Dominic (Made Men Book 8)

by Sarah Brianne

  Maria stared down at the glittering city below. Like her older brother, Lucca, she enjoyed the view, often visiting his office at the Casino Hotel whenever he wasn’t around to be alone.

  Unlike their father, who had hated it whenever she’d snuck into his office when she’d been a child, Lucca never mentioned it bothering him, even though he knew she did so without permission. As she got older, she had stopped sneaking into her father’s office and found herself in her brother’s.

  She weirdly felt welcomed here, not only by Lucca but by the very room itself. The four walls and the things it held had a presence. It all brought her a peacefulness she didn’t get anywhere else.

  The office door opening behind her reminded her that she could only borrow the room for the small moments in time that she needed it, that it would never belong to her, and would always be the owner’s, who now stood quietly beside her.

  Taking her eyes away from the view, she looked over to her brother, watching him stare out into the night.

  “You’re working with him, aren’t you?” Maria might have asked the question, but she only did so to make him to speak the words out loud. She already knew its validity, though he had never told her.

  It was unlike him. Yes, Lucca kept secrets from her, but he also spilled a lot of them to her whenever he needed to think out loud or bend her ear. This particular information, she thought he would have told her. Made men business wasn’t her business, thanks to being born a woman, but Lucca had always given her a little piece of a dream, making her a part of it. Lately, however, he looked at her no differently than how her father looked at her.

  Lucca didn’t even look away from the city when he answered, “Yes.”

  “And you’re going to continue to work with Dominic, aren’t you?” she asked, again already knowing the answer.

  “Yes.”

  “He killed Kayne!” Maria lashed out, wanting him to look at her. “He fucking murdered the man I love, and you couldn’t care le—”

  “No, he didn’t,” Lucca’s controlled voice cut through her scream. Turning, with his blue-green eyes locked on her, he stared at her unrelentingly.

  The next two words out of his mouth would change her life forever …

  “I did.”

  Maria thought her knees were going to give out from sheer shock as she watched the city lights dance upon his face. Not a single thought came to her brain, only the action of swinging her hand to harshly slap his face.

  Lucca’s face turned back toward the city from the hard slap that his sister had landed.

  “How could you?” she demanded, watching his cheek turn red before the scratch from her manicured fingernail began to draw blood.

  Lifting a finger to his cheek, he touched the cut, sweeping up a drop of red liquid. He stared at his stained fingertip, then simply rubbed the blood away between two fingers. “I did it for your own good.”

  This time, when she tried to slap him, he caught her hand.

  Lucca held her manicured hand firmly in his. “I let you have one, Maria.” Giving her flesh a slight squeeze, he made himself clear. “And that was the only one you’re ever going to fucking get.”

  She couldn’t believe she had ever respected Lucca and, like Dominic, she had one thought. He’s no different than our father.

  Maria snatched her hand back from his grasp. “You had no fucking right to decide what’s good for me. I loved hi—”

  “What you had with him wasn’t love, Maria,” Lucca spat cynically in her face. “That was infatuation with the first man you fucking laid your eyes on who could never be controlled by our father or me.”

  “And how did that make you feel”—snidely, she snickered at him—“when a high school teacher didn’t bow down to you in fear?” She had to look away from the brother who she had once trusted. “No wonder you killed him.”

  “That’s not why he died …” Lucca’s dark voice ricocheted in the room. The second truth she was about to hear would be harder than the first revelation. “Kayne was a…”

  Years ago…

  Dominic drove down the dark road, the pavement made even darker with the rain pelting down. About to turn the corner, Dom flicked his lights off before pulling to the side to park. Cutting his engine, he unzipped his coat, putting his gun within easy reach in case the person he was meeting had something else on his agenda instead of the information he wanted to impart.

  A cold rush of air filtered inside the warm car as the door opened. The darkness enveloped the silhouetted figure.

  Dominic stared at the hooded man as he turned to face him after shutting the door. “Your father, Carlos, won’t be happy to find you sneaking out to meet me at this time of night.”

  “I waited until he was asleep.”

  Warily, Dom kept his eyes on the Marco’s hands as he slunk farther down in his seat.

  “I needed to talk to you.”

  “So you said in your text. What’s up?” Even in the dark, Dom could tell how frightened the kid was. He was trying hard not to be seen inside his car. At three in the morning, no one was stupid enough to be out during the howling rain unless they had to be.

  Dominic was too familiar with the fear Marco was exhibiting for him not to know it wasn’t manufactured to distract him into a sneak attack from one of the Luciano’s enemies.

  “What’s up?” Dom asked again in a more authoritative voice, trying to ease the boy’s fear.

  Marco finally started speaking. “My uncle Luis got in a fight with my aunt last weekend and ended up in jail.”

  “You need to borrow bail money off Lucifer?” Dom frowned, about to kick his ass out of the car with a threatening warning, liking the kid enough not to want to see him become in debt to Lucifer.

  “No,” Marco hastened to correct him.

  Dominic didn’t know where the conversation was going, becoming more curious about what Marco was trying to explain.

  “The cops put Luis in holding until my dad could post bail. He wasn’t alone. He had company waiting to be bailed out.”

  “Who?”

  “Gabriel Evans.”

  “Kayne Evans father?” Dom wasn’t surprised. Gabriel was locked up more time in jail than out.

  “Yes.”

  “You had me come out in the pouring rain just to tell me something that happens all the time?” Dominic started to kick the kid out of the car, reaching for the key to turn it back on.

  “No.” Marco shook his head. “I had you come out because he was bailed out but refused to leave.”

  That got his attention. He moved his hand away from the key. “He wanted to stay in jail?”

  “He was yelling that he wasn’t going to take any help from a cop, even if it was his piece of shit son.”

  Dom sucked in his breath. Kayne was a cop? Dominic knew Gabriel wasn’t talking about his other son.

  “Luis sure he heard him right?”

  “Oh, he’s sure. Luis said they had to taze Gabriel to get his drunk-ass out of the cell.”

  Dom raised a brow. “You sure they didn’t take him to the morgue instead of releasing him?”

  “I checked him out in the morning at the gas station when he came for another bottle. I’m sure.”

  “Who else knows?” Dom asked the kid hastily.

  “No one.” Marco started to shake his head again. “My uncle Luis hit the road, afraid he’d get deported.”

  Dominic didn’t believe that for a second. “If Luis knows, then your whole family knows.”

  Marco just kept shaking his head. “I was the one who picked Luis up from the jail, and I told him to keep his mouth shut or Lucifer would cut his tongue out.”

  That Dom believed. “You tell anyone?”

  “No, just you,” Marco swore.

  “Do me a favor.” Dominic took out the wad of bills in his pockets, peeling off two hundred dollar bills, then held them out to the kid. “Let’s keep it that way.” No one would believe Blue Park’s biggest drunk’s son, Kayne Evans,
had become a cop without proof.

  Marco wouldn’t take the money. “I don’t want your money. I owe you my life.”

  Dom didn’t argue with the truth. Returning the money to his pocket, he was inwardly relieved he wouldn’t have to make up an excuse to Lucifer for being short on the expected amount. “We’ll call it even. Thanks for the info.”

  “Sure thing, Dom,” he immediately agreed, starting to get out of the car.

  “You graduate next week, don’t you?”

  “Yes. I got a scholarship, too, out of state.”

  Dominic decided to impart some advice. “Convince your dad to move with you and forget you were ever a part of this shit yard, kid.”

  “You’re lying …” Maria’s harsh tone drifted off the second she turned back to look at him for his blasphemy when the word cop passed her brother’s lips. One look into his eyes, and she saw the truth.

  Lucca looked at her pitifully. “How does it feel to know the man you claimed to love didn’t tell you the one thing that would make you despise him?”

  “How do you know?” she whispered, racking her brain to think of how she had been deceived.

  “Because I know,” the underboss told her. “Very few did. He was given the perfect cover, one the family wouldn’t even expect. I assume, since they never lucked out with men who were made, they would try to do it through the children. Nero, Amo, and Vincent were all in his class. Leo was his last shot, but then … he met you.”

  Maria felt her knees wanting to give out again as the world slowly spun, thinking about every moment she had shared with Kayne.

  It was as if Lucca could read her thoughts. “Your relationship and everything you shared with that man was a lie.”

  “No … it can’t be. Kayne loved me.” That she believed wholeheartedly. The way he treated her, talked to her were all things out of love. She had been around men her whole life, and they’d only wanted her for two things—sex or power. Maria was beautiful, but it didn’t compare to her last name. To marry the boss’s daughter could grant money, a job, security, and respect from the man who held the city in the palm of his hands. Kayne had been the opposite of those men. She felt it in her bones.

  “I’m sure he did,” Lucca told her truthfully, looking at her. “But you wouldn’t have.”

  It’s true. Even her own conscience told her what she was trying to fight. Maria would have never given Kayne the time of day if she had known he was a cop, let alone try to take her family down. Therefore, Lucca was right.

  It had all been a lie.

  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” she hissed.

  “I wanted to see who you would choose.” Lucca showed her his utter disappointment. “I hoped you knew better.”

  Maria’s hand burned with wanting to slap the so-called boogieman again, but even she wasn’t stupid enough to try it for the third time.

  “Why?” she demanded. “What was so fucking important to know that you risked him getting any information out of me … and our bond?”

  “To see where you fit,” Lucca stated with glowing eyes that matched the city lights that still danced upon his skin. “Or where you once fit in the family.”

  Maria shook her head angrily, knowing he wasn’t talking about their blood. “And now I don’t?”

  “Nope.” Lucca’s cold voice ended her dreams with a harsh slap of reality. “Not when you were prepared to throw your life away and everything you stood for, for a man your brain couldn’t decipher was love or lust. And especially not when there was another man who could have given you everything your little black heart could ever desire.” His eyes whispered the unspoken word, the one thing she wanted—power—before he continued, “And, somehow, on top of all that, he was the one who truly loved you.”

  “Dominic loves me for my last name and what you could give hi—”

  “He fell in love with you the moment he fucking met you,” Lucca snapped, losing control of his voice before he coolly evened it back out. “And if you believe anything other than that, then I’m glad you chose wrong.”

  “How do you even know …?” She trailed off, watching her brother take out a much-needed cigarette.

  Flipping open his Zippo, he lit the end of the stick that he held between his lips. “He didn’t take his fucking eyes off you at our mother’s funeral, but when I picked you up from the bridal shop, he tried too hard not to look at you.”

  Her brows drew together in thought, being reminded of their mother’s funeral. That certain point in time kept being brought up. She had still to learn why Dom—

  Making herself shut down those curious thoughts, she looked back out the full-length window. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  Drawing a long hit off his cigarette, Lucca narrowed his blue-green gaze on her. “You don’t fucking deserve him,” he brutally told her, blowing out a puff of smoke that rolled over her body slowly. “Picking Kayne Evans over Dominic Luciano is the biggest mistake you’ll ever make, Maria. I only hope, when you learn to regret it, it won’t be too late for you.”

  Maria wasn’t the type to walk away, but her heels started gliding her across the room, unable to respond to Lucca’s harsh reality. She didn’t know how to act, feel, or think after the events of the week. First Leo and now Kayne … She could only process one feeling.

  Numbness.

  Grabbing the silver knob, she wanted to give the boogieman a reminder that he wasn’t all he thought he was. “You don’t know everything, Lucca.”

  Twenty-Five

  Poor Leo

  “You get to go home soon,” Maria’s soft words filled the white, sterile space, hoping he would finally talk to her.

  Looking at her perfect baby brother, she saw the white gauze that covered his left eye concealed his only imperfection. It hid the gruesome hole that would never be filled again, but it wasn’t the only thing that wouldn’t be the same.

  Before the explosion, Leo was everything that she and the rest of the Caruso siblings weren’t—funny, charming, sweet, and kind were only the beginning of his appeal. He was the only one to take after their mother, and that was why he was the only person left on this earth who Maria felt any love for. He gave her hope that not all men were bad. Just 99.9 percent of them.

  However, staring at Leo’s single blank stare, she could no longer find the baby brother she had once known. He hadn’t spoken a single word to her since she entered his hospital room and had barely spoken to her at all after telling him what had happened.

  All that was left of poor Leo at the moment was a shell of what he used to be.

  “Kayne’s dead,” Maria blurted out, hoping to get some sort of reaction out of him since he had been his English teacher. When that information didn’t give her a response, she continued on, hoping to shock him at some point. “Lucca killed him because, apparently, he was an undercover cop and not because I”—She paused a moment, needing to correct the words that had been about to roll off her tongue.—“thought I was in love with him.”

  She didn’t know why she was telling him this. At first it was because she was trying to garner some sort of a response from him, but now she only kept talking because it felt therapeutic, and it felt no differently talking to Leo in this moment than it did if she was talking to a wall or the wind.

  Closing her eyes, she tried to decipher her numbness, to see which part of it hurt the most—that Kayne had fooled her, his death, or …

  “I don’t think I’ll ever forgive Lucca for what he did. Not for taking his life, but for not telling me who Kayne was.”

  Opening her eyes when she heard movement, she thought she might be getting a response, but Leo was only reaching his hand out for the cup of water on his hospital bedside table.

  Reaching out slowly, Leo tried to grab the Styrofoam cup, but when his hand clenched, it came up empty. His hand-eye coordination had been totally affected since losing his left eye. The doctor had told him it would take a while for him to adjust to his new sight.

/>   “Let me help.” Maria got up from the chair, going to his side quickly.

  “No, I can …,” Leo frustratingly spoke his first words to her this evening, trying to grab the cup again and knocking it over, spilling the water all over the table.

  “Don’t worry about it; I’ll clean it u—”

  “Just leave me the fuck alone!” Leo screamed, swiping his hand across the table and sending the cup and the rest of its contents flying across the room.

  She froze in place. It was the first emotion she had seen from him since the accident and the first time she had ever seen her little brother angry like this ever.

  Looking into the single blue eye, Maria realized his frustrations. He wanted her to stop babying him, but she was only trying to help.

  When she didn’t leave at his outburst, Leo sighed, going back to staring out the side window, hiding the left side of his face again.

  Taking a deep breath, she sat down on the edge of his bed, seeing Leo retreat to the shell he had become.

  “I’ll never forgive him either,” Maria whispered to the universe, going back to talking about her problems because she sensed it might help. Leo only had people around him focusing on his problems, the constant reminder that he was no longer whole eating him alive. “Dominic locked me in that freezer proving that, not only did he not trust me, but that I can’t ever trust him.”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  Goose bumps coated her skin, though she didn’t know if they were from the fact that Leo was talking to her or from what he said.

  “What?” she whispered.

  Leo turned his head away from the window to face her fully, reminding her why they were here. “The door was unlocked.”

  Twenty-Six

  You Better Pray For Your Soul … Asshole

  It took everything Maria had to knock on the fucking door, her knuckles lightly hitting the wood. She glanced over her shoulder, second-guessed taking the taxi here from the hospital. Thinking he wasn’t going to answer, the door suddenly flung open. However, it wasn’t who she expected.