by Bethany-Kris
Instead, he settled for tracing the curve of her shoulder with his fingers, feeling the silkiness of her skin, and then bending down to press a quick kiss to her temple. In her sleep, she smiled softly.
That was enough for him.
Downstairs, Dino grabbed a notepad and pen from Karen’s bag, scribbling off something quick for her.
I’m sorry. Don’t be angry. I’ll call soon. Something came up.
I love you. –Dino
It would have to be enough, even if it wasn’t what she would want.
Until he had something more concrete in his plans, Dino didn’t know what else to say. His whole life had just been moving from point A to point B without any real direction or reason, but now that he had reason, he still didn’t have much direction.
Things were still up in the air for him—and even for Karen and his son—where he was concerned. How long would he be free before the previously dropped charges were refiled and he once again found himself in the midst of a trial, and even lockup?
Was it fair of him to drag her though all that, simply because he was selfish and not ready to let go?
Dino knew the answer to his own question, but he wasn’t quite ready to answer it yet.
He grabbed the few things he had brought along and shoved them into his bag as he waited out the cab that had given him a half hour to forty-five minutes wait time. His white Bentley would be waiting for him in a storage locker, thanks to his brother putting it away for him while he was in prison. It wouldn’t take long for him to grab the keys to the locker and the car before heading over to his uncle’s place.
Dino dreaded that meeting.
He dreaded walking back into a life he had never once wanted.
It was only the quiet mumblings from the backroom that broke Dino from his inner thoughts. Not wanting his son to wake his mother, Dino grabbed one of the sippy cups full of milk from the fridge and the diaper bag out of the corner. He found a grinning, drooling Junior standing up in his portable playpen that doubled as a safe bed when needed. The baby smiled even wider at the sight of his father coming into the room—it damn near broke Dino’s heart.
“Hey, little man, come here and I’ll get you ready.”
Junior kicked and babbled on as Dino changed the boy’s sleeping outfit to something else, and got him into a clean diaper. He sucked happily on his sippy cup when Dino put him back into the playpen.
Having spent one night at Karen’s apartment, albeit on the couch, he found out that Junior would play happily in his bed for a while as long as he was dry, clean, and had some milk.
Still, he sat on the edge of the bed, letting his one-year-old chatter on.
He wanted to be a normal father.
He wanted to spend every morning with his son.
“Da,” J cooed, waving his cup high.
Dino smiled. “Yeah, little man. I’m your Da.”
Somehow, he was going to have to figure out a way to make all the things he wanted happen for him and Junior—for Karen, too.
Didn’t he deserve it?
Couldn’t he be happy?
Dino
“YOU should have woken me up,” Karen said on the other end of the phone.
Dino could still hear the anger in her tone, despite how hard she tried to hide it from him. “It was early—”
“Not that early, Dino.”
“I’ll make it up to you as soon as I can, but something came up. Junior was good until you woke up, right?”
“He was—nice touch with the T-shirt, by the way.”
Dino smiled at the amusement in Karen’s voice. He’d given Junior the shirt he’d worn the day before when the baby had cried as Dino tried to leave. For whatever reason, the boy had stopped, snuggled the shirt, and went back to playing with his toys in his portable playpen.
“He didn’t want me to go, either,” Dino admitted. “I thought it might help.”
“It did, but now he won’t leave it alone. Everywhere he goes in the house, that thing goes with him.”
“I’ll give him another when I see him next time.”
Karen was quiet for a long moment.
And then, so softly he almost missed it, she asked, “And when will that be, Dino?”
“Soon.”
It was the best and most honest answer he could give to her.
“I’ll probably hang out here for the rest of the weekend, in case you get a chance to get away from … whatever,” Karen said.
“You know, you could stay there for as long as you like, Karen. It is your home, now.”
Again, she fell silent.
Dino let her mull over his suggestion as he pulled off the highway, taking an exit that would lead him into DeLuca territory where Ben’s home was located. He wasn’t looking forward to this dinner, not in the least. He would have much rather stayed with Karen and his boy.
“It’s just not feasible right now,” Karen finally said. “I have a job, you know this.”
“What if it were feasible?” Dino dared to ask.
“It’s not, so there’s no point in indulging that at all.”
For now, he knew.
But there was a lot about him that Karen didn’t know. Like the fact he had a few bank accounts with more money than he would ever know what to do with. Some of the money—or rather, some of the accounts—might be frozen over the coming months as the police and Feds worked their next investigation on him, the one they had promised to follow through with as soon as he was released.
Still, there was money that he had that he knew couldn’t be touched by them.
Money that had nothing to do with the Outfit, or his businesses.
Despite how his father had spent the last couple of years of his life—turning rat for the officials—he had set things up for his children, just in case. One of those things had been a large inheritance for each DeLuca sibling that had been put in trust until they were of a certain age. Dino had gotten a hold of his, and his sister Lily’s, when he was twenty.
He barely touched his, except to move it into an interest-earning account where it had sat for nearly a decade, gaining more and more money each year.
He didn’t touch Lily’s either, except to allow her to pull small sums from it when she needed. He had control of hers through the instructions that had been left in their father’s Will, and when he thought Lily was responsible enough or needed the money for something, he would sign her account over, no questions asked.
“It could be feasible,” Dino said quietly. “If you wanted it to be.”
“I don’t know—”
“I’m not a poor man, Karen.”
“Neither am I, though I might not be living in luxury, Dino.”
The heat in her tone couldn’t be missed.
Dino flinched, knowing he’d probably crossed a line. “Listen, that’s not what I meant. But I would like to take care of my son, and you, if you would let me do that. I’m perfectly capable of providing for you both financially.”
“And what about when I start getting my door knocked on because people are following paper trails, huh?”
“Do you mean police?”
“Well, what else would I mean?”
Dino laughed, though it came out dry and a little bitter. “Not all of my wealth has come from illegal ventures.”
Although, quite a bit of it had.
“If I need help, let me ask for it,” Karen said.
Well, he wasn’t about to argue with that.
Still …
“And you will allow me to provide for J, right?”
“He’s your son, Dino. I didn’t put the responsibility on you, but I’m not going to refuse you if you want to take it on.”
Good enough.
Karen didn’t realize it, and Dino wasn’t about to explain and start an argument, but in order to provide for his son, that would also include making sure the boy’s mother was in a good, stable position in her life.
He’d started that ball rolling wi
th the lake property.
Dino was going to keep letting the ball roll.
All too soon, Ben DeLuca’s large three-level home came into view at the very end of the suburban street. All of the homes in the area were large and the inhabitants toted bank accounts big enough to feed five families, not including their own. Every time Dino saw his uncle and aunt’s home, his stomach twisted in knots.
He hated that place.
It brought back one too many bad memories for him, things he would rather forget. Especially the garage where he had been beaten on more than one occasion, and once even had to watch his younger brother take a few hits before being shoved into the trunk of a car for trying to help Dino during one of Ben’s many lessons.
Nothing about the DeLuca home felt like … well, home.
“I have to go,” Dino said, though it was the last thing he wanted to do.
Karen sighed. “All right. You still should have woken me up.”
She sounded less angry.
He took that as a win.
“What do you want for Christmas?” he asked.
It was a good distraction.
And the holiday was only a month away.
“Nothing,” Karen said. “Why?”
“Shouldn’t I get you something?”
It was the first year where he would be able to shop for people he actually gave a shit about. Maybe that would make the holiday a little less dull.
“Why would you get me something?”
“Because you’re mine,” Dino said, confused.
The silence on the other end of the call only lasted for a split second before Karen’s sweet laughter echoed through the speaker.
“Yours, huh?”
“Thought I made that clear, Karen.”
“You’ll be just fine,” she replied.
Dino’s brow furrowed. “Pardon?”
“You—for Christmas. You being there will be a great gift. Junior was just a newborn last year, and while I doubt he’ll remember this Christmas down the road, it’ll be perfect just to have you there to see him be excited for presents and Santa.”
Dino smiled. “I can do that.”
No matter what, he’d make it happen.
“It’s good to have you back, Dino,” Terrance said from the head of the table.
Even in someone else’s house, the boss sat where he could be at the head of the room.
It was only supposed to be a dinner, that was what Ben had said, but it turned out to be more like a welcoming home party—something he would never want for himself.
“Thank you, boss,” Dino said quickly, grabbing his glass for a hearty gulp of the burning whiskey. If nothing else, the harsh liquor would give him a reason to stay quiet.
“You’ve got a lot to catch up on,” Terrance noted.
“I held the house down,” Theo said three seats down from Dino.
Dino passed his younger brother a glance, but Theo wasn’t even looking at him.
No surprise there.
“Dino still outranks you in the family,” Ben said from his spot, directly across from Dino’s seat. “Don’t forget that, Theo. Take a step back and let your brother pick up where he left off, and you can enjoy a bit less responsibility.”
Ben had said that statement so flippantly, as though it wouldn’t mean much, and Theo should take Dino’s return to their mafia family as a gift of sorts. And yet, the look on Theo’s face said he felt like it was anything but a gift.
Dino understood that well.
Theo was just starting to gain some traction with his new position—he had control of a crew, something he hadn’t been given before. He had likely been making more money, and his new position would have garnered him more respect from the men around him, who he had hated needing to answer to before.
Now, with Dino’s return, Theo would have to take a step back.
He’d be answering to Dino once again.
The slight smile on Ben’s face as he took in Theo’s scowl, said their uncle knew exactly what he’d said, and had meant for it to cause a little friction between the brothers.
God knew there was more than enough of that without Ben adding more to the pile.
“Theo will still have lots to do,” Dino said, focusing on his plate to make sure his uncle didn’t know he had caught onto his manipulative scheme. “And it’ll be easier for me to catch up with him having both hands in the pot now, so to speak.”
Theo cleared his throat down the table, his scowl melting away, though no emotion remained. His mask was perfectly in place—the DeLuca brothers had learned that game well. “Sure, Dino.”
“We’ll see how long that lasts once Dino realizes how much money he has to hand over to you now that you’re doing more than sitting in the corner, Theo,” Ben said, chuckling.
Theo didn’t grace that with a response, and neither did Dino.
Soon, the topic at the dinner changed, moving onto the upcoming holiday and what would be happening for that. An event at the boss’s house—a party on Christmas day. A dinner at the DeLucas on Christmas Eve. The Conti family—Riley, heading his family and the Outfit as the front boss—wanted to throw a New Year’s bash for everyone.
They were innocent enough topics.
Dino stayed out of it all, mostly.
He didn’t care what any of them did for the holidays. He would show up when needed, make face with people and chat if he had to, but he wasn’t going to bother to pretend like he was enjoying himself or that he wanted to be there.
He only had one goal for Christmas—one promise to keep.
He intended to do that for Karen.
“I’ll be taking Damian Rossi with me to New York,” Terrance said.
The change in topic drew in Dino’s attention. One, because Damian Rossi was Theo’s friend who still owed Dino a debt from years ago, and because the guy was a lower-level associate to the Rossi crew who also did work for the boss directly. And two, because the topic did not seem to please Ben, if the sneer he was sporting was any sort of indication.
Anything that wasn’t good for Ben, or that the man didn’t like, Dino was inclined to take notice of.
Especially now.
He still remembered how easily his uncle had put him in jail, and the shit show it had caused for Dino. He was still dealing with that mess, biding his time while he waited for the officials to bring a whole new round of charges down on his ass.
He still remembered how emotionless, yet seemingly pleased, his uncle had been as he visited Dino in the jail, gloating over his manipulation, proud he was still able to teach Dino a lesson for rebelling against his wants, even though his nephew was an adult.
His life would never be his own, Dino knew.
Not while Ben DeLuca was alive.
Except now … now Dino had something—people he loved—that were entirely his own, and had absolutely nothing to do with Ben.
Unless his uncle found out.
Then, he had no doubt Ben would take them away, as he had so many other things. He would never stand for a threat to his control of his family.
Dino couldn’t let that happen.
So, yeah, he started listening.
“Damian doesn’t need to go with us to New York,” Ben said.
“I want him to go,” Terrance replied simply.
“For what?”
“To learn, old friend. He could use the education on other factions and families in this life of ours.”
Ben scoffed. “Pardon my opinion, but a Rossi doesn’t need to learn anything except how to put down a liquor bottle.”
A few seats down from Theo, Tommas Rossi picked up his wine glass filled with red wine as though Ben hadn’t said a thing. He took a big drink, making sure to place his glass down with enough force to draw Ben’s attention.
Then, Tommas smiled coldly. “All Rossis, or just a couple, DeLuca?”
Ben’s expression turned hard. “I said what I meant.”
“That’s enough,” the boss mutte
red.
It seemed like nothing had changed within the Outfit families since Dino had been in lockup. They were still just as hateful and likely just as prone to violence, as they had always been. Dino put that tidbit away, knowing it might benefit him to use it someday.
When everyone sitting at the dinner table hated each other as much as these people did, it wouldn’t take a great deal to make them fight against one another. It seemed there was lots to fight about, too.
The boss had a favorite who one of his closest men didn’t approve of.
That was certainly something to use.
Dino couldn’t help but wonder if pitting these people against each other might someday be his Hail Mary, though he didn’t entirely know why. It was just an idea that suddenly stuck into his mind like a needle, poking and poking, but refusing to let go.
Yes, Dino filed all of that away for a rainy day.
He just knew—somehow—he would use it.
But at what cost?
Karen
THERE was something about the holidays—Christmas, specifically—that made Karen joyful. It could have been the cold snow that blanketed everything, making the city of Chicago look bright and beautiful. It could have been the trees and wreaths, lit up with spectacular lights, and the ribbons draped between each and every light pole, reminding everyone who could see them that the festivity never ended in the city.
Christmas music played in every store.
Bells jingled.
The scent of pine and cinnamon hung in the air.
She loved the season because of how happy it made everyone else, and she liked nothing more than soaking in the joy of others.
Even her son seemed thoroughly entranced by the changes the Christmas season brought. Bundled up with a fluffy coat, big hat, and mittens, Junior peered all around with his wide eyes, taking in every detail he could with loud ohs and ahs.
Karen couldn’t help but smile at his innocent amazement.
If only she could get him to leave their small tree and the presents underneath it alone when they were at home.