I didn't even have time to warn Jeanette, and I don't even know what warning I could have given had I had the time anyway.
"What the hell are you doing here?" the brunette hissed under her breath but the hand she grabbed me with was firm, fingernails digging into my arm through the fabric of my suit jacket. I couldn't shake her off without causing a scene. To her credit, aside from a stiffening of her shoulders, Jeanette showed no outward reaction to the hellcat that has just come upon us.
"You've got a lot of nerve showing your face around here, Dino," she continued, and even though I wanted to shake the woman off and continue on like I hadn't seen her I had no choice but to let her keep going. Take it like a man or cause a scene and blow my cover. It wasn't even a choice.
"You look lovely tonight, Vanessa," I said smoothly, warning with my eyes to calm herself before she made things difficult.
"Shut up, stupid. What on earth made you think you could show your face tonight?"
"I'm working." Please let it go, I pleaded silently, even though I knew she wouldn't. I have known Vanessa Affini for the entirety of her twenty-seven years on this earth. If there is one thing I know about her, it is that she will not, under any circumstances, let it go. No matter what it happened to be.
"Some of us harder than others," she murmured under her breath, but I heard her. Her words stung but I couldn't say a thing back to her. I couldn't defend myself. I couldn't plead my case. She was right. I could have let it go, but then she turned her sights on Jeanette, who had been standing silently by my side for the entire interaction with a look of bored disinterest on her face.
"Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?" The emphasis she placed on the word friend was not lost on me, nor was it lost on Jeanette by the way one slim eyebrow arched up in question. Vanessa was a couple of different flavors of bitchy on her best day, but I could tell from the look on her face that she was really getting ready to lay into Jeanette. I couldn't let that happen. Vanessa could be mad at me, and she should be, by all accounts, but Jeanette didn't deserve her spite and I wasn't going to allow it.
"Or does it even matter?" she continued, mouth twisted in a cruel bastardization of a smile. "The faces and the names change so frequently, how do you keep them straight, Dino?"
This time I knew the minute the insult registered by the sharp intake of breath and the tightening of the corners of Jeanette's mouth.
Goddamnit.
"That's enough, Vanessa. You are angry at me, you don't get to be a bitch to Jeanette. She is much too good to put up with your bullshit." Dumbstruck that I even said such a thing, because when would I have ever, Vanessa was silent for a moment. Jeanette, however, was not placated by my chivalrous words.
"Why don't I just leave you two alone? I can see you have some...issues to address. I'll be at the bar, D," she said, and whether or not she used Gabe's nickname for me on purpose or accident I wouldn't know, but it made me feel slightly closer to her at that moment. "Let me know when you are done with your domestic dispute." I flinched inwardly but could only let my face remain impassive as she looked Vanessa up and down, then turned and sauntered away. Smooth Dino was unaffected. The Dino inside my head was clawing at my skull, desperate to get out and explain to Jeanette that it wasn't what she thought. Whatever she thought, it wasn't true.
"Do you feel good about that, Vanessa?" I couldn't even think of the proper words to say, I could only bite back the angry ones that wanted to come out. To lash out at Vanessa for giving Jeanette the wrong idea about us.
"I don't feel good about anything anymore, brother," Vanessa said tiredly, and not for the first time I noticed the dark shadows under my sister's eyes. We didn't look alike at all, mostly because we looked like our mothers and not a thing like the father we shared. Our coloring was similar though. We both had dark hair and eyes, with olive complexions, but that was where the similarities ended. Vanessa was average height and willowy, I was taller than anyone else in the family and had the tendency to hang on to bulk. It's why I worked out as much as I did, better the bulk being muscle than a spare tire. I had to work very hard to stay lean, Vanessa was just born that way I guess.
I moved a little closer to Vanessa. To onlookers it might have looked like an intimate gesture, but in reality, I just wanted to speak to her without being overheard by anyone. "I told you, I'm trying to help in my own way. I just need you to trust me, and you can start by not alienating me from one of the only two closest things to friends I am allowed to have in my line of work, okay?"
"She important to you?" Vanessa wasn't a smartass this time, she was genuinely puzzled. I guess I understood why. The only self I showed even my family was the same self I showed everyone else. Probably because the only time I ever came around was when I was on the job. It had been a few years since I had been home, and the first time my sister saw me was when I showed up at the family restaurant under the guise of a hustler, there to cause trouble in the name of Chaz. It hurt, but it was a pain of my own making. If Chaz Malone knew that Vanessa Affini was my freaking half-sister my cover would be blown wide open and I would be back at square one. Or dead. I was so close to figuring out why he was targeting the family restaurant. It had to be something bigger than hustling protection money. Until I could figure it out, I was going to continue to play the part of Dino, the part-time wise guy, no matter how I hated it. That brought me back to Vanessa's question. Was Jeanette important to me? I barely knew her, and she sure as hell didn't know me but I couldn't ignore that gnawing in my gut that started acting up at the thought of Jeanette Clary thinking poorly of me. Was she important? Who knows?
"She's useful. And she's nice," I amended, because even if every word that came out of my mouth was a lie, they still got stuck in my throat over talking shit about Jeanette. "She is Gabe Anderson's PA and we've worked together in the past. Nothing heavy, but she's pretty smart. She's good people."
Vanessa turned her gaze to Jeanette who was across the room with her back to us. The look in her eyes could almost be called respect. "She works for Gabe? What the hell is she doing with you? You aren't dating her, are you?"
"I don't date."
"Yeah, well, you know what I mean." Of course, I knew what she meant.
"I'm not sleeping with her either."
Vanessa actually cracked a smile. "She out of your league, Dino?" I'm glad she called me by my name, I would have to correct her if she accidentally called me brother again.
"Something like that." Absolutely. I leaned in closer to whisper in her ear, "I'm supposed to be putting the moves on you. Whatever Chaz's obsession with the restaurant is, he is not above getting his hands on things by any means necessary. I'm still trying to avoid the question of why I haven't slept with you yet. It's the best I can do to be one of the guys on duty when he sends boys over to the restaurant. Vanessa, I am doing the best I can right now, truly. I need you to cut me some damn slack."
I pulled back in time to see the look of sheer horror on her face at the mention of sleeping together. I totally understood. Just saying it out loud was enough to turn my stomach. I was a good actor, and I could play a lot of parts, but there weren't enough acting lessons in the world to prepare me to fake a sexual interest in my sister.
"How's Nonna?" I almost didn't get the words out. Nonna was the most important woman in the world to me, and it killed me to have to be on the outside when things were so difficult for her. I would choke Chaz Malone to death with my bare hands before I let him get his hands on my Nonna's restaurant. I may have been the illegitimate firstborn son, but a man's Nonna is his Nonna no matter what, and just because my dickhead father didn't want to marry my ma, didn't mean my grandmother treated me any different. I would paint the earth red in our enemy's blood to protect my Nonna. And fuck Chaz Malone for testing that.
"She's hanging on, but the stress is wearing her down." The heat was gone from Vanessa's words, and for a moment we were just a brother and sister, both worried about our grandmother. "You k
now her though, she puts on a strong front."
I did know, and it only made me more concerned for the health of my elderly grandmother as she tried to stand up against a criminal hell bent on taking something she built from the ground up with my late grandfather.
"I'm working on it, Vanessa," I said as I started walking back towards Jeanette, who seemed to be in a conversation with someone I had never seen before.
"Work faster."
I heard my sister’s mumbled words, but outwardly I gave no indication they had reached me. Inside I could be big brother Dino, but outwardly, this Dino that I was playing today didn't give a shit.
3
Jeanette
Now that was the type of girl I could see Dino spending time with. Raven black hair that fell in clouds around her shoulders and curled down to her waist in the back. Snapping black eyes and curves for days – I don’t know what he did to piss her off, but I could guess, and I really didn’t want to be around to hear while she reamed his ass about it. I had no illusions about my relationship with Dino, but it still stung a bit to have an angry ex-conquest standing right in front of me. I didn't have an interest in him anyway, not beyond a basic curiosity, so I don't know why it made me feel good to have him stand up for me the way that he did. It had probably just been too long since I had gotten laid, that's what it was. It was just that I was not the kind of person who could just go and have casual sex with someone, and I certainly wasn't in any position to be dating anyone, so that left me with several years of sexual drought that I tried not to let turn into a chip on my shoulder. It could have been part of the reason why I was so salty with Dino all the time though. It wasn't fair that he got to be so flagrant with his women, while I pretty much lived the hermit life.
Who was I kidding? I didn't get to be a bitter bitch, this was a life I chose.
In my hurry to get away from what looked to be a rip-roaring lover's spat I went to the only place a person goes into a room full of people they don't know – the bar. I don't drink though, so I didn't even know what I was going to order when I got up there. But I stood in the winding line anyway, sandwiched in front of and behind a myriad of other people in the same predicament. I don't have a problem with alcohol, as a matter of fact, I love a good strong margarita, straight up, no salt on the rim. But alcohol clouds judgment, and I had to be careful at all times, at least when I was out. I was just getting to the point where I could relax and have a glass of wine or two in my apartment, but out in public, no way. I couldn't surrender control of myself like that to another person. Not anymore. Not after what I had been through.
I had just made the snap decision to order a diet soda, about as plain and boring as a person can get, when I felt a hand on my arm. I was caught off guard when I turned and came nose to nose with a vaguely familiar face.
"Gabriella? Are you kidding me? It's really you isn't it?"
Terror. That was what I felt. Absolute terror.
Calm breaths. Face of stone. No one sees your fear.
"I'm sorry, you must have me confused with someone else. That's not my name, I don't know you," I said it as gently as I could while extricating my arm from his. Keep your face blank. No recognition. No expression. No fear. Thank God it was just a guy from the precinct. It wasn't David or any of David's closest friends. I could get out of this. I could. I had seen this man before, but I didn't know him, and it had been years, surgery and about fifty pounds since then even. Gabriella doesn't exist anymore, and Jeanette doesn't know this man. I could still save myself.
I gave him a confused look, like I was tolerating the babbling of a crazy person, and he seemed to understand and took his hand from my arm. "I'm sorry, I mistook you for someone else. I don't know why I thought you would be her, I don't know what I was thinking." He paused to stare at me hard again. I wanted to crawl out of my skin under his scrutiny, and it took every ounce of self-control I had to stay in character. "But man, you sure do look a lot like her, well like half of her anyway," and then he laughed, turned to leave and ran face first into Dino's chest.
Dino, who was a full two heads taller than the guy who had stopped me just stood there, unmoving, a slightly amused look on his handsome face. "What's going on? Anything I can help with?"
I was frozen. Couldn't speak. I couldn't even take a breath or the careful mask of the persona I had created for myself would shatter and I would be exposed. I had already said I wasn't this person he thought I was, why wouldn't the man just leave?
"I'm afraid I disturbed this beautiful young lady thinking she was someone else. I'm really sorry about that, but it's probably for the best. You really didn't want to be her." The eager looking young blonde man that had no business being halfway across the country from where I had seen him last looked Dino up and down, as men have a habit of doing when near one another, and then excused himself as he walked away.
Dino didn't move, just looked at me silently as I stood there frozen, the people who had been behind me in the bar line simply moving around me when they figured out I had no intention of moving forward. What did he see, as he casually perused my face with those solemn brown eyes of his? What kind of picture did I paint, a woman playing dress up, wearing a name and a life that didn't belong to her? Could he see? Could he see my truth? Why wasn't he talking? Why wasn't he saying anything?
Dino seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion as he squared his shoulders and opened his mouth, "Jeanette..."
"Dino, I have to go. I'm sorry, I have to go right now."
And I left him standing there with no other explanation. It didn't matter what I would have said to him, because I could only tell him lies, and for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to say them. I would rather say nothing at all.
Most people are scared of bad guys, but not me. Bad guys have their own skeletons in their closets, so they mind their damn business. It’s the good guys that I have learned to watch out for. Forget a hero, they had shit to prove.
I fell in love with a good guy once. The kind that wears a shiny gold badge and looks smoking hot in that blue uniform. The town hero, the one whose name brought a smile to everyone’s face when they heard it. “David Ashley,” they would say, “he’s good people.”
Yeah, good people. I thought so too. A girl raised in the foster system without a family, I fell hard for that good guy that paid attention to me. Me, Gabriella Hensley, working two jobs and living in a shitty studio apartment so I could get my degree, and be something other than a system statistic. I almost married that asshole too, he was the perfect man – until he wasn’t.
David Ashley was the type of guy who really cared about appearances. Not just what he looked like, but what other people thought of him. He had big plans for his life, or what he would call our life. He had the golden boy looks, fit body, square jaw, and really took care of his physique. “It is important as a police officer," he had said, “to be in top physical condition at all times.” He was in very good shape, and very strong. I knew this from experience.
When we were first dating it was bliss. He wanted to take care of me, he said, but I was adamant about finishing school. I didn’t want to rely on anyone else to achieve my goals, but he was sweet to me, and seemed to need me, so I moved in with him.
It was like reading a Disney fairy tale story and then finding out that I was getting the Hans Christian Anderson ending. My romantic movie relationship turned into a nightmare. At first it was just getting me to quit my second job. That wasn’t a huge deal. Between school and my full-time job as an administrative assistant for a property management company I was busy as it was. He wanted to be able to spend more time with me, and with his schedule changing on a whim at the force something needed to give. It was a small sacrifice, right? To be able to spend more time together?
I didn’t have to afford the apartment on my own anymore, I moved into David’s small house and we got a joint bank account. I made less money than David did so we didn’t exactly split things fifty-fifty, but that
was okay. My paychecks were direct deposited into the joint account and David took care of all the bills. I was free to focus on studying and getting my degree in accounting. I was good with numbers, and even though David wasn’t really interested in my goals for the future, I actually enjoyed what I did.
“I don’t need you to be a rocket scientist, Gabriella. I just need you to be my girl.” Looking back now, those words sounded ominous as shit, but I was young and in love, and I thought he was just really devoted.
Really, really devoted.
Before I knew it, he had control of every aspect of my life, from my schedule, where I went, who I spoke to, and every dollar I made. I still didn’t get the kind of danger I was in, because he had never put his hands on me in anger before.
Until he did.
We had been living together for a full year before the violence started peeking out from behind his expressive blue eyes. Usually I went home for lunch every day, living fairly close to the office, I liked the break in the middle of the day. I liked coming home and having a meal in solitude before going back for the second half. One day though, our office decided to go out to lunch. There were only four of us, my boss Carol, our facilities manager Jones, my work bestie Amy, and myself. It was just a small group having a lunch meeting at the Mexican place down the street. Then we went back to the office, finished our work day, and at five o’clock we all went to our separate homes. I didn’t even have a lunch margarita. If I had known the shitstorm that was coming my way, I definitely would have had the margarita.
He was sitting ramrod straight in one of the wooden chairs at the kitchen table, with the lights off. Scared the living shit out of me when I walked in the door. Sitting with his arms crossed, staring down the hallway at the front door, he never even blinked when I walked into the house. He was supposed to be at work – by the look of him I thought something terrible had happened. I thought that somebody had died.
Dino Page 3