That was a job for his fathe—
“I’ve had a long day.” Dante wiped his mouth with his napkin then tossed it down onto the plate in front of him. “Good night.”
It was everything she could do to keep her jaw from hitting the floor as she watched him rise. But once he disappeared behind the sliding glass doors then up the steps, her jaw became practically sewn shut as her teeth clenched together in anger.
Father of the fucking year.
Seven
The Line Where the Ocean Met the Sky
Nadia woke up sometime in the middle of the night. She had always been a light sleeper, so when she heard a door opening, followed by footsteps padding down the hall, her curiosity had her getting out of bed and throwing on her robe.
As she passed the slightly ajar bedroom door, she instinctively knew which boy it probably belonged to and who was most likely still asleep, snoring on the other side of the other bedroom door.
Letting her feet take her to the bow, she followed her gut, heading to the front of the boat. It didn’t take long to find the one who had snuck out of his room.
“Can’t sleep?” she asked quietly over the ocean waves.
The back of the dirty blond hair just slightly shook. He hadn’t needed to turn his head to know who it was.
Not taking a step, she stared at the silhouette of the boy in the night. “Do you mind if I sit with you?” It was always important to ask for permission to talk with a troubled teen. Forcing your way in to understand them would never work.
“Sure,” he answered quietly.
Lightly stepping forward, she took a seat beside him on the deck of the boat, about a foot away from him. Nadia didn’t look over at him just yet, let alone speak. They both sat there quietly for what seemed like an eternal moment as they watched the front of the yacht slowly cut through the sea. Sailing during the day was beautiful, but it was a whole different kind of beauty at night. Up above held the most beautiful night sky that was filled with a billion twinkling lights, while below, the now dark ocean sparkled back with every wave that broke the salted water. They went on forever like a perfect picture until the different yet mirroring views seemed to meet miles upon miles away.
Thinking back to when Dante had left the table, Nadia had wanted nothing more than to do what his father should have—comforted Leo. But before she could get a single word out, Leo had left the table, like his father had, leaving her with Amo.
They had followed to bed shortly after, retreating from the awkwardness of what had taken place, making Dante successful in ruining the night for everyone.
“So, your dad … he’s quite … intense, huh?” she asked delicately, beginning to probe.
“You mean an asshole?” he said the word she clearly hadn’t used. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“Has he always been like that?”
“Yes and no.” Sensing she didn’t quite understand, he elaborated, “We always knew our father was an asshole, but he changed when our mother died.”
Nadia had probably been in her early twenties when Dante’s wife had died. Melissa Caruso’s blood that had been splattered across the grocery store parking lot, along with the bullet casings, hadn’t even been cleaned up when practically the whole city had found out about her gruesome death. No one had even needed to ask how or why she had been murdered. Everyone knew why … because she had married the most dangerous man in all of Kansas City.
Even though at the time, Nadia had known nothing about Dante nor his crime family, but she had been smart enough to know he had enemies. She just couldn’t believe she would get firsthand experience of the enemies he had attracted later in life.
“I’m sorry about your mother. I remember when it happened. All everyone ever said about her was how kind and beautiful she was.”
Leo, who had his arms resting on his bent knees, hugged them a little bit closer to himself. “I don’t have many memories left of her, but from what I remember, she really was.”
It hurt her heart to think how young Leo must’ve been when she had been murdered, but before she could express that to him, he stopped her. It was as if she had popped a cork on a shaken-up champagne bottle; his thoughts began to just bubble out.
“Losing her was harder on my older siblings, since they had spent more time with her. My brother, Lucca, took it the worst out of us kids, I think.”
All the things Nadia had heard about the oldest Caruso sibling had her intrigued to hopefully meet Lucca one day. She could only imagine how good of a person he must be.