Dominic (The Family Book 2)

by Angelique Jones

  We did it. We got Maria out and we were heading home, but what the fuck were we actually taking back with us?

  Screams sounded through the house. I knew those screams. They haunted my nightmare, but these screams held something more. The heroin was leaving Maria’s system. You couldn’t enter the room without her begging for more, offering to do the most horrific things for another fix. The plane ride home had been a nightmare. She started to come down during it, and the stench and the sounds still filled my senses. Bringing her into Nero’s home was even worse. Tori had rushed to meet us and even with how weak and fucked-up Maria was, she still attacked her. Thinking it was Caterina, Maria launched herself at Tori, screaming that she’d have to kill her this time, all the while biting and clawing Tori like a wild animal. It took Nero and me together to pull her off. Nero gathered Maria into his arms like she was a babe, pinned her to his chest and carried her upstairs as gently as he could.

  Tori watched every step Nero took before bursting into tears and racing away. I didn’t even have it in me to race after her and comfort her. What the fuck could I say? Her family had destroyed my sister? With heavy feet I followed Nero up the stairs, not having to be told which way he went as the screams of despair, shame, and fear gave me a clear path. I almost killed the fucker when I saw him tying her to the bed. Marcus and Chris, who I hadn’t realized were following me, held me back until Nero’s words that Maria was suicidal penetrated. My beautiful, loving sister was a now a suicidal junkie whore who would do anything for a fix.

  I shook free of their grips and backed out of the room. Images of the Maria I remembered kept pushing into my mind. Maria laughing and joking with Sal. Maria carrying around the baby, making train noise. Maria and Nico, Maria and Lucca. Maria and our father. Maria and Angie. Maria, Maria, Maria. I rushed to my room, threw open the door and raced for the toilet, empting the meager contents of my stomach before collapsing and doing something I hadn’t done since my mother died when I was seven. I wept like a broken child.

  Chapter 18

  Sitting next to Maria’s bed, I watched her as she slept. The bed was covered in sweat as her body tried to push the poison from her. Gone was my friend and in its place lay the shell of Caterina’s victim. Caterina had done what even Enzo hadn’t been able to do. She had destroyed her. Dom hadn’t even been able to look at me since they brought Maria back. Did he see what Maria saw? Did he see me as the monster? I listened as Maria begged whatever demons that haunted her dreams to stop hurting her. To just kill her and bring her peace.

  “It’s not your fault, Tori,” Nero said softly. Coming up next to me, he sat on the bed and looked at the tortured woman tied to it.

  “Of course it’s my fault, Nero. If I had just told the truth all those years ago Caterina would be rotting in prison instead of wreaking havoc on innocent lives,” I whispered, my voice filled with the self-disgust that coursed through me body. I wiped angrily at the tears leaking from my eyes. Why should I cry? I wasn’t the broken mess. “I know you feel guilty, too. Even with my begging, you didn’t have to risk your life for hers. You sure as hell don’t have to sit in this room each night taking care of her.”

  Instead of answering me, he told me in a weary voice, “Go wake Dominic up and ask him to meet me in the library. Lucca hit one of our clubs. He took our guys that were there as hostages and burned it to the ground.”

  I left the room quietly. Like a ghost I moved down the hall, opened Dominic’s door, and slipped in. I could see his silhouette in the bed. Guided by the moonlight I made my way to him and laid my hand on his shoulder. I had no more than grazed him when he moved. Quick as lightning he had me pinned under him, his hand pressing hard into my throat. The eyes that stared down at me were unfocused as if he was gripped in whatever dream I had pulled him from. I relaxed under him, not trying to fight. Maybe this was for the best. As if he sensed my willingness to die, he stared at me closely until his eyes focused and he reared back. He released my neck and fell to his back, throwing an arm over his eyes. “What are you doing? Why are you here?” he asked harshly. His words caused me more pain than any blow could. I was right. He’d never forgive me.

  I slid from the bed and went to the door. I paused and told him in a voice as dead as my heart, “The war has begun. Nero wants you in the library.” I closed the door softly, sealing behind it my hopes for a future.

  ….

  The war had begun. Those words echoed through my mind as I joined Nero. The war had begun. Staying silent I took the seat across from him. “Your brother Lucca hit one of my gaming establishment a few hours ago. He burned the place to the ground.”

  “How many were killed?”

  “None. He took all of my guys there as hostage except one. He sent that one back with a message. I’m to turn you, your boys, and Maria over to him or he’ll start sending my guys back to me a piece at a time.”

  Maybe I could talk some sense into Lucca before he killed me. “When’s the trade?”

  Looking at me for a long moment he opened his mouth to speak when one of his men knocked on the door and walked in. “Sir, there’s a woman at the gatehouse asking to see you. Her name is Joan and she said Angelica Salvatici sent her.”

  Angie was alive. She had survived and was well enough to send someone, so she knew what was going on. “Joan takes care of my niece, Alexa. If there is any way out of this mess it will be through her,” I said, hoping for the first time that a bloodbath wasn’t our only option.

  We didn’t have long to wait. A haggard but righteously angry Joan marched through the door. “What the hell are you doing consorting with the enemy?” she yelled as soon as she saw me. “Do you have any idea what you put your father through? We thought you and Maria were dead. Not one call. Nothing to tell us that you were alive.” She wheeled around and turned on Nero. “And you, if anything has happened to Maria there will be a blight on your house from which not even God can protect.”

  “Jesus Christ, I thought the women in my family were crazy,” I heard Nero murmur under his breath.

  Unfortunately, Joan heard him. “I’ll show you crazy if you don’t sit your ass back in that chair and tell me what the hell is going on.” She stood toe to toe with him and shoved her finger in his chest. “Lay one finger on me, say one wrong word and as soon as Angie’s out of bed she’ll be visiting you.”

  “Are you threatening me?” Nero said so coldly I was surprised that Joan didn’t have icicles on her eyebrows.

  Fuck, I had better disarm this before Nero knocked her out. I started to open my mouth but was cut off by Joan. “No, I’m telling you that if you and your family don’t want death itself released upon you than you had better start talking, because if I don’t hurry up and get my ass back, Lucca’s going to think you took me.”

  “Dammit Joan, does Angie even know you’re here?” I growled.

  She snorted at me. “Of course she doesn’t. No one does. We’ve all been under house arrest since the shooting. She doesn’t even know that you and Maria are missing. Do you really think you’d still be here if she did?”

  “Joan, please sit down and tell me what the hell is going on. You can play with Nero later,” I said, shaking my head when she smiled and patted Nero’s check before sitting.

  The smile faded from her mouth and her tone became serious. “You’re in a lot of trouble, Dom. A lot of the guys think that you betrayed our family. When you took the Genovese girl and ran there was a lot of grumbling that you were making a power play to set yourself up to take over the family. That you made some deal with this one.” She pointed at Nero. Reading the look on my face she shook her head. “If I thought that for a second it was true I wouldn’t be here. Word came that Maria was being held here, and that you were here also. I heard them saying that they needed hostages to trade for the two of you, and I knew that if you tried to just come home without your father or Lucca at your side that you might not make it. So here I am. I know damn well you’d never do anything to hurt Angie o
r your sister.”

  I didn’t bother to tell her that Lucca wanted me just as dead. “Joan, how bad is Angie still?”

  “Bad. At first no one thought she’d make it. The bullet was close to her heart. I knew though, that if anyone could pull through it would be her. That girl has survived things that should have killed her a hundred times over. As soon as she was stable, Lucca had her moved to the house with a doctor that will be our permanent guest until she’s one hundred percent.”

  “Why did Lucca take her out of the hospital if she was still in such rough shape.”

  Joan shifted her eyes to Nero before she spoke. “There were two more attempts made on her life. The second bastard made it into her room. Lucca interrogated him, and he said that Nero Genovese had sent him.”

  “If he said he was Nero’s guy then why hasn’t Lucca retaliated?” Because honestly no one would have left that club alive, even if Nero had Maria.

  “I don’t know, but until this whole thing is figured out you’re safer here.”

  I shook my head at her. “Unfortunately that’s not possible. Nero will have to trade Maria and me for his men. As soon as my father and Lucca see Maria they won’t stop to listen that Nero had nothing to do with what happened to her. They’ll just want vengeance.”

  Joan looked at Nero like she was about to rip him apart with her bare hands. “What are you talking about? What’s wrong with Maria?”

  “Joan, sit down,” I said tiredly, dreading what I was about to tell her.

  “The hell I will. Take me to Maria now,” she demanded.

  “Sit down now,” I told her angrily. Slowly she sat down onto the very edge of the chair as the fear that she didn’t feel an ounce of at the thought of coming to the enemy’s home filled her at the thought of Maria being hurt. I knew that Joan loved Maria like her own, and it killed me to have to tell her this, but she had to know what to expect before I took her to see her. I looked past her to an empty spot in the room because I couldn’t watch her face as I told her the truth. “We’re not sure of everything that was done to her, but we do know that Caterina Genovese sold her to a brothel across the border.” I ignored her sharply indrawn breath. “I don’t think you can imagine what type of place it was, or what was done to her there, and to tell the truth I wish I could forget it. Nero found her and we managed to get her out. The drugs that they forced on her still aren’t completely out of her system. We have her tied to the bed so she won’t hurt herself, so I want you to be prepared. The things you’ll see or that may come out of her mouth aren’t her.”

  The silence in the room was deafening until I heard a voice say, “I’ll take you to Maria.” I looked over my shoulder at an ashen Tori. I watched as she walked forward and gently took the older woman’s hand. Joan stared up at Tori before squeezing her hand and standing up.

  Once the two of them were gone I turned to Nero. “If we don’t find Caterina soon it won’t matter if you get your men back or not.”

  Nero went to the sideboard and poured two drinks. He handed one to me. “No it won’t. If Caterina had succeeded in killing your brother’s wife, would he have attacked, even knowing that I had Maria?”

  “Yes. He’d consider her already dead.”

  “Lucca wants to set up the trade for tomorrow. Angelica’s family was going to allow us to use one of their warehouses that they have in the city. Angelo Gagliardi’s consigliere is setting it all up. Do you think we’ll be walking into a trap?”

  “I don’t know Angelo well, but I do know that if his niece is threatened then he’ll show no mercy. He feels that he owes her.”

  “So you think it’s a trap?” Nero asked.

  “No, it’s not a trap,” Joan said, walking in. “But it will be your death sentence if they see Maria like that.” She took the drink that was in my hand and drank it in one swallow. “I’ll be leaving now. I’m not going home but to a hotel close by and check in. I’ll call your father and explain what I can. For now Maria is going to stay here and once your father understands that I’m not a hostage I’ll be moving in here to take care of her until we can bring her home.” She looked at Nero. “I took a cab here. Can you have one of your men take me to a hotel?”

  “Yes, and they’ll stay with you until one of the Salvatici men can get here to watch you. There is a reason that you’ve been under house arrest, as you call it. Do you think that you could survive what Maria has if Caterina gets her hands on you?” Nero asked, causing a shudder of revulsion to move through Joan before she sharply nodded. He signaled to his guy at the door and motioned for Joan to join him. Joan left, walking quickly from the room, like the hounds of hell were at her heels.

  “You’d might as well head back to bed, Dom. There’s nothing else that can be done tonight.”

  I nodded. I had no intention of going to bed, but I knew telling him that would not sit well. In the upstairs hall I stopped at the room Maria had been given. I opened the door and motioned to Tori. I took her hand, closed Maria’s door and walked her to my room. There was a good chance that tomorrow would be my last day on earth, so I planned to get my own piece of heaven before I was damned to hell.

  Chapter 19

  Sitting in the warehouse with Nero across the table from Lucca and my father was surreal. My family and Nero’s family stood back, waiting to see who would make the first move. Nothing showed on Lucca’s or my father’s faces as they looked at me. It was if they were looking at a random stranger on the street. The tension in the room continued to stretch until Lucca spoke, breaking the silence. “Where’s my sister, Genovese?”

  “Safe. She can’t be moved right now. I believe the woman Joan has explained the situation,” Nero answered.

  “That wasn’t part of the deal, Genovese.”

  “There was no deal, Salvatici. I’m here as a courtesy, nothing more.”

  “Then your men will pay the price.”

  Before this could escalated anymore, I broke in. “Lucca, Maria can’t be moved. There is no way you can bring her home without Angie finding out what happened.”

  “Joan was vague about what the problem is, so perhaps you can shed some light, since you appear to be a guest and not a prisoner,” my father cut in, the bite to his words hitting me hard.

  Looking to my father, I refused to let the hurt of his disapproval show, feeling that I deserved it. “This is something that I believe needs to be discussed in private,” I started to say before my father cut me off.

  “What you think no longer matters, so I suggest that you tell us what has happened to Maria.”

  And there it was. I had been expecting it, but it was Lucca I expected to deliver the blow. As far as they were concerned I was shit that they were just waiting to scrape off their heels. Fine, then if that’s how they wanted it, so be it. I knew that taking Tori was a risk, but for our family I did it. If I hadn’t taken her, Maria would probably still be in that hell right now and our family would be in a bloody war with the Genoveses, while Caterina sat back and enjoyed what she had set into motion.

  “Caterina Genovese sold Maria south of the border to the Alvarado cartel as a sex slave. Nero was able to locate her and we were able to get her out. She’s currently detoxing from the heroin and other drugs that they pumped into her. The daughter that you once knew does not exist, and I’m not sure will ever exist again,” I told him harshly, hating that I was forced to say it in front of our men. Watching my father’s face, I continued. “If I hadn’t taken Tori you would have been looking at Nero to find Maria, and she’d still be in a hell you cannot even begin to fathom. If I believed for one moment that Maria was in danger at the Genovese compound I would have her sent home. Unfortunately the truth of the matter is she shouldn’t be moved until the detox is complete because it will do no one any good to see or hear her as she is, especially Alexa and Angie.”

  I stopped so that what I just said could be absorbed. I looked hard at Lucca. I wanted to make sure that he heard what I was about to say. When he returned my
stare with a steely one of his own, I continued. “I never betrayed our family. What I was trying to do was stop a mad woman from sending both our families into a bloody war. Every move that Caterina has made has been to pit us against one another. Had I not taken Tori you would have killed her, and Nero would have retaliated. None of us would be sitting at this table right now. I know that you think that I betrayed our family, but the only thing I was trying to do was save it.”

  I finished. I wasn’t going to beg for his fucking understanding. If he wanted to hate me, fine. I could take it. But looking to my father I realized something wasn’t right. Both he and Lucca still wore stone faces, as if my words about Maria had no effect.

  “I want my daughter returned to me, Genovese. You have two hours to return her, this one, and the other two traitors over to me at the Grand Hotel, or your men will be sent to you in pieces. I believe that this meeting is finished. There is nothing more to be discussed,” my father told Nero as if I hadn’t spoken. My father and Lucca stepped back from the table, giving us their backs as they walked toward their waiting men.

  “Tell me, Salvatici, which one of your trusted men brought you the information that I was lying?” Nero called out.

  My father stopped and turned. “Not my men, Genovese. Yours. You have two hours,” Father said, walking out the door.

  ….

  The ride back to Nero’s house was made in silence. Both of us were lost in our own thoughts. Nero I’m sure was trying to figure out who the traitor in his family was and me, I was wondering how to get a message to Angie before my family disposed of me so she would know what had happened. She would be the only way to save my family. She was the only one who could force Lucca to listen. I knew that I’d never reach home, and Maria was too broken to tell Angie what had happened. Hell, I doubted Lucca would even let Maria in the house. She’d probably be sent to a safe house to recover, and by the time she saw Angie it would be too late. I had no one. I was now a traitor and so were Chris and Marcus, who would most likely join me in a shallow grave.