“He’s leaving? Really? Oh, God, will he ever come back?”
“I don’t know, Mama,” Hope said.
He heard Aria start crying and her men’s and daughters’ voices trying to calm her. When he got to his car, he turned to look at the family mansion. It was much larger than he thought it would be. The fact that he now had his own room in the place made him start to feel like a part of it.
He drove away, thinking about his next move. He hadn’t expected them to open their arms to him. Now that they had, it might have changed things.
Dominic thought he knew what his life would be like for the next several years. His father had given him one business to do what he wanted, so he turned it into a high-end lounge. Hecould have easily lived off what he made for the rest of his life, but he found it wasn’t enough, and he was getting bored.
He sold his aunt’s house after she died and bought another lounge he was overhauling to make it look like his first one and a condo closer to the lounge. If he worked late, he had a small apartment over the first lounge where he spent a lot of time.
The lounge was the only time his father had looked proud of him, so he worked to make it even more successful.
Dominic decided to put aside his family drama and planned to work until he dropped. He knew in his heart what he was going to do, but it was like Faith said, he had to get the chip off his shoulder first.
Chapter Five
“Hey, boss, Franky needs to talk to you,” Buzz said.
Dominic looked up from his desk and sighed. “What the fuck did he do this time?”
Buzz shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
“Send him in.”
Dominic sat back and rubbed the back of his neck where a tension headache had started hours ago, and the Tylenol he had taken hadn’t helped.
“Hey, boss.”
Dominic looked his employee over and could tell he was agitated. “What’s up?”
“Well, you see, I was helping at a high-stakes poker game last night at Micky’s place. It got pretty heated, and the men, most of them bad, were putting up cars and shit. I don’t know his name, one of the guys was desperate and put in his cousin.”
Dominic sat up. “What the fuck?”
“I know. I thought it was fucked up, too. What made it worse was that the guy had his men go get her to see if she was real and as beautiful as he said he was. God, the look on her face made me sick after she realized what was happening. Damn, she was one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. I could tell the cousin felt bad but not bad enough to stop the bet. Of course, he lost.”
“What happened?”
“You won’t try to guess who won her?”
“Fuck, man, just tell me.”
“The bastard Marino.”
That fucker. If he had an archnemesis, he would be the one. They went to the same school, but the bastard had been a few years older.
It was hate at first sight for them. Maybe it was becausethey both came from mafia families, or their personalities just clashed. The guy liked hurting women, and Dominic had stepped in a few times. Oh, hell. This girl would be dead within a week with that man. He was one sick fucker.
“Where is she right now?”
“They have her stashed in a warehouse on the south side. Marino had to go do something for his father before he could spend somequalitytime with her. That’s what he called it.”
“Do you know which warehouse?”
“Yeah. I overheard them.”
“Okay, let me make a call. You tell the guys to get ready to go. Leave Buzz and Jon here. Tell the guys going with us that they’ll need firepower.”