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Maria might’ve claimed to have loved Kayne, but it was his jacket hanging in her closet.

Forty-Two

Hello, Again…

Closing the door to Maria’s penthouse quietly, Dominic walked a foot in the other direction and beat on a door. He didn’t treat the person who lived there with the same respect.

When the door opened, it appeared even the boogieman slept, as Lucca emerged, promising death with his eyes. “You better have a good fucking reason to wake me u—”

“Four?” Dominic roared, uncaring about the underboss’s precious sleep. “Four of your men have bit the dust protecting her, and you’re fucking letting Maria prance around Kansas City wherever she pleases?”

Lucca crossed his arms over his chest. “In case you fucking missed it, she hasn’t talked to me since I told her I offed her last boyfriend.” He gave him a silent promise he could do the same to boyfriend number two. “She doesn’t want my protection anymore.”

Dom spat at him furiously, “That doesn’t mean you fucking listen to her!”

“If you feel that way, why don’t you get one of your fucking men to watch her.”

When Lucca went to shut his door, Dominic put his hand out, stopping him. “I can’t. I promised her I wouldn’t,” he admitted, looking defeated before pleading. “She won’t listen to reason that it will never be safe for her not to have her back watched.”

Understanding what he was asking, Lucca gave him a pitiful look. “And you think I can?”

“Yes.” Dom nodded. “She respects you. She will listen. I don’t want her suffocated again. I just want someone to watch her back.” He would never want Maria to have to go back to listening to what every man in her life told her to do. He only wanted her safe because, whether she liked it or not, she was born into royalty.

Lucca raised a brow. “You haven’t talked to Angel lately, have you?”

Frustrated, Dominic looked at the underboss, confused and questioning if he was even listening. “What does my brother have to fucking do wit—”

“If you had”—Lucca stopped him with his cold voice—“then you would know he’s been following her.”

Oh. Dom’s fears calmed. Staring at the underboss, he gave him a grateful look. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Lucca smiled, watching him walk away, now slightly embarrassed. “I’d be thanking your brother, though. Angel told me Maria’s been a real pain in the ass, running after you.”

Looking back over his shoulder, he gave the underboss a smile of his own. “I’ll do that.”

Hearing the door slam behind him, Dominic walked down the hall, glad he had been able to ruin Lucca’s night.

When he got to the elevator, he could hear the jingle of keys before he even turned the corner.

“Hello again… Dominic,” Sal greeted him as he stood there, waiting for his arrival.

He nodded, entering the elevator. “Hello.”

Sal pressed the buttons to take them to the casino floor, and the doors slowly slid to a close. “Did you have a nice night?”

“I did,” Dom said, watching the numbers fall.

Sal gave a quick twirl to his keys. “Good.”

Sliding his eyes to him, Dom dared to ask the question since the second he’d been allowed into the underground casino. “Why’d you do it?”

“I didn’t do it for you.” Sal spoke over the clang of metal. “I did it for her.”

Surprised, Dom couldn’t help but remind him of a little fact. “But she calls you an ass kisser.”

“Has she told you how her father hoped for us to marry when we were just kids?”

“No …,” Dom whispered, not knowing how to feel about that fact. “And this has to do with her calling you an ass kisser how?”

A slow smile touched Sal’s lips. “Well, I just thought you’d know better than anyone that siblings fight.”

Dominic smiled himself. Sal didn’t tell him that information about Dante wanting them to marry to make him jealous. He told him to let him know Maria and Sal thought of each other as nothing more than brother and sister.

Dominic took a step forward, standing in front of the brother whom he never got to know, and he held his hand out.

“I hope Dante does get his wish after all.” The great Salvatore shook his hand. “A son of Lucifer should marry his daughter.”

“I hope so,” Dom told him as the elevator door opened.

Dropping their hands, Dom exited, but as the door slid closed Dom stopped it.

Pushing the elevator open with his hand, he looked at the man who shared his same blood. “I didn’t know who you were,” he promised with shame in his eyes, remembering every single time he had passed a little homeless boy on the street. “Lucifer didn’t tell me until after I met you and, by then, I knew you were better off here.”

Staring into the blackish-blue orbs, Dom thought he would see hatred in them; it was what he deserved. But Sal spoke the words that set his soul free from the one thing Dominic had yet been able to forgive himself for.