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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Dario

Things were quiet.

It was always surprisingly quiet in my penthouse in the city. It felt good to be back in the States.

I appreciated the moment of peace I had as I looked at my laptop, watching the videos of the attack on my island property. It had been a well-executed plan, that much I could tell. They had plowed through the fence and taken out several of my guys that way.

The rest were shot down. I scratched my chin, biting back the rage I felt.

Some of my men were husbands and fathers. Before, that didn’t matter to me, but today it did.

Studying the video made me realize that we had been grossly outnumbered. If I hadn’t managed to get Mya out of the house, one way or another, we would have been dead.

I’d put her at risk. Just existing, breathing near me, put her at risk. It was upsetting. I knew when I saw her in the hospital bed that I had to start making plans. I had to figure things out to protect her and the baby.

I had started putting things together, moving money around, but I didn’t have a concrete plan yet. It was hard to think lately.

I didn’t know who to trust or what move to make next. For the first time since I became an adult, I felt conflicted and unsure. I hated that feeling. I hated not having control.

One step at a time , I told myself. I would make it through this stage of my life like I made it through all the others, with dogged persistence and a take-no-shit attitude.

It would all work out. It had to, for Mya’s sake.

My back was turned when she burst through my office door and stomped over to me. She flung an envelope down next to me, and I looked at it, but didn’t show her any emotion. She had enough emotions for both of us right now.

Her temper was getting worse and worse it seemed. I didn’t know if it was the baby or the fact that she was struggling to keep hating me. Either way, being around Mya now was like living with a lioness.

I had to remind myself not to ruffle her feathers, but it was hard not to. She was cantankerous to a fault, but I would rather have a cantankerous Mya than not have Mya at all.

“And this is?”

I glanced up at her. She had her hands on her hips and looked ready to breathe fire.

“You tell me.”

With a sigh, I pushed away from my laptop and closed it. I spun my chair toward Mya and folded my hands together. “Care to explain what’s happening here?”

She picked up the envelope and shook it in front of me. “Tell me what this is about.” Her voice cracked when she got to the last word. She was more upset than I had thought.

What had happened? I’d gotten her maternity clothes, had the chef prepare her favorite breakfast, and now she was ranting and raving over an envelope? I couldn’t please her.

I studied her for a moment, noticing how pale she looked. No matter how annoying her erratic behavior was sometimes, I remembered that I had to protect her from herself. She seemed ready to stab someone or worse.

“Okay, let me take a look.”

I reached for the envelope and looked inside of it. She paced the floor worriedly as I removed what appeared to be a letter addressed to me.

I read it slowly, frowning the entire time. I’d never seen the letter before, but I knew about the situation described in the letter.

Interesting. This was a turn of events.

“This is from Jason,” I said. “Where did you get this from?”

“Is it true?” Her eyes were red as she looked back at me. She was clearly trying to hold back tears. She seemed to be spiraling. I had to appease her. I didn’t need to upset her further.

Also, what was the point of lying to her? I nodded my head. The letter was a last attempt it seemed Jason had made to get my attention or to get my brothers, especially Matteo, off his back. Jason had gotten involved, knee-deep in a situation he couldn’t handle, a situation he thought I could control.

“Tell me…everything. Tell me what happened.”

I sat the letter down. “I can only tell you what I know. And that isn’t much…”

She stared at me. “I find that hard to believe. That letter is written to you. He was asking for your help. Why didn’t you help him?”

“How could I? He thought I could control Matteo, but I had nothing to do with my brother’s business.”

“I find that hard to believe. If he wrote to you, if he asked you for help…he must have believed that you could help. But you didn’t help him. You let him die.”

“I did no such thing. Jason interfered in something he should have stayed far away from. You saw the ledgers. I’m sure you saw the accounts that only he could have set up, but you’re trying to blame me for his death when he was just in too deep. He took money from people he shouldn’t?—”

“He wasn’t a thief?—”

“Then explain the accounts, Mya. Maybe he wasn’t a thief, but he was clearly up to no good. How much did Jason make as a civil servant? Sixty-thousand a year tops? And yet those deposits you saw were for more than 20,000 bucks sometimes up to 100,000 dollars. How do you think he got that money and why do you think he was hiding it?”

She shook her head and sat down slowly in an uncomfortable side chair next to the door. Her big eyes stared at me and seemed to implore me for answers that I knew she didn’t want to hear. “I don’t know, but I won’t believe Jason was a thief.”

“Maybe the money wasn’t stolen, but it wasn’t his. Unless he did something to earn it…”

Her eyes narrowed. “What are you trying to say?”

I didn’t need to say the unspoken.

“You’re trying to say they were payoffs?”

I shrugged. “What else could they be?”

“No. I refuse to believe that. Jason would never.”

“Then why was he asking for my help? He was involved in a situation he should have never involved himself in, and he paid dearly for it.”

She shot up. “You could have helped him. In his letter, he was asking for your help.”

“He was asking me for a way out of a mess he created. What was I supposed to do? Also, I never saw this letter until just now.”

“I don’t believe you. You could have helped. Matteo is your family. In his letter, Jason sounded scared. He knew everything Matteo did was being monitored by you. He knew you had control over your family, that you were the head of the entire operation, and that Matteo and the rest just did your bidding?—”

“Matteo doesn’t work for me. I can’t control what he does?—”

“That’s bullshit and you and I both know it. Just admit it, Dario. Jason’s life didn’t matter to you. When he turned to you for help, you ignored him. You didn’t even try to help him.”

“I never saw this letter, Mya. You will have to believe me. And Jason was no saint, Mya.”

“And you’re the devil.”

With that, she stormed away. I sat back and sighed. I picked up the envelope and stared at it.

Who had left it there for her to see? I didn’t even know if the letter was real or not, but I knew it was something I had never seen until she shoved it in my face.

Did I know about Jason? Yes. Did I know that he was doing jobs for Matteo? Of course. But I didn’t know what those jobs were. As long as Matteo didn’t get involved with my business, I stayed out of Matteo’s way and he stayed out of mine. Until recently, it seemed. Now he wanted me dead.

And now, as far as Mya was concerned, I’d let Jason die.

Her husband had decided to run in the wrong circles and lost his life, but yet, somehow, I was the one to blame, as if I were just as guilty for taking his life as Nico was.

My head hurt. I couldn’t win with Mya. Everything I did was wrong. Every choice I made she questioned.

The lack of trust between us could possibly destroy what I was trying to build for us. Didn’t she see that?

That evening she didn’t sleep in the bedroom with me. The following day, she avoided eating all her meals with me and instead, ate in various other locations in the house. I would watch her walk by and she would pretend not to even notice me.

It reminded me of our first days as man and wife, when she pretended that I didn’t exist. It didn’t feel any better now than it did then.

I felt desperate now. All my emotions and natural inclinations told me to keep her close. What if this was the straw that broke the camel’s back? What if that letter ruined everything that we could have together?

What if she ran away and got hurt? What if I couldn’t reach her in time and someone hurt her and the baby?

At this point, I couldn’t imagine life without her. The mere idea made me sick to my stomach. I would never tell her that, though.

I had to keep my distance. It was better this way. Too many emotions involved would mean someone would get hurt.

I thought about Jason’s letter over and over. Who had given it to Mya? I went through the security videos and realized that it had been placed there by one of the kitchen staff, or at least someone dressed as the kitchen staff.

Their face had been turned away, so I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman. I’d interviewed the entire staff and had their background records pulled, but didn’t find any hint of the person who had left that envelope for Mya to find.

I hated that the letter existed. Deep down, I knew that even if I had seen and read it, the chances that I would have helped Jason were slim. I wasn’t in the business of helping others.

I knew who I was. I understood that people died because of me. I’d placed hits. I’d done things that some would think were unspeakable. But I had done what was necessary.

I’d built an empire and was respected for it. Many would find fault with who I was and the things I’d done, but they weren’t in my shoes.

I had my own moral code, and normally, I didn’t give a fuck about what others thought. But I felt like shit every time Mya looked at me with disappointment in her eyes or worse, looked at me like I wasn’t even human.

Sometimes…I swore that I saw pity in her eyes, and that made me even angrier. I wasn’t to be pitied—I was to be feared. Respected. And when I looked at her, I saw none of those things.

I pressed on, but it was unsettling. My own wife couldn’t stand the sight of me. The life that I built had her in harm’s way.

I had told myself that day in the hospital that I would do better, change her life for the better, and find a way out of the mess I had created, but the power I had as a Mafia kingpin was heady.

Waking up in the morning, knowing that the power of life and death was in my hands, along with more money than anyone could dream of, was like a drug.

For Mya, I had to be better. For our child, I had to be better, but I felt like there was a little devil on one of my shoulders and an angel on the other giving advice. And so far, the devil was winning.

I’d made plans and even started moving money, but I couldn’t pull the trigger. I couldn’t let it all go. At least not yet, and that made me feel like shit.

Briefly, I wondered if Jason had felt that same dilemma when he decided to get involved with my brother…a man who wanted my empire so badly he was willing to kill others for it.

Jason had walked into a snake pit, not even knowing it. He should have walked away a lot earlier, but instead, he’d gotten himself killed. He had trusted the wrong people, miscalculated the situation, and now he was dead.

Was I guilty of the same? Someone was helping my brother to try to kill me. Was it Ivan or Joseph? How soon before they succeeded?

Those thoughts echoed in my mind constantly. I had to stop this. I had to find another way. Too many lives that were precious to me were at stake.

I’d spent so many sleepless nights wondering if my mother had really committed suicide or if her death was a warning to my father…or maybe it had been revenge because he’d fucked over the wrong person.

In my mind’s eye, I could see my mother’s body, limp at the bottom of the cliff. I could feel the disbelief all over again, and then the pain. She was gone. The one person I loved in life had died, and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it.

I’d been an angry young adult then when my psychologist had said I was suffering from survivor’s remorse. I hadn’t cared for him to explain anything to me, so I hadn’t gone back.

I just knew that I hadn’t been able to save my mom, but I’d be damned if I let the same thing happen to Mya.

And I sure wasn’t going to make Mya a widow again. I swore right then and there, I wouldn’t make Jason’s mistake or my father’s. I would protect those who were vulnerable. I would protect Mya and our baby, and I would protect myself because Mya didn’t deserve to have to mourn again.

Would she mourn me, though? It didn’t matter, really. My loyalty was to her and our unborn daughter, and nothing Mya could do would make me feel differently.

I would kill anyone who got in the way of the new life I would make with Mya.

First, I had to eliminate all traces of my business and who I was. I looked down at the letter, which was now balled up in my fist.

Our new life together began now.

I tossed the letter into the fireplace and watched it burn. And when not a hint of it existed, I walked away.