by Bethany-Kris
Dino never argued his father’s fate—never once spoke against the people who said Joseph earned the punishment that put him in the ground. And despite learning that it was Joseph’s own brother to pull the trigger—Ben, that was—Dino’s only desire was to protect his siblings from a similar fate.
Traitors ate bullets.
Simple as that.
But that didn’t mean he liked it.
Or that it didn’t fill him with rage every time he considered his mother being caught up in it all.
Valerie had been an innocent, stuck in a mess of her husband’s making, a man she loved, yes, but not one she was able to protect. Like most mafia wives, she was born into the lifestyle with a father and grandfather who had been gangsters, and she married a man just like them because that was what she had been taught to do. She raised her family from home, never working or asking for more than what her husband provided because women of the mafia were expected not to complain if they wanted to keep their husbands at home, in their bed and their place.
Dino remembered his mother being sweet—loving her husband and her family.
She only died that night because she’d opted to stay in with Joseph, instead of taking one of her very infrequent ladies’ nights that had been pre-planned.
Sighing, Dino wished all of this past shit was easier for him to deal with, but it wasn’t. It was these choices, both those he made himself and those made by his father, that led him to the hell that was Ben DeLuca.
Maybe he hated the dead man a little for it.
Not his mother, though.
Never her.
Bending down in front of the gravestone, Dino pulled the pristine white handkerchief from his suit pocket, and began wiping the bits of dirt and blades of grass from the front of the shiny marker. He read his mother’s name, and took in the dates she had lived and died.
He always tried to stop by whenever Sunday rolled around.
Guilt was a silent killer.
Dino couldn’t help but wonder if he had stayed, if he had done what his mother and father wanted all those years ago, would she have been spared? Would she have been home, or gone like she was supposed to be?
Would he have died, too?
She was the innocent one.
He was filthy like his father.
Why did those who deserved angel wings earn them far faster than those who didn’t?
“Lily’s gone to Europe,” Dino said to the gravestone, tucking the cloth back into his pocket. “She was pretty determined to go, Ma, and I didn’t want her around here more than she needed to be. I love her—she needs to be happy, right?”
It’d taken years, but Dino finally had the control over his siblings that he’d fought for where his uncle Ben and aunt Carmela were concerned. After the death of his parents, Ben had beaten Dino black and blue that very same night when he thought to take his brother and sister with him to be cared for.
Ben couldn’t have that—he wanted control.
Control of the DeLuca name, of the children left behind that he could shape and mold, and of the teenaged boy he’d already been slowly moving away from his father.
Ben wanted all of that, and he’d gotten it.
That was the first time Dino learned Ben was not to be trusted.
The second time was worse than the first …
“Anyway, she’s happy, and keeps sending me postcards with pictures,” Dino explained.
To some it probably seemed stupid for him to talk to a grave. His mother’s body had long rotted away in a casket six feet under, and her soul was gone high above, likely.
But it helped.
Very few things helped Dino.
Knowing he had to go and chat with Riley Conti for the sake of peace and business, Dino said a quiet goodbye to his mother, giving the headstone one more pat with his hand before he stood straight. Dino fixed his jacket as he weaved in and out of the other markers, careful not to step on the graves as that was just disrespectful to the dead.
And he’d kill any fucking fool who stepped on his mother’s grave.
He’d just stepped onto the stone pathway heading back toward the parking lot of the church when something rammed back into him from behind.
The quiet ommpf sound was followed by a quick apology.
“Sorry!”
Dino spun on his heel, coming face to face with a young woman that held a large camera in her hands and eyes so wide he was pretty sure he would be able to see his reflection in the brown depths if he looked hard enough. She was pretty—beautiful, even—in an unassuming way, with her earth-toned clothing and her long, caramel-colored hair tied up in a messy bun at the very top of her head. The sunglasses on her head fell down over her face, hiding those eyes of hers, as she took another step backward.
She pushed the sunglasses back to the crown of her head.
Dino was still staring at her, quite unsure of what to do.
“You okay?” he asked.
The woman nodded, smiling just a bit.
That led his attention to the gentle curve of her pink lips, and the way her shoulder lifted at the same time.
“My fault,” she replied. “I was walking backward to get the right shot—missed you coming out from behind the statue. Nice day for photos, though, so I couldn’t help myself. I get the best ones in the cemeteries.”
Dino’s brow furrowed.
She talked a lot.
He barely talked at all, even when he was forced into conversation.
Maybe that was why he felt so awkward standing there, unsure of what to say or if she even wanted him to.
“I saw you, though,” the girl continued. “Over there, right?”
She pointed back toward his mother’s grave.
Dino just blinked. “Uh.”
She didn’t seem the slightest bit put off by his lack of communication, instead, rolling right on with whatever she had to say next.
“It makes me curious when I’m photographing cemeteries and see people talking to graves or whatever, and I almost stop them to chat, but never do. It wouldn’t be right.”
Yet, there she was, talking to him.
That was not lost on Dino.
She stuck her hand out, offering it to him.
“Karen Martin,” she said.
Dino’s gaze flicked down at her hand, and without his permission, lifted his own to take hers. There was a warmth to her skin that wasn’t in his, he noticed. They were both outside, so there was no real reason for the temperature difference.
Karen smiled widely. “You should tell me your name, it’s only fair.”
“Dino,” he said, surprised at how quietly his name came out.
“Do you come here often?”
Again, he answered, more honestly than perhaps he should have spoken. “Once a week usually to visit my mother.”
That brightness in her features dimmed just a bit, but she still managed a smile.
Dino couldn’t help but notice that it was a beautiful smile.
Even when it was sad.
“Can I make a confession, Dino?” Karen asked.
Dino eyed her, both curious and a little wary of her sunny disposition while she stood chatting happily in the middle of a cemetery with a man she didn’t know from Adam.
“Go for it, Karen.”
“Me bumping into you wasn’t really an accident,” she said with a wink. “You looked sad—I wanted to see if I could make you smile.”
He wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.
Karen shrugged her one shoulder again, letting go of his hand and pointing at his face as she took a step backward. “And you are, Dino. Smiling, I mean.”
Was he?
Karen laughed, a sweet sound that reminded him of a melody, floating in the wind and being carried further away. “Have a great day, Dino. And if you need to smile next Sunday, I might be around.”
Before he could reply, Karen was already gone back up the pathway, and disappearing behind a rather large statu
e in the cemetery.
It took two minutes for Dino to get back to his car.
His reflection in the driver’s window confirmed Karen’s statement.
He was smiling.
How strange …
“FOR the sake of business?” Theo snarled.
Dino barely passed his younger brother a glance at his show of anger—it wasn’t unusual for Theo, as far as that went. “We all have to play nice with people we don’t like, Theo.”
“Riley Conti is a fucking—”
“Cool it,” Dino interrupted, finally giving his brother his attention. “We’re in the middle of a fucking church parking lot. The least you could do is keep your tantrum at a quiet level so that we’re not sharing our problems with the goddamn neighbors. It’s not like they need more to gossip about where the Outfit is concerned.”
“Right, that’s what you’re worried about, not the fact that Riley is a cocksucker who can’t be trusted. Let’s jump in bed with the snakes, huh? Sure.”
“Theo—”
“Fuck you, Dino.”
With that last statement, his brother pushed off the side of the vehicle and stalked off, heading toward his own car down the lot.
Dino stared up at the sky, wishing for patience. He wasn’t exactly surprised at how the conversation had gone with Theo, as this was how it usually went whenever they had to discuss things. Especially if Dino had to put restrictions on his brother’s business in some shape or form.
The week had been hell.
He’d done his business as he was supposed to, and worked out a deal that Riley would be happy with, but one that Theo would not be pleased about having to contribute to. Because the Conti and DeLuca territory lines were so close together, it only made sense for the families to work together when needed.
Unfortunately, that meant Theo, being the leader of the crew on the streets, would need to answer to Riley at times when business intermingled.
It was a shitty situation, but required.
He didn’t know what else to tell his brother.
Theo would have to suck it up.
Dino was forced to work with Ben DeLuca every day of his life, and he despised that man with all the fibers of his being.
Nobody said being a made man was fun or easy.
It was far from it.
Frustrated but refusing to show it, Dino headed toward the cemetery, wanting to check his mother’s grave and update her on the week.
Right, he thought, and that is it.
It certainly wasn’t to see if Karen was there again, like she had promised to be, taking pictures and making him smile.
He certainly hadn’t thought about her at all or their brief encounter.
He most definitely wasn’t curious about her.
Dino didn’t have time for those sorts of things. His life didn’t allow for things that made him smile or gave him a reprieve from the constant darkness shadowing it, not even a brown-eyed stranger with a soft smile and a sweet laugh.
Absolutely not.
And yet, as Dino stepped into the cemetery just beyond the iron gates and large stone wall that was too high to see over, the very first thing he did look for was Karen. He didn’t know the woman at all, and while he’d been tempted to see if he could find out more about a Chicagoan photographer that went by the name Karen, he opted not to.
Dino didn’t make an effort to have relationships of any sort. Not romantic, or even friendly. They never ended well, and he wasn’t the type, frankly. He didn’t have the time or care for it.
But even if he did … a thick fear curled around his throat like a noose, threatening to strangle him with the force of the invisible feeling.
He couldn’t afford love of any kind.
Like everything else, it would only be taken away.
It didn’t matter, it seemed.
Karen was nowhere to be seen in the cemetery.
Ignoring the heaviness settling in his gut at the realization, Dino made his way to his mother’s grave. He spent a good ten minutes there, cleaning off her stone and talking quietly. It was only when he stood and turned to leave did he pause.
Karen stood far back, sitting on a stone bench with the camera in her hands once again. She raised it, and snapped a picture of him before calling out, “I was a little bit late today.”
Dino found himself smiling again. “Oh?”
“Traffic is a bitch.”
He laughed, taken off-guard at her crass candor.
“No pictures today then?” he asked, walking toward her.
Karen glanced down at the camera, focusing on the screen as she pressed a button over and over. “I got the ones I wanted.”
Dino didn’t ask her for more information, instead, taking a seat beside her on the bench. “Why cemeteries?”
“Sundays are for cemeteries. Mondays are for birds and trees. Tuesdays are for people. See where I’m going with this?”
He did.
“Whatever catches your attention, huh?”
“Pretty much,” Karen said. “Of course, I have to feed myself and pay the rent on my loft, so the majority of my time is spent on people who pay.”
“Interesting.”
“You don’t sound interested,” Karen noted.
He was.
More than he could explain.
More than what was safe.
Quickly, Dino stood from the bench, brushing invisible dust from the arms of his suit. “Have a wonderful—”
“Did I say something wrong?”
He didn’t know how to explain it to her, but it wasn’t her that was wrong.
“No, but I have to go. It was nice seeing you again.”
Pleasant.
Cold.
Distant.
Dino didn’t know how to be any other way. He didn’t let people close because they didn’t stay that way for long. He didn’t think it was fair for them to be hurt because he was weak. He was far better at being alone, anyway.
No, it certainly wasn’t her that was wrong.
It was all him.
Karen was still peering at Dino with curiosity burning brightly in her gaze. “I’ll be here again next weekend.”
It was then that Dino knew this strange woman was interested in him, for whatever reason. How many times could she photograph the same cemetery?
It didn’t matter that he might like to know a bit more about her, too.
Or even why she was curious about him.
He wasn’t allowed to have things that made him happy—it had to be given. When he took happiness for himself, it was always ripped away.
“I won’t be here,” Dino told her.
With that, he walked away.
Ben tipped his glass of whiskey in Dino’s direction, giving him a look that said his next statement was not going to be something Dino liked.
“Your sister—call her back from Europe. It’s been too long.”
Dino used his own bottle of beer to hide the frown starting to form. “I’m not calling Lily back. She’s fine over there.”
“She needs to be here, Dino. Get her set up in a marriage of good standing.”
Absolutely not.
Dino couldn’t outright refuse Ben, given he was the head of the DeLuca family, and the Outfit’s underboss, but he could use what bit of power he had to divert attention.
“Soon,” Dino promised. “I haven’t picked someone yet, or even offered.”
“Tommas Rossi—”
Dino’s teeth grinded, but he managed to interrupt Ben with a quiet but firm, “No.”
“Is it Tommas you take issue with, or a Rossi?”
Certainly not the Rossi family.
“Tommas is looking at someone else,” Dino said, offering nothing else.
He didn’t know if it was true. He had no idea if the Rossi Capo was looking at any woman as a wife, but Dino did know it wouldn’t be Lily.
“Joel, then,” Ben said.
Was that what they were going to do?
> Toss out names of men in the Outfit until Ben hit the one Dino would agree to marry his sister off to?
“For now, she’s fine where she is,” Dino repeated.
Ben didn’t look all too pleased, but it was what it was.
Unfortunately, if Ben really wanted Lily married off, all he would need to do was make a few phone calls of his own, set up the arrangement, and call her home. Dino wouldn’t get much of a say.
And the only say Dino would have, was if he ended up being the person to set up Lily in a marriage of his choosing.
She would hate him for that, he knew.
It would be unforgiveable to her.
Dino figured he had a bit of time before he’d have to worry about all of that. A couple of years, hopefully. A whole lifetime to someone of Lily’s age, essentially. Maybe when he did finally step in, to save her from having their uncle pick her a husband, she would understand why Dino had been the one to choose.
At least he would pick a man who would love her, care for her, and give her the world.
Maybe he already had a man in mind, but … time.
He had time.
“And Theo,” Ben added, resting back in his desk chair.
Dino had all he could do not to roll his eyes. “What about Theo, Ben?”
“Find Theo a wife—he needs the same thing Lily does. It might even settle him down a bit.”
The laugh that broke free from Dino’s chest was both sardonic and bitter.
“That’s never going to happen,” Dino told Ben, knowing it was true. “If you want to keep Theo compliant and happy doing what you want him to do, then your best bet is to leave him the hell alone. Theo will get married to whoever the fuck he wants, whenever the fuck he wants, and you’ll get no say in it all, Ben, so don’t waste your time.”
Dino knew better than to poke at his uncle in such a way that was almost taunting in nature. Ben had no patience for that, and had zero qualms with reminding Dino of just how powerless he could be against him.
But it had been the truth.
Ben needed to hear it.
“Is that so?” Ben asked.
“I say it for your benefit,” Dino replied, “not mine. It’d be a headache, and nothing more.”
“I suppose that only really leaves us with one person to move our family up in the Outfit, then.”