Collin and Johnny both chuckle awkwardly, and Johnny makes his way between us, putting a hand on both of our shoulders.
“Yes, well,” he says, looking from Collin to me, “we will have plenty of time to get to know each other, won’t we? We need to go get the marriage license tomorrow, and then we will be off to Italy at the end of the week.”
My head swivels all the way around to him.
“Italy?” I ask.
“Yes,” Johnny says with a smile. “We have some very important people to meet––in fact, some of them you share some DNA with––and some important business deals to attend to. Collin and I will take care of that part. You can enjoy the scenery.”
I swallow as I look at both of them.
A pawn. That’s what I’ll be in this “marriage.” I’ll flash my classic Delano looks and, eventually, split my apparent millions with Collin and Johnny, and they’ll just put me where they want me. For the rest of my life.
As the lump rises in my throat, I picture my father, alive, walking down the street, unafraid.
I picture Dom, Gio, Avie…all free to live their lives without the constant nagging pain of not having avenged their father and always wondering who would make the last move.
I hear Mama.
Un passo alla volta.
22
Dominic - Present
I’m pacing the hall by her room while I wait for Avie to get here. I know there’s a letter waiting for me. But I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it just yet. I’ve gotten a letter from Scarlett before, and it just about crushed me. I may be older now, but I still think it would crush me just as hard.
Finally, I draw in a breath and go in her room. I can still smell her as I look around the empty space. The bed is made perfectly, but there are no clothes around, no bottle of lotion or perfume, no jewelry on the dresser. It’s empty. Just like I suspect my life is about to be. I walk over to the desk where the letter is sitting, folded back up, and reach for it.
Dear Dominic,
I never thought that I’d have to write you another one of these letters. I thought, after the first time, I’d never go through that same heartache again. I never thought that, after the first time, I’d have to put you through this again.
But I was wrong.
I can’t tell you everything. In fact, there’s not a lot I can tell you. I spoke with Johnny Dexter in person. I know how I can save my father from his mistakes. And most importantly, I know how I can save you. I can end the feud between Johnny’s family and yours. I can give you and your family the peace you have deserved for so long.
And most importantly, I can know that you are safe. Free from all of this. And that’s what I really need.
The only thing harder than walking away from you would be knowing that I could have kept you safe and didn’t.
A long time ago, you told me that we could do hard things together.
You were right.
We can do hard things––together or not.
Being yours is the best gift you could have ever given me. I will look back on our love and know that it was my end game. And no matter where we both end up, I will know that the love I have for you will last until the day I die, and then some.
My peace, my love, my world.
Endlessly,
Scarlett
I read the last line over and over again.
My peace, my love, my world.
She left me again, and just like last time, she thinks it’s going to keep me safe. She thinks it’s so that I can have a better life. But what she doesn’t realize is that she is my life.
I squeeze my eyes shut as I fold it back up, pounding my fist down against the wood of the dresser as I storm back out of the room and down the stairs.
I’m sitting on the bottom step at the end of the staircase when my sister and Leo walk through the front door. Our eyes meet, and I can see the guilt behind hers. Like she knows something. She kept something from me. We don’t exchange greetings. I just get up, and she follows me into the dining room where Gio is already waiting for us. The four of us sit down at the table, and I let out a breath before I clasp my hands together and look at her.
“What do you know?” I ask her, keeping my voice low and calm, as hard as it may be.
She and Leo exchange a glance, then she takes a breath.
“Yesterday, she called me when you were out,” Avie says. “She said she needed my help, and I couldn’t tell anyone.”
My eyes grow wide.
“She told me that she had to figure out what Johnny wanted. Why he wasn’t having Sal killed. And why he was coming after us again.”
“So…”
“So, I came and picked her up, and we told you we were painting,” Avie goes on. I feel the blood in my veins get hotter as it courses through. “But really, she was asking me to take her to Melio’s.”
I stare at her in disbelief.
“Avianna,” I say, my voice low and raw. “Tell me you didn’t take her to Melio’s. Tell me you didn’t take my girlfriend to see the man who fucking killed our father. Tell me you didn’t take her to see the man who will probably kill her!”
I slam my hand down on the table, and I feel all eyes on me. I see Leo move closer to her, and Gio carefully weighs the situation. He knows I’d never lay a hand on any woman, let alone my baby sister, but he can’t say the same about her. And when she feels cornered, Avie doesn’t normally hesitate to attack.
“I took her to Melio’s,” Avie says, her voice calm, her eyes set on mine. “She wanted to make sure you were safe. And so do I, you idiot.”
“Avianna!” I say, swiping a hand down my face and shoving my chair back from the table. “Goddammit!”
“Calm down,” she says, and I feel my eyes widen as my head whips back to her. “It makes no fucking sense that Johnny hasn’t had Sal wiped from the face of the planet. You obviously haven’t been able to figure it out either. She wanted to see if she could take a different approach.”
I narrow my eyes at her.
“So what happened?”
“Johnny said he’d only talk to her in private, so she told me and Leo to wait outside. She told me he didn’t tell her anything that helped. But apparently, she’s a good liar.”
Now I see red as I take a step toward her. Leo stands from the table, positioning himself between me and my sister.
“You don’t want to come any closer, my man,” he says, his voice calm. She reaches up and tugs his arm, pulling him behind her.
“By all means, let him,” she says to him, but her eyes are on me as she stares up at me. “You know damn well that if the tables were turned, you’d do the same fucking thing. So you can fuck right off.”
My heart thuds against my chest as I look down at her. Fuck. She’s right.
“If you two are done bitching at each other,” Gio says, “why don’t we figure out what the fuck we’re going to do next?” We both turn and look at him, and finally, I nod. I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial the missing piece.
“Dominic?” Sal’s cowardly voice answers the phone.
“Sal,” I say. “Where are you?”
“At my place. Why?”
“I’m sending a car for you. I need you here as soon as possible.”
“What’s going on, Dom? What’s happening? Where’s Scarlett?”
“That’s what you’re going to help me find out,” I tell him then hang up.
A half-hour later, Wes pulls back in, and Sal gets out, looking around like a lunatic as he hurriedly walks up the front stairs. I lead him into the dining room, and he sits down with my brother, sister, and me, looking from one Castiano to the other.
“Where is Scarlett?”
“She left,” Avie says. “This morning. On her own. After she met with Johnny Dexter last night.”
Sal’s eyes are big.
“What? Dexter? How...why would...how could you let this happen?”
I clench my fists, but before I ca
n speak, Gio does.
“She’s in this mess because of one person and one person only, Sal. And that is you. So it’s best you start fucking talking so we can figure this out,” Gio says.
Sal nods like a maniac as he wipes his brow on his sleeve.
“Tell us what Johnny would want with her,” Avie says. “He was all too pleased to see her and said he needed to speak with her privately.”
Sal’s bottom lip begins to tremble as he rubs his temples.
“Sal?” I say. “What does Johnny want?”
He draws in a shuddered breath before lifting his eyes to mine.
“He wants her.”
For the next few minutes, I listen while Sal explains that his late wife was basically Italian royalty of sorts. That her bloodline can be traced back centuries, and so can their fortune. And when she turns thirty, Scarlett is the sole beneficiary to her mother’s share of said fortune. So, if—when Scarlett marries Johnny’s nephew, the Dexter family is tied to her family tree.
But the Delano name is more than just a name and an inheritance. It’s the key to linking up with the other syndicates. It’s the key to making sure that the Dexters are set for life. That even though Johnny is only half-Italian, he reaps the benefits of his heritage for generations to come.
I stare blankly ahead as he finishes.
“They can’t kill me till they have her,” he says. “So now, I guess…”
“Something tells me Scarlett made a deal out of this,” Avie says. “Why else would she have gone off on her own? She voluntarily left. I think you’re safe, Sal.” She looks at me and Gio. “I think she’s making sure we all are.”
I pound my fist against the table again.
“No,” I growl. “Johnny doesn’t get to win this way. I won’t let her sell her soul to the devil just because of the life we chose.” I look up at Sal. “Tell me something, anything, that will help us get her back.”
Sal thinks for a moment.
“There’s one guy, Kenny James. He still has some ties to Johnny, but they’ve had their rough patches. We still talk now and then. I don’t know how much he’ll know, but it could be a start.”
“Give me his info,” I say.
23
Dominic - Present
Gio and I are posted outside of Kenny’s last known address, according to Sal, while Leo and Avie go across town to some bar he apparently frequents. We figured, between the two spots, we’d catch him somewhere. Wes is at the house, keeping an eye on Sal—partially to keep him safe, and partially because I still don’t trust the bastard.
“That him?” Gio asks, nudging me as I stare blankly ahead, my chin resting on my fists. I look up, quickly opening the grainy photo on my phone that Sal had sent me to work from. He was definitely younger in the photo, but the thick eyebrows and droopy cheeks are the same. He’s definitely our guy.
I nod and open the door. Gio does the same, and we walk around the front of the car, our pace brisk. We follow him inside the building, Gio next to me as we follow him toward the elevators.
We walk up behind him, exchanging a quick glance and nod, and then Gio pulls his gun,
pressing the tip of it into Kenny’s back. He gasps, his eyes wide, but before he can make a scene, I stand next to him and squeeze his arm.
“Kenny, I need you to listen to me. My brother and I need you to come with us. My name is Dominic Castiano.”
His eyes grow even bigger as he breathes in and out, slowly raising his hands.
“Don’t ask any questions. Don’t say anything else. Just turn around and follow me to the car. My brother will be right behind you.”
He nods slowly, doing just as we say, following us all the way out to the car before I open the back door and let him slide in. I pull my gun then slide in next to him, making sure he sees the metal as I do, in case he gets any ideas.
Gio gets in and starts the car, calling Avie to tell her to meet us at the warehouse. I turn back to Kenny.
“What...what do you want from me?” he asks, his voice hushed and shaky.
“Just some information. In due time. Relax, Kenny. We’re going on a field trip.”
Twenty minutes later, Gio is pulling the car up to a locked gate. He reaches out his window to enter the code that my father set years ago and waits for the gate to open before pulling through. He drives down the long gravel driveway before parking the car next to the door of the huge warehouse that sits at the back of the lot.
My father purchased this property when I was just a kid. It’s where he did his particularly dirty jobs. It’s where he came to get information he needed. It’s where many men came to die.
Tonight, Kenny will decide his own fate.
We get out, and I hold the door open for Kenny. Gio unlocks the building, locking the big red doors behind us again, and leads us down the long hall to the stairs at the end. When we get to the bottom, he flicks on the big fluorescents, and Kenny shields his eyes. The room is more like a cell: concrete floors and walls and a single chair that sits under a swinging lamp in the center of the room. I look around the room for a moment. I haven’t been to the warehouse since taking the crew back over from Ave all those months ago. I think about all the things that have happened in this room, all the blood that’s been spilled, all the people I thought might lose their lives, all the ones that actually did. In a normal family, all of these incidents would probably be considered “trauma.” And I’m sure they’re the reason my siblings and I don’t blink an eye when it comes to death. Our trauma manifests itself as power. I’m not a fool. I know it’s unhealthy. But I don’t know how to live any other way. Maybe someday, when I have her back in my arms, I’ll take the time to figure that shit out. But right now, it’s one more survival scheme.
I turn back to Kenny.
“Take a seat, Kenny,” I say, offering him the only chair in the room. He looks at me with so much distrust in his eyes but slowly sits down. He’s been in a chair like this a time or two in his life, I can tell.
“Please,” he says, “tell me what the hell is going on here.”
I take in a slow breath.
“Look, Kenny,” I say, walking toward him and taking my jacket off slowly, “I need some
information. I need it all, and I need it fast. If you give it to me, my brother here will bring you right back to your apartment within the hour. If you don’t, you will never leave this warehouse. Do you understand?”
He nods slowly, his eyes wide as saucers.
“I need you to tell me everything you know about Johnny Dexter. I need to know where his houses are. I need to know where he flies out of, where he parks his cars, where he would have a family...wedding.” I barely choke the word out. The thought of her marrying someone else is maddening. But the thought of her marrying a Dexter, and only because she’s trying to save us, is excruciating.
“Oh, Jesus,” Kenny says, starting to spit and sputter. “Not Johnny, please, I–– If I say anything, I’m a dead man––”
“On the contrary,” Gio says from behind me, “if you don’t say anything, you are a dead man. Start talking, Kenny.”
“Fuck, man,” he says, running a hand down his face. “I don’t...I can’t…”
I feel the control slip out of my body. I take a step toward him and cock my fist back, landing it right on his left cheek.
“Strike one, Kenny,” I say between gritted teeth. “Johnny has something very important to me. And every second you sit here and bitch around could be detrimental. Speak.”
“Well, he’s got the place downtown, the place in Bedford-Stuy...he, uh, he goes to Melio’s a lot and, uh––Jesus, I don’t know! He, uh, he goes to––” Then he pauses. I lean in closer. “Wait, did you say a wedding?”
I nod.
“What...what does Johnny have that’s yours?”
I narrow my eyes on him as I contemplate whether or not to answer.
“It’s the Melucci girl, isn’t it?” he whispers, and I grit my teeth. He takes
my non-answer as a yes and swipes a hand down his face again. “He’s gonna go home. He’s gonna go back to Italy.”
“He’s what?” Gio asks.
“That’s all part of Johnny’s biggest plan. Once the families were connected, he was gonna go back home to meet the girl’s family. Set up some new, uh, accounts. He’s gonna fly outta the Robinson Airfield.”
I take a few steps back, walking in a circle as my mind moves at a mile a minute to try and come up with some sort of plan. But before my mind can clear, I hear Gio on the phone.
“Ave, call Wes. We need you and Leo to take the route from his place in Bedford. Tell Wes to take the route from Melio’s. We will come from the warehouse. They drive––” He motions to Kenny and snaps his fingers.
“Probably the Lincolns. All black,” Kenny says.
“Black Lincolns,” Gio says. “Let us know if you come up on them first, and we will do the same. They’re going to be headed to Robinson Airfield. Call the other guys, too. We might need some backup.”
He hangs up and looks at me, nodding slowly.
“Thank you, Kenny. Let’s go,” I say.
Within minutes, we’re back on the road, speeding down the parkway. My knuckles are pale from clenching my fists so hard, and my heart is beating so fast that it’s making me nauseated. I have to get to her. I have to stop them.
As we pull back into downtown Brooklyn, we pull over to let Kenny out a few blocks from his apartment and speed away. My eyes are jumping back and forth from every car and every street corner. And then, Gio calls my name.
“Dom, look,” he says, motioning two intersections up where two black Lincolns are turning left in front of us. I scoot up closer to the dash as Gio calls Avie on the speaker phone. “Ave, I think we’ve got them. Kings Highway and Fifth. They’re seven, eight cars in front of us. Okay.”
He hangs up and then gets over into the right lane, trying desperately to weave in and out of traffic to make our way closer. As we reach another light, we’re back two cars now. But when I stretch my way up to the windshield, I see her profile, the long blonde locks, the perfectly pointed nose.
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