by Bella J.
Then that was what I had to do. Fight alone.
“Lorik.” I turned to face him. “I suggest you take my sister and get the fuck out of town.”
“Why? What the fuck is going on, Dante?”
I walked past him. “Civil war.”
“Holy shit,” I heard him mutter behind me. Lorik better heed my warning and get out of town with Karina before shit went down. Castello’s words were like a goddamn prophecy, a message from above to give me the motivation I needed. Nothing would stop me from getting my woman back.
When I got to my bedroom, I walked straight to the cabinet bolted shut with a huge motherfucking lock. I pulled out the key from my pants pocket and unlocked it. As I opened the doors, it was like the angels sang in the background as it revealed my own personal collection of daggers and guns.
“Dante.”
I didn’t turn around when I heard my dad behind me.
“I just got a call from Antonio.”
I stilled as I was about to reach for my .45 Magnum.
“You need to hear what he has to say.”
I grabbed the gun and placed it at my back. “I’m pretty sure I don’t give a fuck about what he has to say.”
The door clicked closed. “I think you do.”
“As I said earlier, my instincts are right. Layla is in trouble, and my brother just took her back to fucking lion’s den.”
“Yes. But you need to know why.”
I grabbed two daggers, slipping them up my sleeves. “I know why. He hates her. Always has.”
“It’s not that simple. Believe me, after you hear the truth, you’re going to wish it was.”
When I turned to face him, the dour expression on his face caused me to still. “What happened?”
He started pacing. “There was an incident downtown.”
My heart stopped. “Is Layla hurt?”
“No. No, it’s not like that.”
I scowled. “Then what?”
The old man stopped and looked up at the roof. “You brother and Lucio had a run-in with some of the Mancuso men.” He turned to face me. “Apparently, it didn’t end so well.”
“Meaning it turned into a bloodbath.” It wasn’t a question. When things didn’t end well, it usually meant someone died. “Antonio and Lucio okay?”
“Yes. They’re fine.”
Nothing about his demeanor gave me the impression that everyone was fine. In fact, the grim look on his face, the way his shoulders were slumped forward said to me that I wasn’t going to like the next part of this fucking story.
“What happened?”
He took a deep breath. “I think it best you wait for Antonio to get here.”
What the…? “Are you telling me Antonio is on his way back here? Jesus Christ, the fucker has balls, I’ll give him that.” I stormed to the bedroom door. “He better have Layla with him if he wants to live to see another day.”
“Dante.” My father’s voice boomed through the room in a way which could not be ignored. “Layla is not with him.”
I glanced over my shoulder. “Then he’s a dead man.”
“There will not be bloodshed in my house. Do you understand me?”
I hung my head, the weight of my father’s authority no longer doing anything to tame the rage which possessed every part of my being. For me, there was nothing but Layla. Not anymore.
Without looking at him, I said, “Antonio made his decision when he decided to work against me instead of with me.”
The sound of tires racing across the gravel came from outside the window.
“Antonio,” I whispered.
My father rushed forward and grabbed my elbow, spinning me around to face him. “Your life is about to change, Dante. Are you ready for that?”
I remained emotionless, like a fucking robot programmed to kill until it had achieved its goal. “Without Layla, I have no life to change.”
With a concerned look, he cocked his head to the side, his face paler than ever. “We’ll see about that…after you speak to your brother.”
The tone of his voice, the apprehension in his eyes, made me nervous. My spine itched with unease.
My father stepped back. “I ask you to leave your gun here in this room.”
I laughed. “Dad, I love you. I respect you. But that’s not happening.”
I walked out of the room. My resolve to get my woman back strengthened with every step I took. The gun at my back made me feel more confident about my resolution not to let anyone get in my way.
If you have to slit the throat of every motherfucker who gets between you and your woman, you do it with a fucking smile on your face.
I wanted those fucking words engraved on my headstone one day. Those were the words I would live by for the rest of my life.
Antonio got out of his car as I stepped outside. “Is she with you?”
“No.” He remained standing by the car door. “She’s not.”
Lucio got out of the passenger side, his eyes studying my every move. The man was a soldier. He recognized a threat when he saw one.
My attention moved back to the backstabbing SOB who happened to be my brother. But the fact that we had the same blood running through our veins no longer mattered. Who the fuck said blood was thicker than water?
“You’ve got balls coming back without her, Antonio.”
He closed the car door. “You need to listen to me.”
“I don’t have to do squat. You betrayed me.”
“You’re wrong, little brother.”
I moved slowly down the stairs. “Am I?” My mind flitted back and forth from my brother to the gun at my back. “Because from where I’m standing, it sure looks like you stabbed a goddamn knife in my back.”
Antonio sighed then moved to the back passenger door. “If you won’t give me a chance to explain, I’ll have to show you.”
The door opened, and Kate stepped out. With narrowed eyes, I watched them. Kate’s eyes were red as if she had been crying. Her cheeks were pale, and her shoulders slumped. She seemed defeated, and that only fueled my anger even more.
“Antonio!” I growled. “What the fuck have you done?” Out of instinct—and rage—I reached for the gun.
Kate stepped aside, and then…a little boy.
I paused, my hand hovering over the gun at my back. “What is going on? Who is this?”
My brother closed the door, and Kate walked forward with her hands on the boy’s shoulders. Dark hair, dark eyes and lashes, the boy couldn’t have been more than five.
My heart thudded against my ribs. My lungs expanded little by little as my breathing became shallower. I recognized the boy.
“Dante,” Antonio started, “this is Rafe…your son.”
I sucked in a breath. “What?”
“This is your son, brother.”
My mind couldn’t make sense of anything. The boy. Antonio’s words…
The boy.
I tilted my head to the side, studying the boy. All I heard was the beating of my own heart.
My dad stepped in beside me. “I warned you this would change everything.”
Confused and perplexed, I kept my eyes on the boy. “I don’t even know what this is,” I breathed.
“This is your son, Dante.” My dad walked toward the boy. “This is the reason your brother had to take Layla back.”
Bewildered and feeling completely disconnected from reality, I looked at Antonio. “You have five minutes.”
Chapter 18
Dante
“So, you’re telling me the boy currently eating macaroons in our dining room…is mine?”
Antonio sat across from me, his eyes weary yet focused. “Yes. That’s what she said.”
Lucio shifted as he leaned against the wall. “It’s pretty obvious if you look at the kid. He looks like a mini you.”
Antonio crossed his arms. “You should know. You stared at the kid from the front seat of the car all the way here as if he was the boy Jesus.”
“For God’s sake.” My dad took a seat next to me. “Would you two stop? This is serious.”
I leaned back on the couch, my gaze settling on Kate, who sat silently next to Antonio. “Is that why she left? She knew she was pregnant?”
Her fingers nervously played on her lap. “Yes.” She looked up at me. “She wanted to tell you. In fact, she planned to tell you the day she left.”
“Why didn’t she?”
Kate sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, her gaze darting to every corner of the room instead of at me. “A letter arrived that day.”
“What letter?”
“A letter from our father. He’s in prison, but I guess you already know that.”
I remained silent, my gaze pinned on her.
“In the letter, he told Layla who you really were, and what your family did.”
I shifted. “And what exactly is it that we do—according to him?”
“Sell drugs.”
My dad stiffened next to me. “That is a lie!”
I lifted my hand. “Please, Father. Let her talk.”
Kate shifted. “There were also pictures.”
“What kind of pictures?”
“Of you and Layla. There were pictures of you walking around town. Pictures of her in your car.” She looked at me anxiously. “Pictures of you two…being intimate.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” I wiped my palms down my face. This wasn’t happening. “Who the fuck took those pictures?”
“We don’t know,” Kate said softly. “Our father didn’t say. He just said Layla needed to steer clear of you, and that she was in danger as long as she was with you.”
I got up and started pacing. It was like goddamn information overload. Pieces of a giant puzzle raining down, and I had no clue where to fucking start to put it all together.
“She was scared, Dante. She didn’t know what to do.” Kate appealed for her sister’s actions. “She was young, pregnant, and just found out the father of her child was a part of a crime family selling drugs.”
My dad jumped up. “I can assure you, Miss Moore, we do not sell drugs.”
She hung her head. “We know that…now.”
“There’s something else, Dante.”
My gaze cut to Antonio.
“It’s about Layla.”
“What is it?”
Antonio and Kate gave each other knowing looks, and I clenched my fists. I hated that it seemed like everyone was in the loop except me.
“You were right. Matteo is controlling her, using her to get to you.”
I pulled my hand through my hair. “And?”
Antonio took a deep breath, and I knew whatever was about to come out of his mouth had the potential to shock me to my core.
“Four months ago, Matteo kidnapped her and her—your son.”
My temper rose.
“While he held her…” Antonio swallowed as if the words struggled to come out.
“Well?” I grew impatient. “Spit it out!”
“While Matteo held her…he also got her addicted to heroin.”
My heart stopped. No, it exploded, and I felt the blast straight through to every bone in my fucking body. “What?”
Kate stood. “My sister is an addict, Dante. He forced her to take the drugs so he could control her.”
For a few seconds, I allowed the words to sink in. I allowed it to settle in the pit of my stomach, to stew with the rage I had been feeling all morning. And then I grabbed the first thing I could find, a glass decanter, and threw it against the wall. The sound of my scream together with the shattering glass hit the roof with excruciating resonance.
“Dante, you need to calm down.”
I shot a warning glare at my brother. “Do not tell me to calm down. I have a fucking four-year-old son I never knew about. And now you’re telling me my woman—my son’s mother—is a junkie because Matteo fucking Mancuso forced her to use. I’m going to kill him.”
Antonio held out his hand, visually suggesting I calm down. “Just listen to everything we have to say first.”
I lifted a brow in disbelief. “There’s more?”
“A lot more.”
“Fuck,” I muttered then sat back down. My body suddenly felt drained of all life.
Kate looked at Antonio before he gestured for her to go ahead. “Layla refused to cooperate with Matteo while he had Rafe. She refused to ask for a hit, and Matteo had to force her every time. So she made a deal with him.”
A chill ran down my spine. “What deal?”
Kate struggled to talk, so Antonio continued. “That she would remain using on her own if he lets Rafe live with Kate. Layla would not attempt to leave. She would not attempt to tell you anything about their plan if Matteo gave his word that Junior would go free. Matteo agreed.”
I snorted. “And she actually thought Matteo’s word meant anything?"
“No. She didn’t.”
“That’s why she brought him to me,” Kate said. “She brought Rafe to me with strict orders to take him somewhere and not to tell her where.”
Lucio handed me a full glass of bourbon over my shoulder, which I took and gulped down like it was manna from Heaven. “So,” I swallowed the sting of the alcohol, “where did you take him?”
Kate looked at Lucio. “Could I have one too?”
Lucio’s eyebrows almost reached his hairline.
Kate shrugged. “If anyone needs hard liquor right now, it’s me.”
I nodded when Lucio glanced my way and waited patiently for him to hand her the drink before pushing for more answers. “Where did you take him, Kate?”
She cringed after taking a sip of the bourbon. “I know someone who works at a children’s home. He agreed to take Rafe in under an alias.”
I had to give it to the woman. She was quite smart in all of this.
“Okay, so,” I placed my glass down on the table, “I have about a thousand different questions right now, but time is running out, and there will be more than enough time for all the answers once I get Layla back.”
Antonio’s eyebrows slanted inward, staring at me in disbelief. “You have a child, Dante. A son. Surely you want to address that first.”
I stood and straightened my shoulders. “Does he know who I am? That I’m his father?”
Antonio and Kate looked at each other before Kate shook her head.
“Good.” I straightened my jacket. “Then Layla and I can tell him together…after I go get her.”
“Dante, wait.” Antonio rushed toward me and grabbed my elbow.
I jerked out of his hold. “No! I am fucking done waiting. Yes, I know I have a son. Yes, I know this shit is deeper than I ever could have imagined. But right now, the only thing that matters is getting Layla back. Once she’s here, I’ll deal with everything else. Even though there’s a fuck-load of people in this room who think they know everything, that they know all the answers, you don’t. The only person who can give me the answers I need is Layla, and I’m going to get her. Now.”
The gloomy, sullen look on his face, which usually only showed extreme confidence, sent a feeling of unease straight down my spine, settling in my gut. “What are you not telling me?”
He glanced at Kate as if she had to give him permission to answer.
I grabbed his shoulders, fed up with having to fucking drag every goddamn answer out of the lot of them. “What the fuck are you not telling me?”
“The drugs, Dante. Layla is convinced she’s beyond help.”
I took a step back. “What does that mean?”
“She thinks the only way for Matteo to stop with his vendetta against you is if she was no longer a weapon he could use.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you saying what I think you are?”
Antonio didn’t answer. He just looked at me, knowing his silence
was answer enough. I heard Kate suck in a breath, Lucio and my father cursing in the background. But I only had one thought, one action, one reality…I was going to kill my brother.
Anger grabbed hold of every bone, rage flooding through my veins like a toxin. It was unstoppable, my wrath. The need to tear human flesh the fuck apart. All I saw was her face, red slowly moving down and clouding my vision, my fists clenched and ready to destroy.
I swung my arm, sweeping it through the air just before my knuckles connected against bone. My brother’s head snapped to the side, the entire scene playing off in slow motion. Blood from his mouth splattered against the wall, the ringing in my ears blocking out every other sound.
Antonio had sent Layla back to Matteo, back to the devil who forced the poison through her veins. And for that, he had to die. My brother, my blood needed to pay for taking her away from me. For sending her to her ultimate demise.
I pulled my arm back, the bones in my hand screaming with an ache to destroy. But someone grabbed my shoulder while two more arms wrapped around my waist, dragging me backward. Slowly, the sound of reality returned, and I heard Lucio’s voice.
“Stop! Dante, stop.”
But all I saw was Antonio’s blood, and I wanted more. My anger demanded it.
“Dante!” This time it was my dad. “Stop this, for God’s sake.” His voice lacked the confidence it always carried. He was pleading, begging. “Dante, he is your brother.”
I froze, no longer fighting against the arms that kept me back. The sound of my own heartbeat echoed between my ears, the red in my vision slowly subsiding. But my fury was still red hot.
Lucio let go when I stilled, my deathly stare still pinned on Antonio nursing a bleeding lip. “I will never forgive you for this. Do you hear me? Never.”
My dad stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the brother I now hated with every breath I took.
“Son, listen to me. We will get her back. Remember our leverage.”
My gaze cut to my father’s. “Castello?”
“Yes. We still have the means to save her. We just need to figure out the best way to do it. But you need to calm down. If we have any chance of getting Layla back alive, you need a clear head.”
