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CHAPTER THIRTY

Dario

My chest burned, and it was difficult to breathe.

More than anything, I was pissed because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get the smell of smoke out of my favorite suit.

First, my island house, and now Donny’s new restaurant. I was annoyed.

Dodging a Molotov cocktail during the brief meeting I scheduled before Mya’s dinner party was a very unexpected event. It had been an amateur move, and an unwelcome surprise.

I had heard the motorcycles approaching, but it wasn’t until I saw them stopping dangerously close to the windows that lined one side of the restaurant that I looked up.

I was just in time to see the drivers of two of the motorcycles toss their bottles at the window. The first bottle broke the glass, rolled within a foot of me, and then straight into curtains.

It promptly set that part of the restaurant ablaze. The second bottle veered completely off course, landing far short and setting the shrubs in front of the restaurant on fire.

They got two points for surprising me, but none for execution. They had failed miserably, but the front of my friend’s restaurant had gone up in smoke.

I would reimburse him for the damage, but it bothered me that others could have been hurt. I had my own moral code, and I didn’t take kindly to rival gangs endangering others to get back at me. And I didn’t take kindly to the damage done to Donny’s restaurant.

He didn’t need that kind of attention. As far as the world knew, he ran an establishment for the quietly rich, not a meeting place for a Mafia kingpin.

I would find out who was responsible and make them pay, that was certain. Not that I didn’t already have an idea of who was responsible.

My stomach twisted in knots as I thought about it. Matteo. I knew he had to have something to do with it.

I felt bad about Mya’s party. I had ruined it.

But then again, I knew she had been hosting it to try and find out more information. I had to admire her desire to check up on me, to try and figure out the puzzle on her own.

For the most part, I’d avoided her since the party, giving her space, knowing that she was still stewing over the details of Jason’s shortcomings. I wondered how she would feel if she knew the whole truth.

I hadn’t wanted to tell her everything. I didn’t see how knowing the whole truth would benefit her. It would only hurt her, and Jason’s decisions had already had severe consequences for her. I didn’t want her to know the rated R version of the tale. The PG version was bad enough.

After all, she needed to believe in something. Illusions had their purposes. Even if she hated me, I wasn’t prepared to tell her that almost everything she thought she knew was a lie.

Who had attacked Donny’s place? Was it the same person who left Jason’s letter for her to find? I would be willing to bet it was.

I still had no clue who had left the letter. I’d narrowed it down to someone being paid to get in and out, drop the letter, and then disappear. That disturbed me. If someone could get in and out unnoticed so easily, then I wasn’t as safe as I had thought.

Maybe I’d fallen for the illusion, too. My arrogance had gotten in the way of my natural instincts to protect myself and everything I’d built. I’d let myself slip up.

Normally, I would have beaten myself up about it and found a way to never let it happen again, but I was walking away sooner rather than later this time. There was no time to second guess what had already happened.

Everything I built was old news; my future with Mya and our daughter was all that mattered now.

Sighing deeply to myself, I thought I just needed to get Mya in on my plan.

As my car pulled up to our building, I waited for Joseph to open the door. I scratched my chin, wondering what exactly to do about Mya. I wondered how far she would go trying to discover the truth.

Deep down, it hurt me to think that she would do something like this, but I was realistic. Ours wasn’t a marriage of love or convenience. I’d backed her into a corner.

She was like a cat fighting its way out of corner, blocked by a pit bull. How had I thought I could pull my plan to get us out of this life off without a little bloodshed?

Nothing in my life came easily, clearly, and Mya’s loyalty was going to be difficult to earn, but first, I needed to see how far she’d go. I had my own little last-minute soiree planned.

I nodded at Joseph as he opened the door and I climbed out and took a look around. We would have guests the next week and I wanted to make sure everything looked perfect before they arrived. I took my phone from my pocket and called Ivan.

“I need you to do something for me?—-”

A week later, I was sitting at the dining room table, and Mya was to my right. The assistant DA was to her left. A few other high-profile individuals sat at the table near us, and around twenty other guests had joined us.

I wasn’t the type to hide. If my enemies wanted a piece of me, I would make it easy.

They could look me in the eye as they attempted to kill me. I hated cowardice.

My plan was simple. Mya was no longer isolated and unlike at the house in town, there were listening devices planted throughout the rooms. I wanted to see who would attempt to sell me out.

The inside person had plenty of choices. Everyone in the building was here because I paid them to be. I didn’t trust them. They all worked for me in one way or another.

Maybe they took kickbacks, maybe they turned a blind eye to some of my shipments, but they all worked for me one way or another.

And they were all only motivated by money. I doubted any of them would be willing to forgo an attempt to get a piece of me.

They all had secrets that I protected, and as a result, they were all under my control. I wanted to see which of them would take the bait.

I turned and looked at the “the bait”. She was wearing a long maxi dress that looked demure enough. The long tear-drop-shaped earrings in her ears I didn’t recognize. I frowned, hoping that Jason hadn’t given them to her.

It smarted that I was still upset over a dead man, but when that dead man’s sainthood was thrown in my face, it was hard not to be upset.

I still didn’t know what I would do if she decided to sell me out to one of my enemies, but I would wait and see. I didn’t think she was the mole, but you never could be too sure in this life.

The evening wore on and nothing eventful was happening. Dinner was over and my guests were out wandering the rooftop garden or enjoying a drink by the fire. I was trying to avoid a rather chatty senator who wanted more money because he was facing a very nasty divorce, but I didn’t care about his problems.

My own wife or someone inside my household seemed to be trying to get me killed. I just didn’t have evidence yet.

But if they made a move tonight, I would know. Ivan and Joseph had eyes and ears on Mya.

I lost sight of her and said low enough that only the earpiece could hear me. “Where is she?”

“Outside in the garden.”

“Is she alone?”

“No.”

“Who is she with?”

“Jonathan.”

My jaw twitched. I guess I was paying a visit to the garden.

Jonathan was a supplier who also happened to be friends with one of the richest men in South America. He was a nice guy who wanted to play with the big boys.

Translation… he was expendable.

Why had she gone to talk to him? The rocks under my feet barely made a sound as I crossed the roof toward them. I could see her. They were sitting on a bench.

She was talking and then he placed a hand on her shoulder.

My jaw twitched and all reason exited my brain. How dare he touch her?

My hand reached for my gun before I could think. The first bullet went just shy of his shoulder. The second bullet lodged in his arm. I heard the screaming. Was it his or Mya’s? I didn’t care.

“Dario! Stop! Dario!”

That was Mya.

Jonathan hadn’t said a word. He was too stunned, trying to stop the bleeding.

I was in front of him now. I raised my gun and pressed it against his forehead.

“You have five seconds to explain what you were doing.”

“Dario!” she grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away. I shook her off.

“Five.” Jonathan looked like he was about to faint. He was as white as a sheet.

“Dario, stop! Are you crazy? What are you doing?”

“I wasn’t doing anything, Dario, I swear. It looked like she needed someone to talk to and I was just listening?—”

Listening? I saw the way he was looking at her. “Four.”

I pushed the gun harder against his forehead for good measure.

“Dario! I swear, man. I would never. You know me, man, come on…” he said something else. I couldn’t hear because Mya was screaming at me to stop.

“Shut up!” I yelled at them both.

I was always in control. I didn’t raise my voice. I never lost it but seeing his hands on Mya. “Three.”

I was going to pull the trigger.

“Two.”

“Dario!”

She pushed herself in front of Jonathan, and now my gun was pointed at her. Her eyes pleaded with mine. I was still seeing red. She placed a hand on her stomach.

Reasoning pushed through the over reactive reptilian part of my brain. I dropped my arm to the side, my finger still on the trigger.

Jonathan sighed and sunk down on the bench, still holding his arm. “You’re fucking crazy man, fucking crazy. Call me an ambulance for fuck’s sake,” he whined.

I couldn’t help myself. “One.”

He leaped back as the shot just grazed his leg. “Next time, I won’t be as kind.”

Then I turned to Mya and said, “Inside now.”