It’s not going to hurt you to take on a bit more work for the crew, if nothing else, you might fucking learn something.”
“Dino—”
“And isn’t that the whole point? You want the title to go with the button—you’re a made man, sure, but that means fuck all when you don’t have the title, too. You want to be a Capo, little brother, put in the work for it.”
Theo stewed in his anger, saying nothing in response.
Dino was grateful.
“Did you let someone in my office?” Dino asked as he flipped through the file for the fifth time.
“Who in the fuck would I let in your office?”
Dino stood straight, placing the file back in its spot and slamming the cabinet shut. He’d have to deal with the missing paperwork at another time. Maybe when he had an actual idea where the paper records might have gone.
“Nothing—never mind, it’s not important,” Dino said.
Theo stared hard at his brother as Dino grabbed his laptop off the desk, readying to leave. “Dino, I wouldn’t let someone in here. You know that, right?”
He did.
Theo had just as much to lose as Dino did where the business was concerned, should certain records fall into the wrong hands. Besides that, the brothers also managed product out of the strip club at certain times during the month. The dealers came in, traded money for bricks of cocaine, and off they went to sell for the month.
Should the c
ops get wind of any of that business, they would be in a hell of a lot of trouble.
Both of them.
“Is something missing?” Theo asked.
Dino shrugged on his jacket. “I probably just misplaced the papers for my offshore accounts and the transfers from them last month. I’ll find them.”
“The records of transfers into your businesses?”
“Glad you’re seeing the problem,” Dino muttered.
Theo’s brow furrowed. “I can look around and see if it is misplaced.”
“Sure, just keep people out of this office when I’m not around.”
“I didn’t let anyone in, Dino.”
Theo was the main person running the strip club, though, and that was by Dino’s recent decisions to keep him busy. So should someone have gotten in and found the few papers that would give inside details and numbers as to his illegal cash flow and how he was pillowing it into legal businesses to hide the funds, then it wouldn’t be on Theo’s head. Dino was the one allowing his brother control over who came in and out.
Dino would have to answer for shit that went wrong.
“It’s fine,” Dino said. “I’m sure it’ll show up.”
“All right.”
“And lay off the complaining, Theo. I’m only making you work for your own benefit.”
Theo scowled, but wisely chose not to argue. “Yeah, I know.”
“I’m heading out, shoot me a message if you need something,” Dino told his brother as he passed him in the doorway.
“Sure.”
Dino kept his head down as he exited the strip club. The business was just starting to open, so while the girls were beginning to take the stage, and patrons were being frisked at the door before being allowed entrance. He took the corner of the building, still watching his step instead of what was in front of him, and headed toward where he had parked his car earlier in the alley, beside the building.
Pulling the key fob from his pocket, he hit the unlock, and his car’s horn beeped twice.
It was only then that he saw who was sitting on the back of his white Bentley.
Karen.
Dino’s steps stumbled as he came to a quick stop, surprised to see her there.
He hadn’t contacted her in two weeks—since the meeting where he’d flaked on her offer after already agreeing. He figured she wouldn’t want to hear from him, given how rude it was of him to behave like he had, and he was still trying to keep Ben out of his private business.
