Dario

by Eden Butler

  I hadn’t missed thunderstorms while I was in prison. Or, if I’m honest, lying to hot women. The storms were easy enough. Inmates missed the rain because the guards weren’t about to stand out in the middle of a storm to make sure we didn’t fuck each other up like a bunch of primal idiots pounding our chests, tempting God as the bottom fell out of the sky. The hot women thing hadn’t been a problem at all because the only ones I saw in prison were in my memory fueling my wet dreams.

  Months free from that hell, and I was messing with both.

  Cuoricino hadn’t seen a storm like this in decades. Great fat pools of rain jammed the intersection half a block from my brother’s office while the drivers dumb enough to risk getting through the flooded roads seemed unable to move faster than a toddler on a three-wheeler.

  I hated rain, always have.

  And fuck me if for some reason I couldn’t name why I hated lying to that woman. Never bothered me before today. No idea why it did now.

  “Run,” Ricky said, holding open the thick metal door at the side of my brother Dimitri’s office building. The man held up his fat fingers over his eyes as I jogged down the small alley and darted through the door bringing the storm with me. “Shit’s sake.” Rick pushed the door closed, head shaking as I tugged off my coat, dripping water on the carpet. “Smoke will have a fit,” he said, using the name everyone but family called my big brother.

  “He can afford to get this bitch cleaned.” Stomping on the beige carpet I stuffed my gloves in the pockets and tossed Ricky my coat. “He busy?”

  “Been waiting on you, man.” He nodded toward the hallway, then followed behind me as I moved down it.

  The place was stifling because my brother’s guards were pussies and always cold. He never cared one way or another, but the temperature was a drastic change from the frigidness outside.

  Dimitri sat at his desk, long-sleeved button-up pushed to his elbows, his tattoos visible, as Dino, his chief guard leaned on my brother’s desk listening as the man himself finished with something about the north dock deliveries.

  “…tell that asshole if he’s late again—” When he spotted me walking into his office, he waved Dino off, staring at me with his brows shooting up in a silent question.

  I exhaled, falling into the chair flanking his desk, scrubbing the rest of the rain out of my hair.

  “Well?” my brother said, not relaxing until I moved my head to the side, using the towel Dino handed me to dry my face. “Dario—”

  The towel fell to the floor in a soaked thud as I leaned back. “Piece of cake,” I said through an exhale.

  “Bullshit. That woman has been stubborn as hell. There’s no way she agreed after one conversation with you.” Dimitri watched me, his mouth pulled down.

  “Oh, she didn’t agree to pay up.” I stretched out my legs, debating if I should ring out my wet socks or ignore the sensation of water between my toes. “I’m trying something else.”

  “Shit.” My brother turned his chair, rubbing his fingers over his forehead. “Why do I get the feeling you are about to do some bullshit that’s only going to piss me off?”

  “Relax, man. It’ll be cool.” He didn’t buy the fake surprise I pushed on my face, but the expression did get a laugh from his boys.

  He looked me over, twisted his lips together like something was stuck between his teeth and he couldn’t get it out. I knew that look. It usually came with a warning I wasn’t in the mood to hear.

  “I’m not going to piss you off,” I promised, slouching against the chair when that asshole’s expression didn’t change.

  “What did you say to her?”

  “I asked her out.” Dimitri narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t yell. That was probably coming, though. I wiggled two fingers at Ricky and the man handed over a Marlboro Red.

  “Window,” Dimitri said, his top lip curling. “And explain yourself.”

  He always treated me like a kid. I’d done five years on the inside of one of New York’s worst prisons and that asshole still acted like I pissed the bed every night. The lock was old, it gave easy, and the window had no screen. I lit the smoke, taking in a deep drag before leaning against the sill. “I bumped into her, literally. Scattered her shit on the sidewalk.”

  My brother sighed, releasing his breath like he needed the pause to calm himself. That shit was Dimitri being dramatic. Irritated. He didn’t need to be. I had a plan. A good one, but that asshole still looked at me like I was a clueless rookie. “I played it off. She believed it was an accident.”

  He jerked his chin at Dino, motioning toward the wet bar and his guard hurried to pour my brother a shot of bourbon. Dimitri rubbed his face again, making me think he was rundown and exhausted by his business. But I knew it was the woman who’d taken over his good sense and that cute kid of hers that had my brother distracted. He ran a hand through his dark hair and adjusted the sleeve on his white shirt. “And she wasn’t pissed?”

  “Man, give me a break. I can still do smooth.”

  Dimitri looked me over, watched as I filled my lungs, letting the smoke roll from my mouth and swirl out of the window. The rain was dying down, but the cold hung in the air like a spider web.

  “Bullshit,” he said, downing half his drink. “You aren’t the slick bastard you once were. Besides, you know that woman is going to ask around. They always do.”

  “Not a problem.” I flicked the ash from my cigarette, grinning at my brother when his smile dropped. “She thinks my name is Marco.”

  “Madonna…” he muttered, scrubbing his fingers over his eyelids. “We’re trying to get the woman to trust us.”

  “She will,” I promised, taking another drag. “You don’t have to worry—”

  “Little brother, what the fuck do you think will happen if she goes asking around about you? The only Marco in this town is Mrs. Blake’s twelve-year-old grandson. People will offer that information.”

  “People ignore her. I’ve watched.” I pointed at Dimitri with the cigarette, illustrating my point. “She’s been here for weeks, and the only people who even talk to her are the kids she hired.”

  “Not just kids now. She took on Angelica too,” Dino said, not looking up from his cell as he leaned against the wall.

  “Angelica Robinson?” My brother sat up, leaning on his elbows as he watched his man. Dino stuffed his phone in his jacket pocket and stood up straight, nodding to my brother. Dimitri jerked a glare at me, the muscles in his face tight. “You know Angelica. She only quit the restaurant because she had to drive to Albany every weekend to take care of her folks.”

  “She’s back?” I shot a look at Dino, my stomach dropping when he nodded.

  “Her old man died. Pancreatic cancer. Four months later, her mom went.”

  Angelica had been our mother’s best pastry cook when she took off a year ago. Ma talked about her for months, complaining to me when she and pop came up to see me before I got out. “Why didn’t Ma hire her back?”

  “She said Angelica wanted something slower paced.” Dimitri opened his desk drawer, looking inside it while he spoke. “And now I guess she’s got it, with the redhead.”

  “But she wouldn’t…I mean, she’s not going to warn her off—”

  “Are you shitting me?” Dimitri said, looking up from his desk. “You popped her little sister’s cherry and then moved on to her cousin not a week later.”

  “We were seventeen,” I tried, flicking the cigarette out of the window.

  “Man, you better hope Angelica doesn’t find out you lied to the redhead. She already hates you.” Dimitri didn’t bother hiding his laughter which only got worse when I flipped him the bird. “Okay, fine. Tell me about her.”

  “She’s hot,” I said automatically, not sure why that was the first thing out of my mouth. My brother bit the inside of his cheek, twisting his head to the side like that was info he already had. “I’ll take her out, butter her up, explain to her that the community fee is for everyone.” I ran my fingers throu
gh my wet hair. “I dunno why you’re making such a shit about this anyway. She seems nice enough, and I—”

  Dimitri snapped his fingers, shutting me up. “There are a lot of nice people in this town, little brother. But if just one of those nice people decides not to play along then the entire system falls apart.”

  A headache started forming at the base of my skull, and I popped my neck, ignoring the bent-up expression on my brother’s face. The high I’d had talking to Ava started to fade. My brother’s face said it all. He doubted me. Hell, I doubted myself, and God knew I hadn’t thought the whole Marco thing through. He was right. She could ask around and figure me out.

  But my brother’s lowering smile reminded me of all the other times I’d disappointed him. That couldn’t happen now. “You act like this town is a corporation,” I said, deflecting my worry.

  “It is.” Dimitri inhaled as he nodded for me to sit back at the chair next to him. Shit. It was lecture time. “There are thousands of people who depend on us to keep out the shit that wants in. Finney snoops around our docks at least twice a month, I’ve seen that shit myself. Angelo Falco sent his stupid little brother and crew to East Baymount three months back because Arnie Lincoln had been bragging about the million-dollar client he’d landed for his credit union. It happens all the time. But my guys,” he nodded to Dino, Ricky and Mikey, “and all the others watching the docks and the warehouses, keep that shit out of our town.”

  Dimitri leaned back in his chair sighing like he had repeated this lecture so many times he could do it in his sleep. “That fee the redhead doesn’t want to pay isn’t about the money. It’s about the people in this town feeling like they’re doing something to make sure Cuoricino doesn’t end up like every other small town in this country with drugs flooding in and every damn kid jacked up on meth. We do that. We keep that shit out and if one nice enough person decides they don’t need to participate, then what’s to stop them all from backing out?

  “It’s a statement, man.” He grabbed his drink, slinging back half of the brown liquid like it was mother’s milk. “It’s about keeping Cuoricino safe and free from the bullshit. If this…Ava woman doesn’t want to help, if she refuses to pay, then that sends a message I’m not willing to let slide. She lessens the faith this town has in all of us. I can’t let that happen.” He stared at me for a second, his features hard, his top lip twitching before he shook his head, abandoning his glass to lean forward, his attention on me. “So how does your lie get us any closer to making the woman play along?”

  A low grunt moved out of my throat, and I stared right back at my brother, probably doing a piss poor job of keeping the irritation off my face. “You don’t trust me?”

  “I can’t trust her reaction to the bullshit game you’re playing.” Dimitri sat up, elbow on his arm rest as he considered me. “What? You wanna fuck her?”

  Another sigh and I shrugged, not bothering to lie. “It wouldn’t suck, but that’s not why I’m doing this.” Fact was, the first time I saw her, inside her bakery scrambling to make things neat before her opening, I’d caught a feeling I hadn’t felt in years. Before my kid brother Dante fucked me over by slinging smack out of my bar. Before I took the rap for him and landed in prison for a five-year stint. Seeing Ava, watching her with those kids who worked for her reminded me of something I couldn’t put my finger on. Hadn’t been able to shake that feeling since that first night. Wish like hell I could.

  Dimitri moved his chin, motioning toward me like he needed more of an explanation. I looked away, rubbing the back of my neck when the headache pounded worse. “It was an impulse.”

  “You need to learn how to control your impulses.” He stood, grabbing his drink, shooting a look in it before he downed it. “I don’t have time for the drama.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “How?”

  It wasn’t any different to me than when some asshole on cell block two got all chest pounding and territorial over the weights. Sonny Madison tried to mark his territory the second we came out for rec time. But when my group got bigger and their stares looked more like threats than glances, that asshole bolted, leaving me to my bench and the free weights long enough to get my workout in.

  I smiled, snapping my fingers as my brother stuffed his hands in his pockets. The expression on his face wasn’t easy, but then Dimitri’s face was only ever easy when his girl Maggie was around.

  “She ignores your messages. She kicked Dino and the boys out of her bakery a few days after she opened.”

  “I just wanted a coffee…” Dino piped in.

  “Then go back,” I told him, moving a glance to my brother’s men. “All of you go back in there. Whoever you can spare, send them in there, to her.”

  “When?” Dimitri asked.

  “Every damn day starting tomorrow.” I nodded to Dino, standing as the idea got bigger and bigger in my head. “Drink a coffee and just watch her. Tell the boys to keep their attention on her. Watch her close, like she’s a horny boy who wants under your kid sister’s skirt.”

  “A…what the fuck?” Mickey said, opening his hands like I’d crossed a line.

  “Keep watching her and send in more boys. Make your presence known until you get under her skin.”

  “Jesus, Dario,” Dimitri started, not keeping the laugh out of his voice. “You don’t wanna see how this date pans out first?”

  I hadn’t lied. The date was an impulse that came out of nowhere, but once she’d said yes, I figured it would serve a good purpose. “The date is just to get some intel.”

  My brother pinched the bridge of his nose, doubtful. “You need to go back to the city. Get laid again.”

  “You know what? Worry about your hot little woman and her kid and let me handle my own shit.”

  Dimitri jerked a glare to me, the muscles in his face hardening like something disgusting was about to move out of his mouth. “Keep Maggie out of your head. She’s not your business.”

  “Fine, but shit, man, you gotta trust me.” I moved closer, resting an open hand on my chest, keeping my tone even. “I’m plotting shit.”

  Dimitri moved his head but didn’t look convinced. “I trust you, little brother, but you’re out of practice and I’ve seen the woman. She doesn’t come across as the type to play fair.”

  I stretched my arms, palms up, a little offended. “Who says I’m gonna play with her?”

  Dimitri laughed, and his men copied him, like I couldn’t be serious. “Man, when she finds out who you are she’s gonna play a game you don’t even know the rules to.”

  The headache was a dull throb now. “You got zero confidence in me?”

  “I got plenty.” The smile stayed on his face making him look like an asshole. “But you haven’t gone toe-to-toe with a woman that fucking hot in five years. She doesn’t strike me as anything close to the club girls you hooked up with since you’ve been out. The rules have changed.”

  The back of my neck prickled with irritation as Dimitri’s grin moved into a smile. Hands up, I shook my head. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  I turned when Dino and his crew all laughed louder and Dimitri flopped back in his chair, returning his focus on whatever it was he searched for in his desk. “You’re about to find out, little brother.”

  3

  Ava

  The small restaurant was just outside of the town center, nearly three miles from my bakery. It sat on the corner of a block isolated by several empty or closed stores, giving the place an intimate, quiet feel. When I opened the bronze-colored entry doors and caught the aroma of crispy chicken roasted to perfection, it was enough to tamper down the frozen-to-the-bone sensation I couldn’t shake. The cold had wrapped around me during the short walk from my car to the green building with a gold sign on the door that read “Pho Kang’s Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine.” A loud rumble of my stomach reminded me of another reason I hadn’t canceled on Marco, though I probably should have.

  The restaurant was low-lit w
ith a scattering of tables across the marble tile floors, and most were empty. A sweep of the dining room, past the vacant chairs, and I spotted Marco tucked in a plush leather booth in the back. He didn’t seem to see me at first, and I watched him as he sipped from a mug of something that piped steam above the rim. He looked content, but on guard, his shoulders tight, his attention on the plate in front of him. There was something about the man I couldn’t define. Something that reminded me of the cagey, always-at-attention look my ex’s men perpetually wore. That reminder should have been warning enough, but then Marco rubbed his eyes, making him seem weary and worn. His features stiffened, mouth drawn, and I recognized it as the same expression I often wore when I let my guard down and stopped pretending I had anything in my life together.

  Nearly a minute of this and my head flooded with noise and doubt. This is a mistake, I thought, reminding myself he could be a distraction, a clear detour from the entire purpose of me settling in this town.

  But Marco looked up, his attention on me, as though my hesitation was charged with a current of electricity he could feel surging into the room. His gaze was frozen, working over my face and down my body as I moved farther inside, tugging off my coat as I went. I knew the tight trousers that cupped my ass and fitted sweater that hugged my chest got the attention I intended, though I’d almost convinced myself that wasn’t what I wanted.

  Marco watched my steps with a twist of his mouth, that small piercing glinting in the soft light of the candles on the table as his smirk became a satisfied smile before he stood.

  “Gotta say, sweetheart, you had me doubting my ability to sweet talk a beautiful woman.” He greeted me with an unexpected kiss on the cheek that lingered. Then he moved back, touching my elbow and that smile twisted something deep and sweet in my chest. “Glad I was wrong.”

  Instead of returning his obvious flirting, I glanced at the table. “Banh Xeo?” The aroma of flaky crepe and savory shrimp hit my nose, and I laid a palm flat against my rumbling stomach.