City Of Sin: A Mafia & MC Romance Collection

by K. J. Dahlen

  Theresa gasped and my mother’s eyes went wide.

  I was prepared for a similar reaction to the one I got from Franco and my father. But no choking or slapping happened. Instead, the two women burst into tears and hugged me then hugged each other.

  “We’re going to be grandparents,” my mom said. “I swore this was never going to happen.”

  “Me too,” Theresa said. “Franco wouldn’t even let her date.”

  “Some good that did me,” Franco grumbled from the other side of the room.

  Theresa let go of my mom, walked over to him and gave him a big hug.

  My mother turned to me. “In this day and age? Dante, how could you be so irresponsible?”

  “I was being held prisoner. It wasn’t like I could run out to the store and buy condoms. And well, Annalisa told me she was on the pill.”

  Theresa slapped Franco’s chest. “See, I told you we should have put her on the pill.”

  “Why did she need to be on the pill, she was a virgin?”

  “Obviously, she wasn’t. If we’d have let her go on the pill, she wouldn’t be pregnant.”

  “If he wouldn’t have climbed on top of her, she wouldn’t be pregnant,” Franco said, glaring at me.

  It was not the time to point out that likely she’d been on top when she’d gotten pregnant because she loved that position and came so hard when she was riding me.

  I glanced away for a second and Marco caught my eye.

  He was shaking his head as if he could read my mind. He looked like he was biting back a smile. I couldn’t blame him. This would be kind of funny if it wasn’t happening to me.

  I looked back and Theresa had whispered something in his ear then his expression softened. I hoped he’d let it go. I didn’t want to talk anymore about my sex life with my girlfriend’s father.

  Donnie walked over to me and shook my hand. “I hope we’re cool,” he said.

  I nodded.

  “I’m glad I didn’t have to kill you,” he added.

  “Me too.” I laughed.

  He laughed, but then his face became serious. “But I’ll do it in a heartbeat if you hurt her.”

  I nodded. “I understand, man.”

  I scanned the room to see the three couples huddled in pairs. I’d never wanted that until recently. When I’d seen a guy with his wife or girlfriend, I’d felt bad for him, thinking he must feel trapped. Now I knew different. I walked over to where the picture of my baby lay on the floor, still there from when Franco had choked me. I picked it up and stared at it. I still could only see a bunch of grey stuff.

  “The baby is here,” Lina said leaning in and pointing at a small cluster of grey dots between two plus signs. “It’s way too soon to be anything other than just a little ball.”

  “Looks like a calzone to me,” Marco said.

  I shook my head. We were all still staring at the photo when Detective Williams came into the room. He was without his partner. He walked over to me. “I forgot to give you my card,” he said. He handed me his card and discretely slipped me Jimmy’s cellphone. He didn’t need to be discrete. There wasn’t anyone in the room I wasn’t going to show it to the minute he left.

  As soon as he was gone, I turned it on. I was staring down at the lock screen.

  “Jimmy’s phone?” my dad asked, walking over to me.

  “Yeah, but it’s locked. I need either his fingerprint or his 4 digit backup code.”

  “I’d be willing to go to the morgue and cut off his finger,” Franco offered.

  I knew he was kidding, well hoped he was.

  “Try 2953,” my mom said.

  Everyone looked over at her.

  She was looking down at her own phone. “Last summer Jimmy went to Vegas for a week. He asked me to go take care of his bird. That was his alarm code.”

  I nodded and gave it a try. It worked.

  There was a collective sigh.

  “He’s got 6 missed calls and a bunch of texts.”

  “Who are they from?” my dad asked.

  “The contact says, “Underboss.”

  Everyone looked from me to Marco. Marco was Franco’s underboss and I was my fathers.

  “It wasn’t me!” Marco said.

  I pressed the contacts and read off the number. “Whose number is that?”

  “Vito,” Franco said. “I don’t believe it. How could he? What do the texts say?”

  I scrolled back a bit. “At first it was about killing me, then you. Then it was Vito asking how it was going? Then uh… Jimmy said that he’d messaged me from Annalisa’s phone and that he was going to meet her at the dock.” I read the next message, but couldn’t say it out loud.

  Everyone stared at me.

  “What? What did it say?”

  Marco took the phone from me. His eyes went wide. “It’s about Annalisa. Vito...uh...said he wanted a turn after Jimmy was done. They were um, going to share her after they’d killed Dante.”

  Marco was definitely giving the PG version, because one of the texts I’d read had been from Vito and had said that since she had two holes, they could share. I’d stopped reading when I got to the part about her screaming when he fucked her ass.

  I was going to kill him. No, I was going to torture him, then kill him.

  “I’m going to fucking kill him,” Marco said handing me back the phone.

  “Not yet,” Franco said. “He will be killed, but I want to know who else is with him.”

  “As do I,” my father said. “Was Jimmy working alone?”

  I scrolled some more through his phone. There was one other contact who had messaged a lot. I recognized it as one of our cappos.

  “Why don’t we get them all together in one place,” I suggested.

  “How are we going to do that without tipping them off?” Marco asked.

  I was already texting Vito. “Everything is working out better than planned.” I hit send.

  Marco, my dad and Franco gathered around me to read the messages.

  The message came back in an instant. “Who is this?”

  “It’s me, Jimmy,” I texted back.

  “I heard you were dead and Annalisa shot.”

  “You heard wrong. I popped that punk ass Dante. Cops got it all mixed up. Sal heard though, and he made up the shit about Annalisa to get Franco out of his house. He went to the hospital and popped Franco as he drove up. “

  “You serious?”

  “Yeah and it gets better.”

  “That asshole, Marco, went after Sal and put two in his head. That just happened.”

  I was about to tell Marco to text Vito, but he was already doing it.

  Vito texted back. “Marco just texted me that. He says he’s going to Sal’s to get Annalisa back.”

  “Good, I’ll cap him when he gets here. Tell him to bring Donnie.”

  Marco got a text a minute later. “Take Donnie.”

  I shook my head and looked up at Franco. “My god is he stupid?”

  I sent one more text to Vito. “I’ll text you when it’s done. Gather up all the guys. We’ll have a meeting tonight to tell them the new leadership.” I looked up. “Where should we have them meet?”

  “My basement,” Franco said. “There’s a room near where you were kept. There’s a metal detector at the door. Tell Vito you want everyone to leave their weapons at the door since it’s a first meeting.”

  “Is it true Franco has a room with a metal detector?” I texted.

  “Yeah. In the basement.”

  “Have everyone meet there. No guns. All we need is one rogue guy and this is all for nothing. We have to be careful until we have established order.”

  “Agreed. We’re the new Don’s now. Everyone will bow to our feet.”

  I was about to set the phone down when another text came in. “Bring Annalisa. She can be our entertainment after the meeting. Hell, bring Rita too.”

  I felt sick. What if Annalisa hadn’t heard Vito talking that night? This is exactly how this co
uld have gone down.

  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking that.

  “We were so focused on our feud, we didn’t even see this happening around us,” my dad said.

  “Maybe it’s time to leave the past in the past,” Franco said.

  “We used to rule this town together,” my dad said.

  “You two can again,” it was my mother this time.

  “I’m not sure we can put the past behind us,” my father said.

  “There have been a lot of things said and done,” Franco added.

  “And a lot more things will be in front of us and a lot more things will be said and done. Things that you two are going to miss if you stay stubborn.”

  “What are you talking about Camilla?” my father asked.

  “Well, in case you haven’t noticed your son pacing over there, looking so worried I think he’s about to throw up. I don’t think this is just a fling. When is the last time he told you he was in love with a girl?”

  I looked over at my dad.

  He shrugged, “Never.”

  “And Dante.” She looked at Franco, but spoke to me, “Do you plan on seeing Annalisa often?”

  “Not another day of my life will go by where I won’t see her.”

  “Looks like you’re gonna have company a lot Frankie, unless she’s over at our house.”

  Franco looked a bit upset at those words.

  “And then there’s the baby.”

  I like that my mom assumed that the baby was going to make it.

  She looked over at me. “You’re excited about the baby?”

  “Well, I don’t know if I’d say excited. I mean, I want this baby, and Annalisa does too. I just wish that it wouldn’t have happened accidentally. I would have wanted it to be her choice, and uh, I’d like to have been married first.”

  I saw four sets of eyebrows raise. Yep, I’d said the “M” word.

  My mom turned back to my dad and Franco. “So, you two can be stubborn asses or you can decide to move forward and share in your children and grandchild’s life. Yes, I know it will take time and work, but don’t you think it’s worth the effort?”

  “Let’s take care of Vito and the men he’s gathering. See how that goes, is that enough for you Cami?” Franco asked her.

  It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. Cami? It was the first time I’d ever heard her called that.

  “I’m not going to miss a moment of my grandchild’s life, I’ll tell you that. And I don’t know Annalisa at all, but if Dante loves her, then I want to get to know her and I’m sure I’ll love her too.”

  Marco had been holding Jimmy’s phone. “I’ve been texting. Everyone is meeting in the basement soon. They believe that I’m dead along with Donnie. We have to go now.”

  I looked at them. “I…fuck…I know this is important, but I have to be here when she wakes up. I promised. If she...if she lost the baby, I can’t have her here alone.”

  “Of course, you need to stay,” my dad said.

  “I’m counting on you to protect her. Tell me that I’m making the right decision,” Franco said walking up to me.

  “I’d die to protect her, Sir,” I stated.

  He seemed to like my response, or perhaps the word Sir. It seemed to fit the situation. He turned to Marco and Donnie. “You two can rock paper scissors for who stays here as well.”

  “I don’t need them to stay here and watch me.”

  Franco laughed. “I’m aware of that. I want your focus on Annalisa. If she needs you, go. I don’t want to leave your mother or Lina alone without protection. Most likely, everyone is heading to our basement, but what if even one comes here? I can’t leave them alone.”

  Donnie held out his hand to rock, paper, scissors it out with Marco. Marco was Franco’s underboss and could have easily ordered him to stay. I knew they both wanted to go to take care of the traitors. Marco looked over and Lina whose face was filled with worry and then to me. “Nah. You go Donnie. This is your thing. I’m gonna stay here with the girls and Dante.”

  There was no more discussion. After kissing their wives goodbye, my father, Franco and Dante left. I sat down next to my mom and stared at the photo of my child. I didn’t remember closing my eyes, but after what felt like a minute, my mother was waking me up.

  “Dante...there’s news.”

  I stood and walked over to the doctor who’d entered the room. Theresa was walking over with me. “She’s out of surgery. We were able to remove the bullet without any complications. She’s being monitored in recovery. You can go see her, but she’s not awake yet. Two at a time, please,” the doctor said when we all went to follow him.

  “Why don’t you two go,” Lina said to Theresa and I.

  We followed the doctor into a bright room. Annalisa’s bed was dead center. She had a ton of tubes and wires hooked up to her, but her color looked a lot better than it had before surgery.

  Theresa rushed over to her and held her hand.

  I turned to the doctor. “How long until she wakes up?”

  “That’s uncertain, but it should be in the next hour or so. Even when the anesthesia wears off, she’s going to be incredibly tired, and it is the middle of the night.”

  I glanced at the clock. It was quarter for four in the morning. “And the baby?”

  “There’s no way of knowing. The baby isn’t far enough along for a heartbeat. At this point, it’s a mass of cells. If the fetus survives the trauma of the gunshot, surgery and anesthesia, it will continue to develop. If it could not, it will be reabsorbed into her body and she’d have what would appear to her as a heavy menstrual period.”

  “So there is nothing we can do?”

  “You can keep her calm and relaxed. When she’s released, you can keep her off her feet for a while. Taking another pregnancy test in a few weeks will give you the answer. If the pregnancy has ended, her test will come back negative. If it’s positive, that means that the hormone that the baby is producing continues to be in her blood stream. Of course, if she starts to bleed more than a cup in an hour, she’d need to come back in.”

  It sounded simple and awful at the same time. It wasn’t anything I was going to worry about at that moment. There wasn’t anything I could do but keep her calm and relaxed.

  Theresa had pulled up a chair and was sitting next to Annalisa.

  I sat on the other side of her. Neither of us said anything, the beeping of her monitor the only sound in the room. I watched as Theresa closed her eyes and fell asleep.

  It was five in the morning when my father and Franco appeared in the recovery room. I was shocked because they’d said only two of us could come back. Then again, people rarely said no to my father. I couldn’t imagine saying no to him and Franco, especially when Franco was asking to see his daughter.

  I looked at the two of them, wondering why they were here.

  “It’s done,” my dad said. “Nine men. Georgie, Little Nicky, Tommy and Gus from our side.”

  I nodded. None of the names shocked me that much.

  “How is she?”

  “They say she’s good. She hasn’t woken up yet. Maybe that’s a good thing.” I indicated the tubes and wires. “This can’t feel good.”

  “But she’s stable? They got the bullet out?” Franco asked.

  “Yeah, it’s out and there were no complications. They’re going to move her to a room soon.”

  “Why don’t you go home. I’ll stay with her,” Franco offered.

  “You can stay, but I’m not going,” I said.

  “How about this. I’ll go home, take Teresa home, shower and come back. If she’s not awake, then we’ll sit together. If she is, you let me take your place while you go home, shower and get a bit of rest.”

  I nodded my head. “Deal.”

  11

  Annalisa

  My throat felt dry, like I hadn’t had a drink in weeks, and I’d swallowed sand. My eyes felt heavy too. I had no idea where I was, but I knew I wasn’t in my room. It sme
lled different and there was a ridiculously annoying beep. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to fight to open my eyes. Not having the strength to open them fully, I compromised, opening them half way so I could look around.

  I could see from the wall and all of the tubes and wires going in and out of me, that I was in a hospital and the incessant beeping was my monitors.

  My heartbeat picked up, as indicated by the light and the numbers on the screen in front of me, when I saw Dante in a chair next to my bed, his head resting on my thigh. I’d been dreaming of him. Most were good, us making love in the room they kept him in in the basement, but some were bad. Some he’d been killed by Jimmy, others by Vito, and even one, killed by my father.

  I supposed, as I looked around me, that my father knew that I was in the hospital. He’d be here soon. “Dante?” I said softly.

  His head shot up and he inhaled quickly. “Annalisa!” he exclaimed. He put his arms around me like he was going to hug me but stopped. “I-I—can I hug you? I don’t want to hurt you.”

  I giggled. “Then don’t hug me hard.”

  His arms wrapped around me and he held me to him. His lips moved to mine and he kissed me softly.

  I felt my heart begin to race. I could hear it on the monitor.

  Dante pulled back, a concerned look on his face.

  My heart rate instantly began to lower. A smile crept over his face. “I do that, huh?”

  I felt the blush creep up my chest and neck.

  “Fuck you’re beautiful, Annalisa. And for the record, my heart does that every time I kiss you too.” He leaned in and kissed me again. This time, I didn’t mind that the monitor was beeping rapidly. His lips brushed against mine, slow at first, then more urgently. I opened my mouth to allow his tongue. Ours met, exploring, slowly, getting reacquainted with each other.

  I heard a cough, a clearing of a throat and then a “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  Dante jumped back at my father’s words. “She’s awake,” he said, unnecessarily.

  I saw my father roll his eyes. “I can see that.” He looked over at Dante and his eyes got wider.

  I looked too and I could see what had gotten his attention.