by Bethany-Kris
Without fully admitting as much, Ben basically said he was the reason Dino’s lawyer had yet to show at the jail. His own uncle was holding back his ability to get free.
“Why?” Dino asked quietly.
Ben cocked his head to the side, watching Dino through the bars. “Why what, nipote?”
“Why do this, Ben?”
Dino wasn’t going to explain himself or his words beyond the question he posed. He figured he wouldn’t really have to where Ben was concerned. If his uncle was the reason for the official’s attention, the raid, and his subsequent arrest, Ben wouldn’t need further explanation. He would have an answer at the ready.
And surprise …
His uncle did.
“I tried to make you listen—with the family, with Theo, his friends, other factions. You were too busy, doing what you wanted,” Ben said, his tone lowering to a darker note as he went along. “I thought a reminder would do you good, but the first lesson apparently didn’t take. Perhaps I’ve been going about teaching you and Theo the wrong way all these years. Would a time out work better for you, Dino? Will putting you away where you can’t make choices I don’t approve and mess with my plans when you’re not to touch them, help you any? We’ll certainly see now, won’t we?”
“You had me arrested because of Theo?” Dino snarled, pushing away from the wall and moving closer to where his uncle stood behind the bars.
Ben didn’t look the least bit affected by Dino’s anger.
What concerns should he have with Dino safe behind bars?
None.
Once again, Ben had the control.
Once again, Ben pulled the strings.
Once again, Ben made the calls.
Dino was just the sorry fucking fool who happened to be caught up in whatever games Ben felt like playing because he could.
Nothing more.
Just because he could.
In that moment, as he stared at his uncle and Ben stared back, still smiling in that amused, cold way of his, Dino realized it was as if time had suddenly hit the rewind button without any notice at all. He felt as though he were once again a young man, stuck under his uncle’s thumb and control because of what he thought at the time was circumstance, but actually proved to be because of Ben’s own meddling and wants.
Just like when his parents’ had been murdered by his uncle, Dino was forced into Ben’s life whether he wanted to be there or not, doing what his uncle demanded he do because if he didn’t, he would eventually learn what pain truly was when he refused.
This very situation was no different.
A new punishment, yes.
The outcome—the pain—would be no different.
“It helps to have friends in many places,” Ben noted, glancing over his shoulder at a guard that strolled on by without even giving the two a bit of his attention. It was almost as if Ben wasn’t there at all to the man. “Make a few calls, transfer a bit of cash … and look what we have, my nephew without any sort of help.”
“Is the FBI one of those friends, too?” Dino asked.
“Friends of friends, perhaps. It’s not important. This will do you well, Dino. A little time out will do you good.”
Dino’s gaze narrowed.
Ben had no idea what he had done. He didn’t even understand that his little trick—his lesson, whatever it was—had started a small avalanche of circumstances for Dino that would not be fixed with a little time out as his uncle liked to say. It was not that simple.
“You did this to me because of Theo,” Dino repeated.
Ben shrugged. “Theo was the tip of a floating iceberg. The most dangerous part of an iceberg is what we cannot see of it, Dino. But as the tip of the iceberg, you’re also entirely unneeded—a waste, really. Something disposable, replaceable even.”
And that was exactly the problem, Dino knew.
He would always be nothing more than waste to his uncle.
A man with no worth.
Wasted worth for that matter, as Ben’s only effort where Dino was concerned had always been to manipulate, to abuse, and to use.
“If you were willing to begin defying me on something like your brother and what I wanted from him, as you did when you were younger, and if I allowed that to continue, what would happen, hmm?” Ben asked. “Tell me.”
Dino knew the answer all too well.
He would have continued to defy Ben.
He had already been doing so over and over.
Ben was just cutting off the problem at the knees before it could grow into something he couldn’t control.
Problem was, Ben didn’t realize his own mistake in what he’d done.
This time, he’d pushed Dino a little too far.
This time, Dino had far more to lose.
More than Theo.
More than his sister Lily.
Dino had things to fight for, now.
He wasn’t going to take this lying down.
It might take a little while, sure. Dino had every reason to believe he wouldn’t be able to do much while he was behind bars, especially if Ben was working to make damn sure he stayed right where he was for as long as possible.
Dino could wait.
He’d been waiting for a long time, anyway.
Ben rapped his knuckles on the bars, smiling again. “Enjoy your time away. Tony will see you on Monday at your arraignment.”
“Go to hell, Ben.”
His uncle walked away laughing.
DINO attempted, and failed, to straighten out his crumpled looking suit jacket after the cuffs had been taken off and he was directed to sit with a row of waiting people. Other detainees waiting who were also at the courthouse for their arraignment.
His lawyer had yet to show, though Dino wasn’t surprised.
Opting to stand against the wall while guards patrolled the hallway, Dino stared out the window at the bright sun, his fatigue fading for a brief moment. It was long enough for him to think he might actually be able to make it through this godforsaken day.
If anything, he’d be able to stay awake while the sun was high.
It was only the shout of his name that took his attention away from the sun and the brief bit of comfort it provided. To his left, Dino found his brother jogging toward him, and another man close behind him. Damian Rossi.
“Dino, shit …” Theo maneuvered his way past the guard, a garment bag in hand, and passed it over to his brother. “Tony is almost here.”
Dino wished that would make a difference for him.
It wouldn’t.
He took the garment bag from his brother, finding a clean blazer and silk shirt inside. Uncaring that people were watching, he quickly changed clothes, though a guard stepped forward to check his items to make sure he wasn’t handing something over, before Theo could take the dirty stuff.
“Thank you,” Dino said to his brother.
Sometimes, a clean shirt made all the difference to a man’s attitude.
Theo shrugged. “Not a big deal.”
Yeah, it was.
The brothers weren’t friends, not really.
Theo didn’t have to be there.
Honestly, he shouldn’t have been there at all.
Dino was still grateful that he was.
Damian Rossi, however, was another story.
“Brought your friend along for a show?” Dino asked, nodding in Damian’s direction.
The man stood a few feet back, out of earshot of the conversation, but still close enough that he could step forward and join if he wanted to.
“What?” Theo asked.
“Never mind.”
Dino didn’t share the closeness with Damian that Theo did. When the two men were younger, Damian and Theo were practically inseparable, and they often added little Lily to the mix as well. He supposed it wasn’t his place to question it all.
Theo stared down the long hallway, keeping his gaze anywhere but Dino. He understood his brother’s distance, as he too tried to maintain the s
ame aloof attitude, though his was not as much of a façade as his brother’s was.
Theo simply needed someone to break through his walls.
Dino could never let his walls down.
“Hey,” Dino said, gaining Theo’s attention, “do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Keep an eye on Lily for me, check up on where she is in Europe from time to time, send her cash if she needs it, or whatever. She’s probably going to think I’m ignoring her or—”
“I can let her know what’s going on with you,” Theo interrupted quietly.
Dino shook his head. “I don’t want her to know.”
He didn’t want his younger sister coming back home for him, because he knew what would happen if she did step foot back on US soil. Their uncle would get his claws into her, and there she would be, fucked and stuck doing whatever the hell Ben demanded.
As long as Lily was out of reach for Ben, she would continue to be okay.
Dino needed to make sure that happened for her.
His sister might not understand his silence, she might even think he’d forgotten about her, and the festering bitterness she already felt about their life, the mafia, and the death of their parents might grow into something larger than her already small life.
It was a risk Dino was willing to take.
For his siblings, he’d risk everything.
“Don’t tell her,” Dino repeated, “just keep her where she is, Theo.”
Theo nodded. “All right.”
“And get out of here. You don’t need to be here for this.”
“But—”
Dino waved a hand at his brother, knowing damn well he probably looked cold as hell doing so. It didn’t matter, he would do what he needed to do to keep his siblings safe, especially from Ben’s ire. He had no doubt Ben had told Theo to stay away from Dino during any legal proceedings or what was yet to come.
Between the two brothers, Theo didn’t like to follow the rules.
Dino was always covering in one way or another for his brother.
This time would be no exception.
“Go,” Dino muttered, glancing away from his brother. “I’ve got this shit handled.”
“Do you?”
“I will.”
His assurance didn’t come out as strongly as he wanted it to, but what could Dino do?
Nothing.
Wait it out, he told himself.
Soon, Theo was gone, and Damian followed close behind his friend. Dino didn’t even get the chance to settle back and relax before his lawyer finally decided to make his appearance known. Flashing a courthouse badge at the guard, Dino was allowed to leave the other people waiting, and he followed behind the well-dressed, stoutly lawyer who hadn’t even bothered to bring his briefcase along with him.
He wouldn’t need it.
Dino might have been paying him, but he knew now that Tony was on someone else’s payroll—Ben.
Tony would do what Ben wanted, not what was best for Dino.
Hard choices sometimes needed to be made when someone couldn’t afford to cash the check they would be left with after it was all said and done. This was going to be one of those times for Dino. He would handle it as he needed to, but he had a few things he had to do first.
“Well,” Tony said, his voice a droning yawn, as he pulled out a chair to sit in the private room they’d been directed to, “what of it, Dino?”
Dino stared hard at the lawyer. “You’re the professional, you tell me.”
“Few charges, nothing serious. You can do the time.”
A scoff worked its way up Dino’s throat, but somehow, he managed to hold it back.
“That’s it?” Dino asked. “I can do the time. You’re not even going to suggest we work on some kind of deal with the prosecution to ease this a bit?”
“You’re not the kind of man who works deals.”
That much was true.
But Tony was the kind of lawyer who could do it on the low.
In fact, he’d done it for Dino before on other minor charges, and for Ben on bigger charges. This shouldn’t have been a huge thing to ask for.
“Or Ben told you not to bother,” Dino said.
Tony looked up from the table. “Hmm, what?”
Exactly.
“I need to make a phone call,” Dino said, refusing to repeat what he knew Tony had heard him say loud and clear. “They won’t give me the chance to at the jail, always spitting out one excuse after the other. Give me your phone so I can make a call.”
Tony pushed his cell phone down the table, seemingly unbothered by the request. Dino snatched it up, typing in a familiar number on the touch screen and then putting the phone to his ear when it started to ring through.
There were many people he could have called.
He even knew a few lawyers on hand that might be able to pull strings for him.
None of it would really help.
Dino had already come to a sad understanding of where he was going to be staying for the next little while, and his phone use would be monitored, if not limited. He couldn’t be making this kind of call and request on a jail phone.
Finally, five long rings later, the boss picked up.
“Ciao,” Terrance Trentini greeted cheerfully.
Dino swallowed back the ire that caused to boil in his stomach—the jealous swell of how easily others overlooked his situation time and time again. No doubt, Terrance was just another one of those people pretending like he didn’t know what was happening to Dino at the moment.
“Boss,” Dino replied as respectfully as he could manage. “I’d like to put that request in for my brother to get his title.”
It took a good thirty seconds before Terrance responded.
“Dino.”
“Who else?”
Terrance laughed, though the sound was false and weak. “I heard you got mixed up in some trouble. You shouldn’t be calling me.”
“Using a safe phone, boss.”
“Ah.”
“That request,” Dino prodded, “for Theo. I want to make it happen.”
“I’m not sure—”
“I need someone looking after my crew and shit for the next little while. I don’t want someone appointed to it, and certainly not someone Ben dreams up for the job. My brother can do it—he’s been doing it. You said when I gave the okay, you would do it. I’m giving my okay. Give him the title.”
“Your uncle doesn’t seem to think Theo is ready for it.”
“I do,” Dino replied.
Tony had listened to the conversation without saying a word, but Dino believed wholeheartedly that the lawyer would be making a phone call to his uncle once he was done with Dino. It didn’t even matter. This wasn’t about Ben DeLuca. This wasn’t about Dino.
It was for Theo.
It would be a good, sturdy position for Theo to have when his brother was locked behind bars, unable to lend a voice of authority for his younger brother’s sake.
Dino had habits he couldn’t break, no matter how hard he tried.
Caring for his siblings was just one of them.
Even when they didn’t know he was doing it.
“I’ll owe you,” Dino said, offering the words easily, though it wasn’t something he handed out to any man in the mafia. No one wanted to be in someone else’s debt. Especially not a boss’s debt. He would do it for his brother, though. “Whatever you need, boss.”
Terrance sighed. “The charges are that serious?”
“Some haven’t been officially filed yet, while others have, but yes.”
“Fine.”
Dino couldn’t help but wonder … “You’re not the least bit concerned that I’ll come out of this like my father did—a rat?”
Terrance laughed again, loud and hard. “Dino … that is the one thing I have never worried myself over where you and your brother are concerned. You’re not your father—your uncle made sure of that.”
Dino wasn’t so sure.
And he certainly wouldn’t give credit to his uncle, either.
After a quick goodbye, Dino slid the phone back to the lawyer. Tony pocketed the device, looking to Dino expectantly.
“Happy?” the lawyer asked.
Not yet.
“You’re fired,” Dino said.
Tony’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “I beg your pardon?”
Dino waved at the door behind him. “Take me back to where the others are waiting for their public defenders to show up. I’ll take their lead and grab myself one appointed by the court. I don’t need another one of Ben’s underlings fucking me around more than he already has—that includes you, Tony. Get out. You’re fired.”
“A public defender?” the lawyer asked, his face reddening.
Dino laughed at the sight of the man’s rage.
He’d take the time that was thrown at him. He already knew he wasn’t going to be given bail, as he’d be considered a major fucking flight risk, what with his connections out of country and the proof the prosecution would have about his overseas bank accounts in countries that had no extradition treaties with the United States.
Dino was good and fucked, and nobody had even thought to use lube when they bent him over. But he’d take it.
What else could he do? He’d do what he needed to do.
God save their souls when he was out, though. He planned on coming out swinging.
“You’re serious,” Tony spluttered in his outrage.
“Anyone will be better than you.”
He fucking meant it, too.
THE bespectacled, gangly man peered over the documents, and then looked to Dino. Over the period of a few weeks, he had learned a few things about his public defender—Mike, the guy liked to be called—that he thought was most noteworthy. The man was young—twenty-seven, to be exact—for a lawyer, but he’d earned his degrees, without question. He never questioned Dino’s requests, and not once had he asked Dino if he was really guilty.
That gained the guy brownie points.
“You’re serious about this?” Mike asked.
“They offered it, didn’t they?”
Mike nodded, going back to the documents. Dino took the time to look around the room they were in, noting the gray walls and barred windows. The jail gave very little by way of comfort, and Dino had called this place home for four long weeks.
