Worth of Waste (DeLuca Duet #2)

by Bethany-Kris

  “Online banking. I don’t need papers to tell me what the bank already knows.”

  Theo didn’t respond to that.

  Dino popped the top off the beer and took a seat at the head of his table. It allowed his back to be at the wall, while at the same time, allowing him to face his brother. He’d purposefully set up the kitchen that way, knowing there might come a time when he would need to break bread in this very room with people he would never turn his back to.

  “What are you doing here?” Dino asked.

  “I can’t visit?”

  “Not when you’ve had your head shoved so far up Ben’s ass lately that you can’t see anything but shit.”

  At that, Theo did look to his brother, a hint of anger flashing in his familiar brown gaze. Their eyes were unmistakable—DeLuca eyes, that same brown with gold flecks surrounding the pupil. And when they got angry, that brown damn near turned to a flat black.

  “Are we just ignoring the fact you left me hanging in the wind for a whole year and a half without so much as a fucking phone call, then?” Theo asked.

  Dino rested back in his chair, never taking his gaze away from his brother. “That’s your problem? Your feelings are hurt because I didn’t give you a call while I was in lockup?”

  Theo’s brow furrowed and he glanced away. “I thought …”

  “What?”

  “I thought we were getting better before you—you know what, never mind.” Theo pushed down from the island, his boots snapping hard against the tile. “It doesn’t matter what I thought, Dino.”

  “You thought we hadn’t burned all those bridges after all.”

  Theo’s jaw clenched, but he turned away, hiding the anger. He tossed the remaining pile of mail to the island, apparently done with the conversation and ready to leave. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter. Just like when we were kids, you left me out to fucking dry, man. I’ll always be filling your spot and walking in the footprints you left behind—we’re older now, though, so I just get to do it in a different way.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dino replied calmly.

  He knew Theo was telling the truth on one part.

  No matter what Dino said, Theo would never listen. He would never really hear his brother tell him the truth, because he was too focused on everything else that had been told to him over the years.

  His position—his title—and all that work Theo had to do while Dino was in lockup had only been to his benefit. He’d gained a spot that couldn’t be taken from him now unless someone killed him for it, and that had only come about because Dino made a call for his brother.

  “You’re going to have to learn things on your own time and at your own speed,” Dino said as Theo crossed the kitchen floor, heading for the garage. “I can’t fill in all the blanks for you Theo, no one did that for me.”

  Then, Theo stopped, turning to glance over his shoulder at his brother. “Do you know why I even came here today?”

  “To piss me off?”

  It wouldn’t be unusual or new.

  “No,” Theo said, practically spitting out the words. “To warn you, though I don’t know why I even fucking bother. Where were you on Christmas, Dino?”

  Dino straightened in his chair. “Here.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “I was here, Theo.”

  He was sticking to that story, no matter what.

  Theo shook his head. “You weren’t. Ben wanted to have dinner—he called the house, you didn’t answer. He sent me over, you weren’t here. I waited, you didn’t show. Last night, you left the party, and no one might have noticed, but Walter couldn’t keep his fucking mouth shut and bitched to Ben about your little run in. Ben sent me over here today to let you know he wanted to speak to you this morning. Guess what I found again?”

  Dino hadn’t been there when Theo showed up.

  He still refused to speak.

  “Yeah,” Theo said. “But I covered for you then, right, and I’ll probably keep my mouth shut today, too. Don’t worry about filling in the blanks, brother, I don’t care to know.”

  Dino blinked, unsure of what to say.

  “Secrets don’t stay secret in this family for long, Dino,” Theo continued, still as cold an unaffected as ever. “I don’t know what you’re hiding, but get better at hiding it before Ben goes looking for whatever it is.”

  Point taken.

  Karen

  “BOO,” Junior said, pointing to the blue colored square.

  “Well done,” the pediatrician praised. “Green?”

  Easily, Junior pointed to the smaller oval shape on the wall. “Ween.”

  While he still had a way to go with pronunciation, the boy did exceptionally well with colors, shapes, and recognition. Karen attributed a lot of that to his days spent at daycare where the caregivers worked a lot with the children, but she also had a lot to do with it. She spent her nights reading to her son, as much as he wanted, until he fell asleep, even. He had all sorts of learning games to play, and educational toys to pass the time.

  Junior loved to learn. At only fifteen-months-old, the boy was above his age group in learning efforts, and Karen fully planned on keeping him that way. It was much easier to deal with a toddler and their tantrums when understanding them was a possibility. To understand, she needed her son to communicate.

  Now, he could do that.

  Mostly.

  Then, the older gentleman turned to Karen, a smile crinkling his features. “His fine- and gross-motor skills are above par.”

  Karen couldn’t help but be a little proud about that fact. “Oh?”

  “He already has a wide vocabulary of words. It’s impressive. Try getting him to put words together to form even two- or three-word sentences.”

  “I will.”

  She was already trying to do that with Junior, and sometimes he would put two words together if he really wanted something enough.

  But almost always, the only thing he would put together to say or ask was, “Momma, Da?”

  It was the boy’s way of asking his mother where his father was when he wanted Dino, and while Karen never had a good answer for him, Junior didn’t really seem dejected when he was given a non-response. If anything, he just waited his father’s next visit out.

  “If he keeps this up, he’ll be beyond his learning curve and probably won’t need pre-K at all before starting kindergarten.” The pediatrician looked over Junior’s chart, humming under his breath. “It’s February—his next needles are due at eighteen months. Make sure to have that appointment done before you leave the office.”

  Karen nodded. “Thank you.”

  The doctor gave Junior one of his gummy treats before leaving the office and giving Karen one last goodbye. She quickly got her son dressed in his winter clothing, avoiding sticky kisses as she tugged on his large hat to get it on his head.

  “Ready?” she asked the boy.

  Junior smiled widely, his teeth stained red from the candy. “Go!”

  Twenty minutes later, Karen juggled her boy in one arm while trying to unlock her apartment door with the other and keep her three bags of groceries from dropping to the floor. She didn’t have to try for very long, because the door swung open, exposing a smiling Dino waiting behind it.

  Immediately, J squealed at the sight of his father. “Da! Momma … Da!”

  Karen huffed, shifting her squirming boy to Dino’s waiting arms. “Yeah, I see him. A little help getting up the stairs would have been awesome.”

  “I was in the kitchen, or I would have come to help,” Dino said.

  Her irritation melted away when Dino easily swapped her bags from her grasp to his, all the while keeping a firm hold on the baby. Then, he gave her a quick kiss.

  Karen smiled. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”

  “Last minute thing.”

  It almost always was.

  Karen didn’t mind.

  “You were in the kitchen—did you cook?” she a
sked.

  Dino smirked a sinful sight. “I only do other things in the kitchen when you’re in there with me.”

  God.

  Her cheeks pinked, and Karen quickly moved inside the apartment and closed the door for fear her neighbors might overhear their conversation. She didn’t understand how Dino could say something like that with a baby in his arms and still look goddamn attractive, but he managed it.

  “Stop that,” Karen muttered halfheartedly, tugging off her jacket and mittens. “I just want food.”

  “Oh, I have that for you, too.”

  “Great.”

  Dino unwrapped Junior from his winter clothing as well, setting the boy to the floor as soon as he was done. The very second Junior’s sock feet hit the floor, he was off running toward his bedroom, probably in search of his newest toy to share with his father.

  It was a game the two played.

  Karen sometimes found herself amazed at how Dino could sit with J for hours on end, listening to the boy press the same four buttons on a toy over and over again and seemingly never getting bored.

  If nothing else ever mattered between them, she knew he loved his son.

  Entirely.

  Wholly.

  Truly.

  He loved that boy more than he loved himself.

  “You look cold.”

  Dino had no sooner said the words before Karen found herself bundled in his embrace. Warm hands covered hers, taking away the chill from her skin. She rested her head on his chest, happy there for the moment. All it took was a press of his lips to the top of her head, and Karen forgot all about the stress of the busy day.

  Soon, Dino would probably leave.

  Maybe for a couple of days.

  Maybe for a week.

  She had come to expect that from his visits—one minute he was there, and the next hour he was grabbing his things without much explanation. She knew a different woman—maybe a better woman—wouldn’t put up with his transient behavior and the lack of explanation that went along with it.

  Karen was not that woman.

  She took what he gave, because she loved him just as he was.

  She still wanted more sometimes, but she had come to appreciate the amount of time and affection Dino could provide in his passing moments when he was around.

  “The pediatrician said he’s too smart for his own good,” Karen said.

  Dino chuckled. “Already knew that.”

  “You could have let me know you’d be here today.”

  “Did I have to?”

  Karen shrugged. “No. This is good.”

  “Da!”

  The singsong tune followed their son’s cry, the ABCs belting out from a train-shaped toy Junior had plucked up from the toy aisle at their last trip to the mall.

  “Bee, Cee, Dee,” the baby sang, plopping down to his bottom at his father’s feet. He held the toy high, urging Dino to take it. “Twane, Da.”

  “Train,” Dino corrected, plucking the toy from his boy’s hand. “It’s very loud, J.”

  “He always picks the loudest ones,” Karen mused.

  Dino gave her a wink, and in that split second, her heart melted. “The loudest toys are the best ones.”

  And these moments were the ones that explained exactly why Karen never complained about Dino, or his constant coming and going from their life. Whatever was happening on the other side of the city, whatever worries had sent him running for a safe haven with them, it didn’t really matter.

  Not when he picked his son up and fell to his back on the couch, already focused on the toy in his hand and the baby sitting on his middle. They were the most important things to him. He showed it in so many other ways that she knew no one else got to see.

  “I didn’t actually cook,” Dino said absently. “Just grabbed some take-out. It’s in the kitchen.”

  Karen dropped a kiss to his forehead as she passed him by.

  “Take-out is great.”

  And so were they.

  “No, no, no,” Karen said, laughing as Junior squealed as loudly as his little lungs could. “Not today, little man. I am late—you’re going to make me go broke buying more toys.”

  “Toy! Toy!”

  Karen was starting to feel betrayed by her love of coffee, considering her favorite coffee shop, where she stopped at every morning before dropping her son off at daycare, was situated directly beside a toy shop. Almost every day, the toy shop changed its front display. Today, the large glass showcased a giant wooden train set that filled up the entire space. It must have been electric or battery operated, because the train was moving over the tracks at a slow speed.

  “Toy!” Junior shouted again.

  “Coffee,” Karen replied, grabbing the handle of the café’s front door. “Your mom needs coffee to get through the day so I can have more money to buy toys, Junior.”

  That didn’t seem to placate the boy.

  She didn’t get the chance to open the café door, because someone else came barreling out with their head down, their attention stuck on their phone. She wasn’t able to get out of the way in time, and the man slammed right into her, almost knocking her to the ground.

  Somehow, she managed to stay upright on the slippery sidewalk, plus keep her son firmly in her arms.

  Ready to bitch the distracted guy out, Karen faced the man, but quickly fell silent.

  Familiar features stared back at her.

  Light brown, almost blond hair. Strong jaw. Brown eyes with flecks of gold.

  “Damn, I’m sorry,” the guy said quickly, stuffing his phone in his pocket. “You okay?”

  She recognized him from somewhere, but it took her a minute to draw where exactly her memory was coming from.

  Theo.

  Theo DeLuca.

  Karen had only met him once before—a long time ago, at Dino’s club when she had gone there looking for a job and Theo had been the one to vet the girls. They hadn’t even really had a decent conversation, but his face was unmistakable.

  There were differences, sure, but his features were too similar to his brother’s for her not to see them.

  Karen’s mouth wouldn’t work, even though she tried.

  Theo blinked, taking Karen in again and she saw the recognition light up in his eyes. Then, just as quickly, his gaze darted between her face, and the baby in her arms. Karen’s grasp on her son tightened a bit as Theo’s gaze lingered on the baby boy.

  “Toy!” Junior said, still pointing back to the shop window where the train was going around the tracks. “Momma, toy!”

  “Not today, J,” Karen said faintly.

  “It’s Karen, right?” Theo asked.

  Karen straightened a bit, holding her son impossibly closer. She had no reason to be frightened of Theo—he was Dino’s brother, after all. She knew a bit about him, and Dino had explained some of what she didn’t know.

  She was also aware that Theo had seen her more than that one time she had met him at the club—like the time when she had come looking for Dino after he had ignored her. Apparently, Theo had been eavesdropping on their conversation that night.

  “Karen,” Theo said again.

  Her gaze snapped up to his. She decided to feign ignorance, not knowing what else to do. She had the distinct feeling that if Dino meant for her to be around his family, he would have brought her around a long time ago.

  “And who are you?” Karen asked.

  “Momma!”

  Theo’s gaze went back to the baby, and the black fabric he held in his hands. Silently, Theo reached out to grab the T-shirt Junior held, looking at the band emblem on the front of it. Junior still took shirts from his father to have as a sort of comfort to use during the periods Dino was gone. It helped to get the boy to sleep, and Karen needed all the help she could get.

  Had he seen his brother wearing that shirt the week before?

  Would he recognize it?

  Just as fast as he’d looked over the shirt, Theo let it go.

  “He likes t
rains?” Theo asked.

  “He likes toys,” Karen replied quietly.

  Theo looked at the baby again, but Junior was more interested in pointing at the window display. Still, Karen knew he was looking at the same damn thing that stared back at her every day when her son was sitting right in front of her.

  Familiar eyes.

  Familiar features.

  Familiar.

  “Have a good day, Karen.”

  She still hadn’t confirmed her name to him, but he used it like he just knew.

  Karen supposed he probably did.

  Theo gave Karen and the baby boy one last glance before he turned away. “Sorry about bumping into you like that.”

  “It’s okay, Theo.”

  And just like that, Theo smiled, nodding once.

  When Karen came out of the café, the owner of the toy store was standing in front of his window display. Once the man saw her, he waved her over.

  Apparently, the display would be packed up and ready for her the next day.

  “Pardon?” Karen asked the man.

  “The boy’s uncle—he bought it for him. Said not to tell anyone, it’s a secret. I laughed it off, but he seemed pretty serious about it.”

  Karen understood perfectly well.

  Dino didn’t tell Theo a thing.

  Theo didn’t tell Dino a thing.

  Because in their life, not knowing was better.

  Even if she didn’t like it, Karen would have to play along.

  Dino

  THERE was a change coming; Dino could feel it in his bones. Something was happening outside of his circle of people, something he probably wasn’t going to like.

  And even if he didn’t know some of the things happening, like search warrants being served for some of his businesses, and employees of his being pulled in for questioning, Dino still knew. It was a sensation that had burrowed deep into his bone marrow, as though spikes had been driven into his bones.

  Dread, he recognized.

  The feeling was dread.

  He’d watched the winter leave almost too slowly for his liking, replacing the snow with spring showers and warmer days. Usually, he wouldn’t have noticed the seasons changing around him, it was just another season, but he’d started counting the time passing in a different way.