It was to the point that fireworks came up, and Dante had to stop the crazy.
He got it.
She was excited.
Only, it was going a little nutty, and he wanted off the crazy train and back in control. That way, he could stay calm.
Besides, he and Steele wanted simple. The most lavish thing at a wedding should be the food, not everything else.
That she could go crazy over.
After all, men only went to weddings for three reasons.
An open bar.
Good food.
And to make their significant other, man or woman, happy.
Weddings, to sane, single men, were a nightmare, and right now, he was trapped in one.
Truth be told, Dante wanted to escape.
Maybe the last few months of running the family business was why he was feeling out of sorts. He knew how much money was being spent, and he also knew there were some obstacles he had to cross to get Steele to the altar.
Actually, a few might be an understatement. It had been an epic battle to get the job done.
Now he was freaked out.
“You look green,” Greyson said, helping his brother tie the colorful bowtie in the mirror. He stood behind him, tying it as if it were on his own neck.
His big brother was a pro at things like this, and Dante was glad he had him in his life.
“Do I?” he asked, trying to cover the freak-out that he felt coming. If these were pre-wedding jitters, he could understand why people bolted.
He was already measuring the distance between him and the door.
That was so damn wrong.
“Yeah, you do. Why do you look like you want to either punch someone or cry?”
Dante hated how his brother was so astute. Of course he was going to take one look at him and know.
He’d been a cop.
What Dante had wanted was to get this fitting over with, get shitfaced drunk to calm his nerves, and pray the hangover wasn’t a killer in the morning.
Yeah, he was scared.
Really, he’d been hoping to keep his mouth shut, say ‘I do’, and call it a day.
“I’m your brother, Dante. You can tell me anything. Don’t suffer in silence. If it were me, wouldn’t you want to know what was bothering me?”
Yeah, he would.
Then again, if it was Greyson, he’d carry it all in stride on his strong shoulders. While he wanted to be like his brother, Dante knew he couldn’t replace him.
Greyson was king of the family for a very good reason. He ran the place with everyone in mind.
“I’m afraid Steele will run, and that’s making me want to run first so I don’t get my heart handed to me.”
There.
He said it.
Now he waited for some sage advice from his big brother.
Greyson Croft got it.
This was normal.
Now it was time to talk some sense into his brother before he did something stupid.
Dante was known to screw things up with the best intentions. The day he’d met Emma, he’d nearly shot her. He’d also scared the hell out of her.
He was a good person with really bad timing. He got that from their mother—bless his soul.
“Listen to me,” he said, staring into his brother’s matching eyes in the mirror. “He’s not going to run. Right now, he’s in your bedroom getting a manicure with Emma. Trust me. If he’s a runaway groom, we’d already be chasing him all over Vegas.”
Dante didn’t look any less freaked out.
That told Greyson all he needed to know. There was definitely something more going on than that met the eye.
He knew his brother.
“What really has you freaking out, Dante? You can tell me. We’re brothers, right?” he asked.
Dante turned around and stared him in the eyes. He hoped he meant it.
“Am I doing the right thing, Greyson? Am I making a huge mistake?”
Greyson lifted a brow.
“About?”
“Getting married.”
Yeah, here was his sense of bad timing. Ironically, it had arrived on schedule.
“This is making me nervous, Dante. What do you mean are you doing the right thing? If you’re not ready to get married, say the words. If all of the sudden, you have decided you’re not gay, you have to speak up.”
He looked surprised. “Uh, I’m gay. This morning I was watching Dimitri shirtless as he worked out. That man…”
He stopped him. “Please don’t. I have to work with Dimitri. He’s my bodyguard. I know all I need to know from my perspective. If you say package, or ass, I’m leaving.”
He laughed, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Son, spill it. I have you.”
This was hard for him. Dante didn’t want to sound like an asshole, but he was worried about one thing.
“I need your advice.”
Greyson took a seat and stared at his brother. He didn’t love another man more than this one.
He was his blood.
Dante always had his back, and he always made him feel like he was doing a good job as an older sibling. Now he wanted to make sure he gave his brother the best advice.
Dante deserved it.
Hell!
Steele deserved it.
His brother was part of their family, and he’d made them a shitload of money, and he always had his and Emma’s back.
In Vegas, that mattered.
“Shoot.”
“I did something.”
A million scenarios went through Greyson’s mind.
He cheated on Steele.
He wanted to be single.
They were breaking up.
“What?” Greyson finally asked, as he mentally prepared to help his brother any way he could.
“Remember when we found out that Steele had a brother?” he asked.
Uh oh.
This was that bad timing again.
He could see the fan turning on, and that pile of shit quivering as it was sucked into it.
Greyson braced for it.
“Well, I…”
“Dante, you didn’t do what I think you did, did you?” he asked.
He nodded. “Yes, I did.”
“Jesus. You are insane.”
“I was thinking about it. We know that Steele has a sibling. Every time I look at you, Grey, I’m reminded of what we’re keeping from him.”
Croft listened.
“I can’t get married carrying this secret, Grey. How do I promise to love, honor, and respect when I’m lying to him about something that would hurt him?”
“I do believe I stated that we should have told him the second we found out. Had you listened to me then, we wouldn’t be facing down this cannon the DAY BEFORE YOUR WEDDING!”
Greyson was right.
He had told him to tell Steele earlier.
Only, Dante had been worried about it. What if it pushed Steele over the edge?
That would be a bad thing.
He’d been abducted, and then he’d been nearly killed. How did one go about saying ‘Hey! By the way, you have a brother’?
SURPRISE!
Yeah, no.
There was no way to do it that didn’t end up on the shitty side of intention.
Dante ran his hands through his hair in frustration and dropped back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling.
“I’m fucked.”
Greyson knew he had to help his brother.
Somehow.
Someway.
“What did you do, exactly? Do you want to just tell Steele?”
“I invited Bentley Herron here for dinner tonight. Emma has that big family dinner planned to celebrate, and I wanted Steele to have someone stand up for him.”
Well, shit!
That was the worst thing to do.
Not only was he surprising the man with a brother he didn’t know about, but he was dropping the poor, unsuspecting man into the lion’s den at dinn
er time.
Did he hate him?
Reggie and Christopher Croft would be there, and if anything, their mother was unpredictable.
Hell!
She was a powder keg with a lit fuse.
What the hell?
“Oh, Jesus, Dante. I love you, but you certainly like to live on the wild side.”
He was aware.
“I was trying to be romantic.”
Greyson laughed.
It wasn’t an amused laugh. It was more like that of a person who saw a cataclysmic explosion about to happen.
Oh, there was going to be fallout.
There was no doubt about that.
“Next time, buy him some flowers and write a love note if you want to romance Steele. He’s like Emma. He loves that stuff. Don’t do shit like this, Dante. It’ll get you hurt.”
Yeah, now he told him.
Where was he last week when he got the idea to do this? Why didn’t someone stop him then?
“I want to puke.”
Greyson sat him up in case he did.
“And this complete stranger said what?” Greyson asked, trying to be patient.
“He knew about Steele. His mother, Vonda, told him about him when we worked that case. She assumed we would let the cat out of the bag, and she was doing damage control.”
Well, he wasn’t shocked.
He would have done the same thing.
“You couldn’t just invite his mother, Camille, so we could really have a fight, could you?” he teased.
“I did invite her.”
He stared at his brother.
“Uh oh.”
“What?” Dante asked.
“Oh, Dante, don’t tell me you invited her. Steele doesn’t like her.”
“I know but…”
“Are you out of your mind, son? Are you trying to sabotage your own wedding?”
Was he?
Shit!
That couldn’t be it, could it?
So, he explained.
“Well, we invited mom. Reggie will be here, so why not really add shit to the storm?” he asked. “Besides, Steele deserves to have people in his family at our wedding.”
He wasn’t doubting that.
He was simply saying that there was a time and a place. You didn’t invite Camille unless it was a trip to hell, and you didn’t invite his illegitimate brother the day of the wedding.
It was a really bad idea.
In Vegas, you played the odds.
Dante was playing all the odds on one hand of cards, and he was bound to lose.
“I really think you’re trying to sabotage yourself. When you invited our mother, I believed you were loopy, but now… you need a drink.”
He headed toward his suit jacket and tossed his brother a gift.
“What’s this?”
“Open it.”
Dante opened it.
When he had it out of the package, he held a beautiful flask in his hands. It was stainless steel with copper engraving, and he’d never seen anything like it before in his life.
He could tell it was special, and that it was from his brother…
That made it priceless to Dante.
When he flipped it over, he read the inscription that was on it.
‘To the only man who will ever be my blood brother. I love you more than you’ll ever know. I’m proud of you. Thank you for giving me another brother to call my own.’
Dante’s eyes filled with tears.
He loved his brother so much.
“Grey.”
“It’s filled with bourbon. Open it and drink. We’ll continue this after you had some.”
He did what his brother said, and then he passed it to him so they could share.
Greyson took a sip.
Together, on his bed, they shared the booze, and he actually leaned against his brother for strength.
He handed it back to Dante and told him to drink more. He was going to need it.
Not because he was worried about his brother’s upcoming marriage, but more or less so he could numb himself to what fallout was on its way.
Camille.
His mother.
“Okay, so,” Greyson said, after taking a sip. “What did Steele’s mother say when you invited her?”
“She told me she’d rather perform a blowjob on the devil himself in hell than be there to watch her gay, fag-son prance himself down the aisle.”
“So is she bringing her plus one?”
He laughed.
Dante needed it, and Greyson always knew what to say to lighten the mood. He could tell by the look in his brother’s eyes, he didn’t like that the woman used the ‘F’ word. To them, no one tolerated the use of ‘fag’.
He kissed his brother. “Thank you for that.”
“Well, for future reference, avoid Camille. She’s a wicked, old, mean hag who will die a frigid beast.”
Yeah, he got that right.
Greyson knew he had to ask him and hope for the best. “What did Steele’s brother say when you spoke to him?”
He crossed his fingers.
“He wants to meet his brother. He’s always wanted one, and he thinks it would be good for them to talk and get acquainted.”
“On your wedding eve, surrounded by strangers?”
“Do you think I’m sabotaging this because of some secret need to call off the wedding?” he asked.
“Are you?” he asked.
Dante took another sip. He wasn’t sure. At first, he thought he was trying to be a good partner, but his brother, generally, called it like he saw it.
“What aren’t you telling me, Dante? I can tell there’s more on your mind. Just say it.”
“I’m really horny.”
Greyson took the flask and chugged. This was something he didn’t want to talk about with a stranger, but his brother?
No.
He was as hetero as it came. He liked his kitten. He didn’t know what he could bring to the table by way of gay sex talk.
“Dante, I really don’t know if I can handle this.”
“Greyson. Please.”
Jesus.
The only time Greyson wanted to hear his name and dick in a sentence was when he was being called one.
While he didn’t judge his brother for being gay, it just wasn’t his thing. He liked soft, creamy skin with no hair. His idea of sex was always with the opposite sex.
That he was good at.
This…?
He had a kitten for a reason. She was everything he found attractive in the opposite sex.
“You’re uncomfortable,” Dante said, his feelings a little hurt.
“No, I’m freaked out. I’m about to hear about my brother’s sex life, and that’s…”
“I’m gay, not a leper, Grey.”
It wasn’t that.
“I’m the reason your fiancé is hurt, Dante. This isn’t about who you shove your man junk into. I feel like shit that I let Steele get taken, and now, he can’t…perform. Now, I have to face that fact in a very real conversation.”
It was hard to swallow.
Dante got it.
Well, at least it was out in the open.
Maybe his brother could talk him down from the ledge. “I need to be honest, and I don’t want to come across like a douchebag. You know me, and you won’t judge me.”
“Okay.”
“I know I said that sex didn’t matter,” Dante began.
He didn’t have to finish.
“Sex matters a whole lot, Dante. Any man who says it doesn’t is lying.”
Yeah, he knew that for a fact.
“I don’t want to push him, but I miss sex.”
“You’re not going to tell me you’ve cheated on Steele, are you?”
“WHAT?”
He stared at his brother.
“Why the hell would you even say that to me?” he asked.
“I traveled and had to give up boning my babe for a week. It was hell. You haven’t
had sex in months.”
“Almost nine months, seven days, and fifteen hours, but who the hell is counting?”
That was definitely not a good sign if his brother was running a timer on the whole thing.
It was a very bad omen.
“I’ve had to jerk off so much I’m beginning to feel like a pervert.”
He laughed.
Dante didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” Greyson said, “but I couldn’t help it. That wasn’t what I thought you were going to say to me. I just found it amusing as hell.”
“Yeah, it’s funny because you get to cum on a regular basis. I have to pretend I’m not jerking off so I don’t hurt a man’s feelings. I’m having to creep around, checking out Russian men working out...”
And it just got worse.
“Okay, I get it. That picture is painted for me, and it’s clear. You’re not getting laid, you want to get laid, but you’re afraid to broach the topic with your husband-to-be.”
“Yes.”
Greyson patted him on the back.
“There’s only one way to handle this, Dante, and you know it. You need to talk to him.”
Shit!
That was not what he wanted to hear. He was hoping his brother was going to give him some sage advice that involved a miracle solution—like a bachelor party where it would get out of control, and he could ‘accidentally’ get off by some stripper in his lap.
“That’s your solution?”
“Yep.”
Dante had expected more. After all, he had run the FBI in Vegas, and he was the head of a mob family.
His big brother had to have the answer.
“I can’t just go up to him and say ‘are we going to do it or should I rent Pay Per View for our wedding night’?” he stated. “That’s a bad situation for everyone.”
Yeah, he agreed.
“Why do I want to cry?” he asked.
“Well, you have a few issues going on here. You have his brother showing up, and you have the no sex thing going on. You need to pick one and start there. For someone who wants no secrets between him and his fiancé, you have an awful lot of secrets going on.”
His brother had a point.
They could play Monopoly on their wedding night, and he’d forget about the sex.
It was a momentary lapse.
What he needed to do was get Steele to the altar.
That was his first priority.
“You’re right.”
“Mom and Dad are coming tonight. You really need to prepare Steele for what’s coming. You need to find that man and tell him he has a brother, and then give him some booze. Reggie is a pain in the ass.”
Wedding of Our Dreams: Dante & Steele (Croft Family Mob Series Book 0) Page 2
