Confused, I nodded as he rose and then kissed my cheek. I watched him cross the room and pull open the door leading to the pool while retrieving his phone from his front pocket. My gaze was interrupted when Miranda was taken out the same door not a second after, her sobs loud and pleading.
Sophia joined me on the couch, wrapping a secure arm around me. “Come, love, we have a party to attend.” I looked over at the patio door one last time, hoping to see Dominick walking back in. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the phone calls which must be taken in private.” Her smile was welcomed and her touch needed. “Come, he’ll find you when he’s finished.”
The party was in full swing and looked as though no one had even missed us when we rejoined it. Waiters hustled around with trays of food and both bars seemed to be busy. I did notice Vivian Martucci was no longer standing beside her friend. Karla and Demetri were laughing at something London was saying, her arm gestures wild, and I wondered what was so funny. I stopped a passing waiter and snatched a glass of champagne from his tray, wanting something to hold onto while waiting for Dominick.
Karla caught my eye and winked, motioning for me to join them. When I started to step in their direction, I noticed people were looking at me, smiling and nodding their heads. Men looked at me before quickly averting their eyes. Wives were smiling and their compliments came freely, on how my dress looked like one they had seen in a movie. I smiled and excused myself to continue my journey to the happy couple.
What should have been a short walk taking less than a minute, stretched out to nearly fifteen as I was continuously stopped. Excusing myself for what felt like the hundredth time, I saw a man from the corner of my eye, and diverted my attention to him. It was the manager from the bank, Mr. Daniels. I chastised myself for thinking how he must be attending this party to keep face, and sadly, money in his bank, or perhaps, he was a close friend of the Family, but somehow I doubted it.
Mr. Daniels’s attention was on the wall behind me and I turned around to see what had him so captivated, just in time to catch Dominick walking in his direction. Mr. Daniels greeted Dominick in earnest, with a toothy smile and complementary words, I was certain. Dominick’s face remained blank, meaning he was all business. Mr. Daniels looked around before passing a white envelope to Dominick, who put the envelope into the breast pocket of his suit jacket, and then said something to a still smiling Mr. Daniels.
I waited for a moment more, to see Dominick attempt to seek me out in the crowd. His eyes seemed relieved when he took in my appearance. He hurried over to me, ignoring others who attempted to stop him to make conversation. He stood so close to me, there wasn’t much of us not touching.
“Ari, I know I asked you to this party, but…” His eyes shifted down to his shoes. Well, if he could see them, he seemed more focused on my chest.
“What is it?” I questioned as I lowered my head trying to get him to look at me.
“Can you trust me?” he questioned in a rushed voice.
I could feel the apprehension rushing off him. Something was going on and it was affecting him in a way that made him unsure of himself. Questioning my comfort was something he had never done. “Dominick, talk to me,” I pleaded wanting to help him feel better.
“I-I will, Ari, just not here, not with everyone watching.” I nodded my head, but said nothing. He didn’t hesitate to take my hand in his and lead me back to the kitchen. A man on a mission, he, again, didn’t acknowledge the guests when they muttered their hellos to him. The SUV which had brought us to the party was there waiting. Dominick forcefully opened the door and ushered me inside. Once he was seated beside me, the driver put the car in gear. Dominick reached for my hand as we headed away from the house.
I WATCHED THE RING FLIP in the air, twisting and turning like a roulette wheel. Wanting to wait a little while longer before admitting the truth, but as the gold band landed in my father’s palm, I knew judgment day had arrived. Excusing myself to place the call, I knew how this was going to play out. Hell, I should just hand her my fucking gun so that she could kill me and get it over with. Surely that would be less painful than watching her face when I admit I took her future from her.
Curtis Daniels had been on my Family’s payroll for a while now. He was stupid enough to believe we kept him around because he was good at his job. Truth was, he was a punk-assed bitch who jumped every time one of us called. I knew he would be waiting on me when I walked into the room.
“Mr. Santos,” Curtis’s soprano voice sounded, as I grew closer to him. He tried to act all gangster with his leather jacket and wallet chain. No doubt, if he were placed in a real situation, he would shit his pants and run like a little bitch.
I didn’t make eye contact with him when he held his hand out for me to shake. Declining the offer, I dropped my fingers, motioning for him to hand me what I had asked for.
“Do you want to go into another room to—?”
“Move,” I snapped at him once the envelope was secured in my jacket, not letting him finish. Did he think I gave a fuck who saw me take something from him? I had bigger things to worry about than a bunch of gossiping bitches.
Ari needed to be told the truth; more than that, I had to let her know no matter her decision, she would be safe and taken care of. So many secrets had been kept from her to protect her, but they had proved to hurt her.
“Dominick, where are we going?”
I fucking hated the panic in her voice when she realized we weren’t going toward either of our homes. It was time to act like a man and stop hiding behind the roadblocks I’d built. “We’re going to the airport, to catch a plane to New Orleans.”
Even in the darkness filling the car, I could see the buildup of unshed tears in her eyes. Ari gripped my hand tight, but never said a word. There was no gleefulness when we passed the gate for the commercial lanes, instead heading for the private area reserved for personal aircrafts. She said nothing as I helped her out of the car, keeping her hand tucked securely in mine. This might well be the last time I held her close to me, the last night I would be able to be this close to her. In the light of a new day, and with the understanding of the truth I had to confess, she might want to walk away.
Dad and several others of the inner circle were already seated on the plane. Our stewardess, of course one I’ve had a relationship with, greets us with a glint in her eye.
“Good evening, Dominick.” Ari, who dropped my arm and walked inside the cabin of the jet, didn’t miss her playful tone. My father had taken possession of this particular aircraft when a man couldn’t pay the gambling debt he’d incurred at one of our Vegas casinos.
“Miss Jackson,” I acknowledged while sliding past her, hoping my curt reply gave her a clue to back off.
“Really, Nicky?” Monica Jackson, originally from Los Angeles, had come with the jet. When the gentleman who couldn’t pay his debt handed over the paperwork, he’d asked that we keep Monica on as the attendant. I happened to be visiting Vegas at the time, so I took the jet home to New York, giving the sleek ride a test drive while Monica rode my dick on the white leather seats inside. Every couple of months when the guys and I would check on our Vegas interests, Monica would be waiting to service our needs. More than once she’d jumped from one hard dick to another while we cruised at thirty-thousand feet. Last time we’d taken the trip, Anthony had her naked before the captain made it to the end of the runway. It was nothing to have a conversation about business with her on her knees between us, my dick in her mouth or cunt while she sucked or fucked Anthony.
“Trying to impress dear old daddy today, bring the hot brunette so you can have me all to yourself?”
Once upon a time, not so long ago, I would have reached under her tight skirt, twisted her panties until they snapped, and then ordered her to get herself ready for me. Today, as I contemplated the reality this trip wasn’t going to end well, I didn’t care about anything other than the beautiful creature with the sad green eyes who was now sitting in the sam
e chair I’d once fucked this common whore in. Ari was looking out the window, trusting me enough to take her back to the place where I’d killed the man she loved.
“When the fuck did I give you permission to call me Nicky?”
With a raised brow and a defiant shift of her chin she answered me. “If I remember correctly, it was somewhere over Chicago. You had just asked me to go down on the girl you’d brought along, Megan or Mandy… no, Marissa. Her name was Marissa. You and Anthony poured beer over her tits as I sat on the floor licking her pussy, while your other friends tossed money at us. You pulled my head back by my hair and said, ‘Give Nicky a taste.’ Then you had me suck your dick while Anthony snorted coke off Marissa’s back while she sucked his dick. Sound familiar?”
“Still haven’t heard the part where I told you to call me Nicky.”
She pulled herself closer, the feel of her breath across my chin making me cringe. “Do I get to sample her pussy this time?” Monica didn’t bother to keep her voice down.
I didn’t need to look at Ari to know she’d heard every word. “You don’t deserve to sample the dirt on the bottom of her shoe, Monica. Get your things and get the fuck off my plane.” Marching past her, I ignored her cries about the plane not taking off without her.
Dad got up from his chair, telling me he’d handle it while I knelt before Ari and took her hands in mine. It was time to take away the pain coming off her.
“Ari, can you look at me, Tesoro?”
“What does it mean?” Her attention turned from the window, skin pale and eyes having lost their usual gleam. Gone was the beautiful girl who curled against me seeking refuge while she was frightened. Now, her eyes were hollow, vacant of the life, which had first caught my attention.
“Remember, I told you it—”
“Not tesoro, I know what that means. Untouchable. Antonio said you made me an Untouchable. I want to know what it means.”
“Mr. Santos, if you can take your seat, we can get in the air and to your destination.”
Dad returned to the plane just as the pilot asked us to take our seats. “Ari, come sit by me for a little while, let Dominick get his thoughts together.” Dad motioned to the set of leather chairs, which faced each other, a polished wooden table separating them. Ari did as my father asked, silently sitting in the chair across from him and returning her attention to the exterior of the plane.
Take off is effortless with no waiting in line for the 747 to Albuquerque to take off. In less than ten minutes from the time I’d kicked Monica off the aircraft, we were airborne. Our pilot announces good weather ahead with an expectation to land in a little over three hours. Unbuckling my seat belt, I stand up and move next to my father and Ari, but she asks to use the bathroom. “Of course, there is a more private area just past the curtain, back behind you. I do believe Sophia messengered over a bag for you, just in case.”
Ari didn’t look at me while she stepped toward the back of the plane. My instincts told me to follow her, but Dad places his hand out to stop me.
“Take a seat, Dominick.” Dad raised the top of the table lid, pulling out two Cuban cigars.
He didn’t smoke around my mother, out of respect or fear, I was not quite certain, perhaps both. He took his time lighting his, handing me his lighter when the bright red cherry of his intake glows at the tip. Closing his eyes, he leans back in his chair, a glass of his favorite bourbon already in his hand.
“Do you remember the time your mother took you and your sister to the game store over on 53rd?” Sucking on the tip of my cigar, I had to think for a second.
“You showed your mother a new video game you had your eye on, but you’d misbehaved earlier in the day so she told you no.”
I had forgotten all about that, and adjusted in my seat at the memory, a smile tugging on the edge of my father’s face. I’d been eleven or twelve at the time; Mom and Karla had been shopping for new school clothes. My friend Joey Bugatti and I were at his house riding bikes and getting into trouble. Joey’s mother ended up calling my mom when she caught me smoking behind their pool house.
“You pouted all the way home and the second she pulled into the driveway, you jumped on your bike and took off.”
Mom wanted me to apologize to Mrs. Bugatti for disrespecting her, and I made the mistake of thinking I was bigger than I really was by swearing under my breath. Mother had not been amused.
I took off, ending up at Mr. Avery’s pawnshop. He was about the same age as my father, didn’t fuss at us kids when we came into his shop, and let us play with his equipment. I’d been in his shop a number of times when Uncle Carmine had stopped by to collect money. As I walked around his shop, I noticed he had the same game I’d wanted in the other store. Since I didn’t have any money, I stuffed it in my sock and took off back home. At the time I rationalized it was somehow okay, that my taking the game was the same as my uncle taking the money.
“You went into the Avery’s store, took what you wanted, and then went back to deal with your mother thinking you had outsmarted her.”
When I got back to my bedroom, I found out the game was busted and tossed it into the dirty laundry hamper. Maggie, our housekeeper, found it when she collected laundry and showed it to my mother.
“Mom made me sit in the kitchen while she called both Mr. Avery and Mrs. Bugatti to come to the house.”
She’d pointed to a bar stool and told me not to move; I quivered the whole time imagining how my father would come home and wear me out with his belt. It was easy to conjure up all kinds of scenarios of how Mr. Avery would react when he learned I had stolen from him.
“Thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest, especially when you walked in the back door.”
Dad had crossed the room to my mother, kissed her cheek, and then leaned against the kitchen counter turning his disappointed eyes on me. I watched a myriad of emotions flash across her face as she held back tears. Even as a young child, I’d recognized the change in the room, and in my mother, when my father created a unified front by joining her.
“Dominick, you sat there that day, in our kitchen, your face determined and a look of defiance in your eyes. I’d had the same look the day my father branded me to take over the Family.”
I searched my father’s face, knowing he never spoke unless he had a purpose. He possessed the ability to read the faces he came across and knew when to speak and when to listen.
“I knew then, just as I know now, the look on your mother’s face affected you more than any punishment we could have ever dealt out to you. The same is true for how Ari’s face is bothering you now.”
Once again my father’s ability to assess the situation didn’t disappoint; it was almost uncanny how he knew my unspoken words based on my face. “Funny, I recall my ass getting whipped pretty severely.”
My father took me back to Mr. Avery’s store every day for a month, and made me dust every shelf and sweep up the floors. I tried to argue with him; insisted what I’d done wasn’t any different from Uncle Carmine collecting money every week from Mr. Avery. Dad hadn’t batted an eye as he pulled his belt from his pants, took me over his knee, and gave me several lashes.
“Your whipping wasn’t for the theft, son. It was for speaking about the Family with outsiders around.”
I knew this now; Uncle Carmine had taken me to the side one afternoon and explained. “One day you will grow up and have things you can’t talk about with anyone, except the inner Family. Even the woman you chose to be your wife won’t have knowledge of what happens when the doors are closed.”
By far, the worst punishment for me from that day, didn’t come for years. Mom had me apologize to Mrs. Bugatti, who accused me for years of getting Joey addicted to cigarettes. I never ratted him out as the one who’d stolen the pack she caught us with, though. Or reminded her how Joey continued to smoke until his death—from lung cancer—ten years later. She stood in Saint Anthony’s Church shouting at me and my family for killing her Joey. It was the fi
rst time I ever stood and allowed someone to scream at me, and felt deserving of every word.
“Nicky, you have a choice to make here, just like you did when Mrs. Bugatti found you behind her pool house. You can sit back and let Ari think the worst about you. Or you can tell her the truth, giving her a choice of what to do about it.”
My jacket felt heavy from the white envelope in the breast pocket, but it was nothing compared to the weight I felt in my chest. Ari, in such a short time, had drilled a place deep within me, a cavern only she could ever fill—even if she chose to leave me.
“For the record, old man, I wasn’t the one who fenced the cigarettes in the first place.”
“I know, Nicky. You’ve never picked up the habit, like Joey did. His mother couldn’t separate her grief from the truth; she could see you didn’t smoke. It was just easier to blame you than her dead son.”
I knew he was right, but to this day I could still see her face as she pointed at me screaming how I’d killed her baby.
I checked my watch. Ari had been in the bathroom for nearly an hour. With the plane at forty-thousand feet, at least I knew she couldn’t go any farther than the inside of the jet. “I’m going to check on Ari.” Pushing up from my seat, my father stopped me once again.
“Let her alone, Nicky. She is more like your mother than you know. Give her time to wrap herself around what she saw tonight.” Nodding, I slid back into the soft leather of the chair.
Mom loved this jet; she says it makes her feel almost like she is at home given the way the previous owner decorated it. She keeps a nearly full closet of clothes in the back area, an encouragement for Dad to take her on long weekends with no notice.
“I’m going to let you tell your mother she can replace the chairs on this jet, and that you will be paying for them.” I looked at him curiously.
“Hey, I’m not the one who fucked several whores on your mother’s favorite seats.”
Stolen Secrets Page 23
