Page 30 of Love At the Gates of Hell (The Seven Sinners Trilogy #1)
“What’d ya do?” Jimmy asked, gesturing to the living room. “You fall asleep on the La-Z-Boy?”
“It’s six o’clock in the fucking morning,” Pasquale countered with a wave of his hand. “At least give me some coffee if we’re gonna wait up all night.”
“Basta,” Angelo sighed. “Jim, Pat—these are those Crawford boys I was tellin’ you about. The ones who pulled that score in Vegas. They’ve been taking care of Benny while we sorted out our little issue.”
“The balls on you two for that hotel hit,” Jimmy nodded appreciatively.
“Good to see you’re out from Frank Markos’s shadow,” Pasquale added.
Luke smiled, though it bordered on smug, and his shoulders straightened just slightly at the praise.
Gideon looked at Benny with a slight roll of his eyes, and she couldn’t help but smile.
But as the pleasantries were shared, she looked around at this group of men and wondered what was going to be harder to discuss.
The ritual targeting her, or the stupid summer fling she’d had being the one to sell her out?
“Come on,” Angelo said after a moment. “We all got a lot to sift through here. Jimmy, put on a pot, will ya?”
“Sure, cugino.” Her godfather nodded before he wrapped his arm around Benny’s shoulder, guiding her toward the kitchen. He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. “Your zia Gloria left some pastries for you in the fridge.”
“Really?” She perked up. That woman was an artist with a pastry shell. “Cannolis for breakfast it is.”
While Jimmy busied himself with the coffee maker, Benny grabbed mugs and plates from the cabinet, her body on autopilot.
She stared at the mismatched collection they’d acquired over the years, an oversized “PROUD PARENT OF AN HONOR ROLL STUDENT” mug with a little chip in the handle making her smile.
She reached for that one along with a few others, including her very favorite Wizard of Oz mug.
Her father squeezed her shoulder as he leaned against the counter beside her.
“I wish you would’ve told me,” he said, his voice quiet.
It took her a moment before she understood what he was referring to, but when she realized he was talking about Christian, she froze. She could only imagine how Christian spun their relationship. He hadn’t exactly taken their break-up super well.
She swallowed.
“It wasn’t—” She paused, struggling to figure out what to say. “I mean, we weren’t…”
Her father looked at her, his eyebrows knitting together in concern.
“It was just a stupid fling,” she said, finally. “It barely lasted a couple of months.”
Her shoulders sagged.
“If I had known that he was going to do this…”
“This is not your fault,” Angelo told her sternly.
The coffee machine beeped, drawing them both out of the conversation.
She took the escape, attempting to pour the coffee, but Jimmy shooed her away, a soft look on his worn face.
It felt a hell of a lot like pity, though, and she hated that.
Even as she crossed toward the kitchen table, sinking down in the same seat she’d sat in every night as a kid for dinner, she didn’t want anyone in this room to feel pity for her.
And when Gideon’s eyes lifted to meet hers, from where he sat across from her, she was relieved to see something different behind his. Even if it was a rage she hadn’t quite expected, his hazel eyes darker than she’d ever seen them. She frowned.
“Benny, you still take your coffee black?”
Jimmy hovered by the table with two coffee mugs in his hand.
“Yeah,” she said, offering him a smile. She gestured to Gideon. “He does too.”
Which was a thing she hadn’t realized she knew until just that second. But she ignored the flush in her skin as Jimmy placed both mugs on the table in their respective directions. Luke chuckled softly beside her.
“What about me?” he challenged.
“You don’t drink coffee,” she said, narrowing her eyes back. “You drink English Breakfast and, like, questionable amounts of orange juice.”
She had spent a grand total of two weeks at the loft, and she already knew more about their habits than she thought she would.
And one of those days she was essentially passed out.
But you tend to get to know a person quickly when you spend every waking moment with them.
She drew her knees up to her chest, the heels of her feet hanging on to the edge of her seat.
Luke grinned.
“Just checking. Anyway, I’m fine, honestly. I fed before we left.”
Jimmy returned to the table with his own mug of coffee and one more for Angelo, her father’s nearly white from all the milk he liked. Pasquale huffed a breath.
“What do you think, I’m your maid?” Jimmy scoffed.
“You brought everyone else’s!”
“These kids drove all night to be here,” Jimmy said. “And Angelo’s been up since last night. Benny was abducted, Pat. Were you abducted?”
“Fuckin’ Christ, fine, I’ll get my own damn coffee,” Pasquale grumbled.
“Bring the cannolis too,” Jimmy called out.
“So, you wanna tell me what you found out?” Angelo said, looking between Gideon and Luke. “Because I’ve heard a lot of shit tonight from that fuckin’ snake that’s hard to keep straight.”
“Is he still alive?” Benny asked.
Her father didn’t say anything for a moment, his eyes drifting to Jimmy.
“He’s alive,” Pasquale said as he crossed back toward them with his coffee. “Barely.”
“Keeps sayin’ this was all inevitable,” Jimmy said.
“I don’t know about ‘inevitable’ but—” Luke shifted in his seat, drawing his ankle onto his knee as he tapped his fingers on the tabletop. “—what we’ve learned definitely leads me to believe all of this was premeditated.”
Angelo raised an expectant brow.
“A ritual,” Gideon explained, his eyes still focused on Benny. “Using Benny’s blood to become some kind of demon.”
“An ascension?” Pasquale asked, before blowing out a breath. “Fuckin’ Christ.”
“Why are you saying that like you’re familiar with them?” Benny asked.
“Kid, we’ve been around a long time,” Jimmy replied. “Lotta power-obsessed men out there with shit for brains who think this is gonna give them what they want.”
“So, somebody got to d’Aviano,” her father said. “Or he’s been yakkin’ it up about your abilities, Ben, and someone got real fucking lucky.”
Benny couldn’t help the flush of embarrassment.
“I never told him,” she said. “I have no idea how he knows.”
“It doesn’t matter,” her father replied. “What matters is we find out who’s responsible. We’ll break him. Just need a little bit more time to talk.”
“I want to see him.”
They all turned to look at Benny.
She sat up in her chair, face resolute.
“I want to see him,” she repeated.
“Benny—” her father started.
“No,” she said firmly. “If anyone is going to get him to talk, it’s me. I don’t care what you do to him but you leave him conscious. I’m not going to sit this one out.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” came a voice from the other end of the kitchen.
Benny looked up to find Jamie Locantore lingering in the passthrough, a wide grin on his face.
She was up and out of her seat in a flash, her arms thrown around his shoulders as he hugged her tightly.
God, it felt good to see him. Jamie was Pasquale’s oldest son, and Benny’s closest childhood friend.
For a long time, her only friend. One of the few who was allowed to know her secret.
“Holy shit, Ben,” he breathed. “You have no idea how good it feels to see you.”
She blinked back tears, laughing at herself as she stepped back from his arms. She had never considered herself much of a crier.
But seeing the people she loved these last few days brought out emotions that felt impossible to ignore.
It had been a hell of a couple weeks. And she couldn’t stop thinking about how much she had almost lost.
“I didn’t know you’d be here,” she said, brushing at her nose with the back of her hand.
His blond hair was ruffled with sleep, making him look younger than his thirty-one years.
But he’d always had a boyish quality to him, with his bright blue eyes and freckled skin and wide mouth.
He was very out of place among the more grizzled men who worked for her father but he was an incredibly strong Healer.
Working for the Caruso family had always been his plan.
“Dad let me know you’d get in early.” He reached to brush at a tear on her cheek. “I didn’t want to miss you. You alright?”
She nodded.
“James, you hungry?” Jimmy called. “Gloria made some pastries.”
“Oh, that woman is magic in the kitchen,” he said, tossing Benny a wink.
Luke cocked his head to the side as they came back toward the table, something glimmering behind his wire-rimmed glasses as he met Benny’s gaze. Something delighted. Her brows hitched as Jamie pulled up another chair, putting himself between Gideon and his father.
Gideon hardly glanced up from his coffee.
“Gideon, Luke,” Angelo started. “This is James, Pat’s kid. He’s our best Healer on staff.”
The men all shook hands, the table looking so extremely overwhelmed with testosterone Benny had half a mind to leave them and take a nap upstairs in her childhood bedroom.
“What did I interrupt?” Jamie asked, looking around the table.
“Benny wants to interrogate the man who sold her out,” Luke said, tossing her a look.
“And Dad doesn’t think I should,” she said pointedly.
“I never said that,” Angelo sighed, running a large hand over his face. “I just— I want to make sure you’re ready for this. For what you might encounter.”
Benny shook her head, her jaw tensing. After everything she’d been through, all the work she’d done to try and get control of her abilities…this was her right. She felt it.
“You have no idea how ready I am.”