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12

ADRIANO

T he next few weeks fly by.

Good weeks, surprisingly.

Days of time spent together on the couch, talking. Making dinner.

Like normal people.

It starts to finally make sense the way Alessandro fell for Isabella, how he fell for a life with her. Not that I would ever let myself be fooled into thinking I would be allowed to have that.

I can dream, though.

Dom’s been out of town a few times, flying to other cities, making deals. He left me in charge, like it’s supposed to be. Not that I’ve been ready for the shitstorm that hits me, but…

Again, normal. The old normal.

Almost.

Trends emerge in the chaos.

Key players that he made promises to. So I pay them. Set them up with jobs.

All of it checks out, pans out more or less alright.

But it sits wrong. The people. The expectation.

And the feeling that predators are circling, waiting to attack.

Like I’m a wounded animal, bleeding slowly, unable to see the hunter just outside the firelight, eager for me to let my guard down. To strike.

So I stay out late. Mostly because of the workload. Come home when Gloria is asleep a lot of the time.

Still, she curls into my arms when I crawl into bed. Everything is great after that, for the few hours of sleep I get.

A couple of nights I think I’m being followed, so I double back, lose my tail, and sleep in the bunker at the old estate. Can’t go there too often, though.

“So…are you ever going to share where you stay when you don’t come home?” Gloria says nonchalantly on the way to Dom’s homecoming.

“Yes. Absolutely.”

“Just not right now.”

“Exactly.”

“For my safety?”

“For all of our safety.”

“Gee. Makes a girl feel so protected.” She sniffs, giving me a side-eye.

We’ve been great, overall. Working together, flirting, fooling around randomly when we find the time. But there’s this wall. A barrier I’d like to think we’ve both maintained.

Or maybe I’m fooling myself.

Like thinking going tonight is in any way a good idea.

On the surface it’s just another party. Another opulent event. Dom has taken to throwing these every time he has a good day, returns home. Any excuse.

Sometimes several in a row. Benders that migrate from one venue to the next.

Normally I’d be all for it.

Or maybe I would have been in my twenties, with my family.

It’s always been part of our culture and our family to indulge a little bit and have fun.

But these are … different.

Darker.

Like the people there have some demons to exercise. Dark desires to purge. And the longer the party goes on, the more depraved it gets.

When he gets back from LA, it’s a full-on bash. A borderline riot.

He rented out an abandoned, incomplete skyscraper.

Every floor is another theme.

Celebrities, politicians. The guest lists are gold-plated.

And Dom is in rare form.

Full-blown mania.

“You fuckers can’t even begin to understand what I’ve done, what I am about to do!” he shouts, chugging from a bottle of insanely expensive liquor.

Gloria and I wandered for a while, floor to floor. Taking in the sights. Making an appearance for anyone who might expect to see us there. But over the past few weeks, I’ve also noticed a thinning of the herd. The old guard is getting swept aside.

Bit by bit.

Or they are pulling back.

“Dom! Get the fuck off the table!” I holler, shaking my head to clear the light buzz I should have avoided.

“Dad!”

“Gloria! You came!” And suddenly he’s congenial, jolly.

“Come on, Dad. Why don’t you take a lap, get some water.”

“Oh, you my mommy now?” he mocks, laughing. But there’s an edge to it. Like always.

Taking another deep chug, he sprays booze like a fountain across the dance floor, tossing his head back. “Woo!”

Which tells me something went wrong on his last trip.

He’s been cagey about who he’s meeting with.

I know the mob out west wanted in on his power plays. Wanted some of the spoils from him tossing out Vito, other heads of industry. There are always major exports to bid on.

But LA …

This trip was different.

And he’s off the fucking wagon and raging.

The only thing that sets Dom off like that is failure. Resistance. Refusal.

“Why is he doing this?” Gloria asks no one in particular, and I feel her irritation. Her desire to leave.

I want to go too.

But there are so many eyes on us. And so many unfamiliar faces all around Dom, hungry eyes.

I should let them have him. I should have been watching what he’s doing more closely.

Because I don’t know what the backlash will be if someone goes for him.

Right on time with sirens echoing through the night on the streets below. Lots of sirens.

“We need to get him home. Now.” Gloria already has one of Dom’s arms over her shoulder.

I start to argue, to say something smart-assed.

Gloria gives me that look.

You know the one.

So, I scoop the wiry old fuck over my shoulder and head for the back entrance, the rear elevators. In the parking garage we sneak out, hopping a cement wall and taking a few allies to cut through to where we left my car.

After that it’s smooth sailing.

Minus the raving lunatic tossing and turning in the back seat.

Over my car stereo, my police band radio app scratches a notice.

“All units converge on the Golden Plaza building, be advised, some suspects leaving the function may be armed and dangerous.”

Out just in time.

“Fuck. He’s never gotten so out of control before.” Gloria sighs, rubbing her forehead.

“He has. He just usually keeps the function private. The cops showing up…”

“Means that he’s lost control of the precincts.”

“Or pushed too hard. Even dirty cops have to keep up pretenses under pressure.”

“Dirty, rotten, fucks. Every one of them,” Dom mumbles, coming around for a second.

“Go back to sleep, Dad.”

Her voice at least works most of the time, soothing him back into his stupor.

“What are we going to do, Adri?” she whispers this time, and I shake my head.

Even when drunk, I don’t trust talking in front of him. Not that I have a good answer for her anyway.

At the compound, we get Dom inside carrying him between us until we get the help of a couple of guards, leaving a housemaid and his men to see him to bed under Gloria’s supervision.

Exhausted, I sit on the stairs, waiting for Gloria to come back down.

The place is monstrous.

Opulent.

Something in the layout reminds me of home. Only this place is a shrill echo of the Diamante Manor. Over the top.

A statement that Dom does it better.

Or at least bigger.

“He’s out,” Gloria says, dropping down to join me.

We sit like that for a while, leaning on each other. It’s almost peaceful. Aside from the fact that it’s 4 a.m. and my head is spinning.

Lack of sleep is catching up.

“Come on.” She stands, offering me her hand. “Let’s get some sleep too. You’ve been going too hard.”

“May as well stay here. He’s just going to call us back in the morning to report on how things have gone,” I concede, rising to let her lead me to her old room.

The room is still done up, the bed made.

In the dark, my hands find her, just as she’s untying the straps on her cocktail dress, slipping between the gaps in the fabric to caress skin. Gloria’s breath hitches, her shock quickly corrected as she leans back into me, rolling her hips to press her ass into my crotch.

“I didn’t get a chance to see you move in that dress…”

“You’re welcome to feel me move now.”

“Preferably out of that dress.”

“Only if you ask really, really nicely.”

My lips graze the nape of her neck in response, eliciting a soft moan as I pull my bottom lip along her warm, supple skin. Her earlobe makes a tantalizing appetizer to her lips, and everywhere else I want to kiss as I work my way up.

“Adri … I’ve missed you.”

“You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to come home, wake you up…”

“Why didn’t you?”

There’s no good answer.

There’s only right now.

Her hand grips through my fitted slacks, scraping up the length of my cock, making me growl with my intentions, with the promises of what I am about to do to her. In the dim lights breaking through the window, I see her head tilt back to my fingers lacing through her hair, hooking the back of her neck to let her arch back, tipping her chest upward for me.

In a heartbeat I find her collarbone, sucking, kissing, licking.

I want to savor every taste of her skin.

All the way down her chest, between her perky, elegantly sculpted tits, the sleek edges of them peeking out over the shimmering satin of her dress. Not for long, though.

“You taste like heaven…”

“You feel like heaven,” she moans, tugging at my zipper with one hand, the other pulling down the cups of her gown to let me in, to show me the sheer, shadowy, moonlit glow of her exquisite breasts, her nipples hard and her skin pebbling to my touch, to my hot breath on her flesh.

I pause, worshiping the sight of her, searing her image in my mind.

When a ruckus echoes through the house.

Stomping feet.

Shouting.

Gloria yelps, covering herself as the door bursts open, light spilling in.

“There you are…” Dom slurs, spittle spraying from his lips.

“We never left.”

“No. No. You can’t leave. Not like your whore mother did.”

“Domenico. Go back to bed,” I rumble, my shoulders tightening as I put myself between Gloria and the clear, menacing threat of his outburst.

“Go fuck yourself, Adriano!” I miss the tell, the tilt of his hips, the dropping of his left shoulder.

“Adri!” Gloria’s scream is the only warning I get before the metal flashes for my head.

My sudden lurch backward saves me from the worst of the blow, but the butt of the pistol catches the side of my head, flashing pain, and I go down hard on my side. Spots flash, agony blossoming through my skull.

“You fucking, sulking dog. Content to grovel at my feet. Without so much as a snarl, a flash of the teeth you once had. Come crawling back and let me mate you to my offspring.” He’s rambling, incoherent.

“He’s your consigliere, Dad. Your right-hand man. Leave him alone.”

“So was Alessandro! And I was supposed to just tuck my tail and obey?!” he screams, raving mad. “He took my place, my legacy!”

“Dom…none of us saw Giancarlo’s decision coming. That he would pick Aless over you?—”

“Lies! You Diamantes are all the same. Greedy. Selfish. Blind . I was the right choice then, back then before…” A sound halfway between a sob and shriek tears from his throat.

How long has he been keeping this madness at bay?

“Before they used me. Everyone used me.”

“Dad. You have everything now. Please, just?—”

“No! I lost everything. Including the woman who said she loved me. And the child she stole from me. I won’t let it happen, not again.”

Gloria gasps, stepping back as Dom straightens, composing himself.

I try to rise but the gun in Dom’s hand twitches toward me, warning me to stay down.

“You should have been mine, Gloria. My legacy. My second chance. She had no right to keep you from me.”

“I’m here now.”

“Precisely. My blood. And you can give me what I need to make things right.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that what this family needs is an heir. An heir of true Diamante and Vipera blood. A male heir unlike the gaggle of bitches Uncle Giancarlo and Aunt Eva had. Someone who I will show the way to rule. Under my guidance.”

“You’re off your fucking rocker, Dom,” I scoff, glaring up at him, the reality of what he’s saying hitting me almost as hard as his pistol whip.

“I am finally seeing clearly. And you two will give me a grandchild to call my own or die trying. Starting tonight.”