Page 265 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet

She told me everything then, a voice like a guttering candle, about her history with the Cosa Nostra’s new Boss.

They’d met when she was only seventeen, and he was older, handsome, and wealthy. He found her at a bodega in Little Italy and chatted with her about which candy was better, Smarties or Reece’s Pieces. When he asked to take her for a drive, she went without question.

They only saw each other for two months before Bambi got pregnant. Apparently, Agostino was pleased.

Bambi’s father, when she told him, was not.

Emiliano had been the Capo of the New York City Camorra for years, and he knew immediately who Agostino was when Bambi described him. His rival’s firstborn son.

Bambi winced as she told me about being cast out by her family and then abandoned by Agostino.

She was alone for years until Dante offered her help.

Apparently, it was a double-edged sword because it brought her to Agostino’s attention again. He tried to blackmail Emiliano by threatening Bambi and Aurora. Even though he’d cast his daughter out as many old-school Italians would have done, he still loved her, so he tried to make the money to pay Agostino off on the side.

Which had gotten him killed by a Mexican cartel.

I hauled Aurora into my lap as Bambi continued to relate her horrors in a voice stripped of all emotion. The little girl was disturbingly unperturbed hearing about her family’s past, and it ached in me that she had been exposed to the horrors of mafia life in much the same way I had been as a girl.

“When Papa died, Agostino left us alone for a while. I guess he was just patient. Then Dante got arrested, and he showed up the next day on our doorstep wanting to see Rora. He really just wanted to threaten me.” She sobbed for a few seconds, then valiantly tried to swallow them down. “I couldn’t tell Dante because he didn’t know about him being Rora’s father. He would have cast us out or started a war.”

“The war had already started, Bambi,” I pointed out coolly even as I cuddled Rora closer when I noticed she’d fallen asleep. “You should have told him.”

“I know that now,” she admitted miserably. “But I told my brother instead.”

A chill slid down my back.

Of course, Jacopo would have known about this.

“He said we shouldn’t tell Dante, that it would ruin everything he’d worked for in the Family. He said he’d take care of it, but Agostino wouldn’t listen to him. He made Jaco tell him stuff too.”

“You’ve been spying on the Camorra for him,” I surmised in a dead voice. “You and Jaco.”

She started to sob again, but I felt little compassion for her.

Of course, I understood the difficulty of the situation. I had no doubt Agostino would have taken her daughter from her without any qualms, that Bambi truly felt she was between a rock and a hard place.

But she had Dante in her corner.

A man who lived and breathed loyalty. Who gave a woman a job because she was a single mom with no prospects, and he was just that good a man.

A man who had become a pseudo uncle to her daughter and called her the love of his life.

I couldn’t fathom why she had thought Agostino was the better of those two options.

Rage rose in my throat and then abruptly cooled.

Because I thought about Mama.

She had the choice between Seamus and Tore, and she had made that decision based on fear. That fear had led her to choose the worse man who might have appeared artificially better, especially through the skewed eyes of terror. She had assumed Tore was the greater of two evils just as Bambi had, and they’d both been proven wrong.

I sighed so long it hurt my chest.

“Okay, Bambi, please stop crying and listen to me. You’re going to pack up what you and Rora need as quickly as you can, and then we are going to leave here. I doubt you’ll come back, so take the essentials. I’m going to take you home and put you both to bed, but in the morning, you’re going to have to answer for yourself. What you did…I can’t pretend it doesn’t make me see red. But I know you’ve been in an impossible situation, and I can’t fathom how hard it’s been for you to live with this.”

“It’s driving me insane,” she whispered. “Lying to the sweetest people I know. To Dante, to Marco, to you.”

“I can’t promise there won’t be consequences,” I warned. “But no matter what, I promise we’ll find a way to make you safe.”