CHAPTER FIVE
“Oh, come on, Tommas,” Abriella said, her cheeks pinking. “You’re such an asshole. How is Lily having a little fun any different than—”
“Stop it, Ella,” Tommas snapped. “It’s entirely different. I keep a damn eye on you when you’re out.”
“Because I come here,” Abriella replied hotly. “And I do it for you. I brought her here so what is the fucking problem?”
“And you shouldn’t have done that, either!” Tommas growled.
“You—”
“Enough, Ella.”
Abriella glowered at her companion.
Damian acted like the two weren’t glaring daggers at one another. In fact, he wished he didn’t know anything about his cousin’s relationship with Abriella Trentini. Tommas was going to get himself killed over that shit someday—Damian was sure of it.
“Adriano took Eve home, then?” Damian asked.
“A few minutes ago,” Tommas confirmed.
“Is he going to keep his mouth shut about the girls being out at a club without supervision?”
Tommas nodded. “Of course, he will. The kid is golden, you know.”
“Fun suckers, the lot of you,” Abriella said with a huff.
“No, we’re keeping you out of shit with your fathers and grandfathers,” Tommas said with a frown.
Abriella sneered. “Right, that’s what you’re doing. Where am I going tonight, Tommy? With you or to Granddaddy’s? How do you plan on explaining that when you drop me off, huh? Maybe you’ll take me back to my apartment where the stupid enforcers are waiting for me like always. I’ve been drinking, right? I can’t drive. God knows you don’t trust a soul around me, so you’ll have to take me home … or maybe we’ll go back to our place and—”
“Stop, Ella. You’re drinking and I don’t want to deal with this nonsense. Do you know the kind of position you put me in tonight?” Tommas asked.
“Like the kind you put me in?” Abriella asked back sweetly.
Tommas’ jaw fell slack. “Ella!”
Ouch.
The girl had balls, anyway.
Maybe Damian could understand why Tommas was doing the crap he was with Abriella—whatever it was. Tommas always had liked his women a little rough around the edges and difficult. Abriella sure fit that bill.
Damian cleared his throat. “All right, enough of this. You two fight or fuck it out. I don’t care. Where’s Lily?”
“On the floor somewhere,” Tommas said, not moving his piercing gaze from Abriella. “She was dancing the last I saw.”
“Thanks,” Damian said.
“No problem, man. It’s only ten; Dino probably hasn’t starting flipping his shit that Lily didn’t show up home, yet.”
Damian waved his cousin’s statement off. No way in hell would Damian be able to take Lily home to her brother without Dino finding out what happened. Especially if Lily was drinking like Tommas said when he called earlier. Dino would not be happy about that bullshit. Better for Damian to get Lily to a safe place for the night and excuse it in the morning when he did get her back home.
“Didn’t you have that job tonight?” Tommas asked. “Poletti and all?”
Damian shrugged. “Yeah, but you called, so …”
More important things.
Plus, the night wasn’t exactly over. Damian could still get the hit in if the Poletti man stuck to his normal schedule. There was a certain art to being a hitman, after all. Watching your victims and planning before you struck was an important piece to the puzzle. The chance of leaving something behind or fucking up lessened.
Damian Rossi didn’t know how to do messy.
“Terrance isn’t going to like that, I suppose,” Tommas said.
“I’ll get it done.”
Tommas snatched the tumbler full of red liquid from Abriella’s hand just as she tried to take another drink. “Oh, I think you’ve had enough, mia bella donna.”
“Go to hell, Tommy.”
“Goddamn, Ella, you know I lo—”
Damian turned on his heel and walked away before he had to hear something else he didn’t want or need to know. He quickly slipped into the crowd of club goers, searching through the unfamiliar faces for the one he knew.
He was pretty damn sure Lily wouldn’t appreciate him just showing up and ordering her out of the club, but she didn’t give him much of a choice, really. It wasn’t Lily’s fault, as far as he was concerned. Abriella and Evelina knew better than to be kicking it in a club owned by a Mafioso. Their parents and the Outfit expected those girls to be above reproach at all times. There couldn’t be a single reason for gossip to start spreading.
They weren’t fucking angels. Damian didn’t pretend they were, but he didn’t want to see them getting in any kind of trouble because they wanted to have a little fun, either. Lily, especially. Since she was Damian’s fiancée—technically—Tommas called him first instead of Lily’s brothers. Damian was supposed to be looking out for Lily, it was one of Dino’s requests, but his week had been swamped with getting his plan perfected to fulfill Terrance’s order on the Poletti man.
Lily fell through the cracks.
Damian figured she would be okay for one damn week, but apparently not.
Damian, bothered when the people all but swallowed him whole, moved to the wall and walked alongside the less crowded space as his gaze scanned the floor. When he did finally find Lily, something unfamiliar burned hot and fast through his stomach. It pooled there and threatened to overwhelm him with the sensation.
Lily danced with a man like they were cozy. His hands were on her body, grabbing at her waist and hip before traveling higher over the tight, black dress Lily wore. The guy’s hands might as well have been all over her, for fuck’s sake. The damn dress was short as fuck. Too short, maybe. Damian might have liked seeing the bodycon-style dress on her any other time, actually.
In fact, he might have really liked seeing her dance any other time, too.
Damian had to admit, Lily was one hell of a sexy sight.
She moved in time to the music perfectly, the sway and swell of her ass drawing in his gaze and holding it as the tempo picked up. With her hair in loose waves, the blonde strands covered her back and shoulders as she danced. A sly, almost coy, smile curved her lips into the sweetest grin while her dark eyes twinkled with a wicked gleam.
Yeah.
Sexy as fuck.
Her black dress hugged every curve. She showcased a toned, young figure made to fit a man’s hands. Not the ones holding her now, though.
Damian hadn’t expected to feel jealousy. Women weren’t property to be owned in his mind, even if the deal with Dino kind of put that situation on the table for him and Lily. Watching his fiancée dance with another man; seeing that man touch her … Damian couldn’t do that shit. Something in him burned like crazy, running straight out of control.
He decided in that moment, right then and fucking there, Lily DeLuca was his and she was damn well going to know it, too. Even if it took a bit of convincing to get her there.
When the man’s hand drove down Lily’s back, coming dangerously close to her ass as he pushed her smaller frame into his, Damian jolted forward. A harsh heat balled in his middle as his teeth and fists clenched.
“Whoa, too close,” Lily said, trying to take a step back from the guy.
She hadn’t even seen Damian coming.
Not yet, anyway.
“What the fuck do you mean, too close?” the guy asked. “We’re just dancing.”
“Your hands can stay off my ass,” Lily replied.
“Goal is to get you out of this dress—”
“That’s not going to happen. Back off a little, okay?”
He still wasn’t letting her go. He didn’t back off like she told him to, either.
Damian came up behind Lily, put a hand on her waist, and grabbed her tight. “Remove your hands from her body, or I will cut each of your fingers off and stuff them down your throat, asshole.”
Lily spun around, her brown eyes wide but dimmed with drink. Guessing by the tightness in her lips and the way her hand pressed on his midsection as if to push him away, she wasn’t pleased to see him show up. “Damian? What are you doing here?”
Damian didn’t pay her any mind. He was too busy staring down the fucker who looked like he was going to reach for Lily again.
“Go on, do that,” Damian goaded. “Touch her again, man. Let’s make my night perfect by spilling blood all over the floor of my cousin’s club. Here’s a fucking history lesson you ought to know before you go around handling females that don’t belong to you. Rossi. DeLuca. Trentini. Conti. Do those names ring any goddamn bells for you? This is Chicago—they’re the first names you grow up learning to stay the hell away from when you play on the streets.”
The man took a step back, his hands flying upward in a prone position. “Sorry, my bad.”
Damian laughed. “Yeah, that’s right. Get the hell out of here and don’t make me ask again.”
Lily’s lips popped open as she turned to watch the man slip into the crowd of moving bodies. Nobody seemed to notice a thing out of place.
“Damian!” Her tiny fist smacked his chest hard. Pretty brown eyes glared up at him with a fierceness that said she was ready for a fight. “You … you …”
“What?” he asked.
“Oh, my God. Why would you do that?”
Damian lifted a single shoulder. “He shouldn’t be touching you, Lily. You shouldn’t be surprised.”
“We were just dancing,” she half-cried. “And you … you come in here like you own me or something.”
“You’re my fiancée. That means I—”
“Fuck you,” Lily spat, sneering. Disgust colored her words thick. “No man owns me, Damian. Not you or anybody else.”
“It’s not about owning you, Lily. It’s about the respect. And if you want to go out and drink, party, or do whatever, you need to make sure you’ve got the proper chaperone with you. Especially now that you’re set to be married to me. Evelina and Abriella might run around behind everybody’s backs doing whatever in the hell they want to do, but you know better, and frankly, so do they.”
Lily’s fists met her hips. “Says who?”
“Me. Dino. Any man in the Outfit.”
“Screw the Outfit. I’m twenty-one-years-old. I stopped needing to check in for permission when I hit eighteen.”
“Sorry, sweetheart, but it doesn’t work that way. We’re trying to keep you out of trouble here. Don’t you get that?”
“No.” Lily’s laugh was full of scorn. “What I get is you thinking you’ve got some kind of say on the things I do or don’t do. Reality check, Damian. You don’t. At all.”
Lily spun on her high stiletto heels. Damian didn’t let her get too far. He caught a shrieking Lily around the waist, picked her up as she fought against his hold, and cradled her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing more than a bag of flowers.
“You’re a bastard,” Lily hissed, smacking the spot between his shoulder blades with her opened palm.
“Ouch, hit a little lower. I didn’t know you liked it rough.”
Lily stilled in his grasp before her wiggling started up again. “You’re … impossible.”
“You’ll grow to like it.”
“I doubt it,” Lily bit out.
Damian ignored the curious gazes watching them as he strolled through the swarm of people separating on the floor while he walked past.
“I look like a child, put me down right now,” Lily ordered. “I can walk, you know.”
“No, if you act like a child, you’ll be treated like one.”
“Damian!”
“How many drinks did you have?” he asked.
“A few.”
“A few?”
Lily huffed, pressing the perky mounds of her tits into his shoulder. “You’re not my goddamn babysitter, Damian. You can’t tell me how much I can or can’t drink. This is undignified. Put me down.”
“Would you rather I call Dino to come get you?”
Lily froze. “No.”
“Stop fighting and let me get you out of here, then.”
“Fine,” Lily said quietly, all the fight in her voice gone.
“Seriously, how many drinks?” Damian asked as a familiar bouncer waved him through the front entrance.
“Five, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Definitely not seven,” Lily muttered.
Damian chuckled and he felt Lily tense all over as the sound rocked her body against his. “Why the party tonight?”
“Abriella suggested it earlier. Trying to get my mind off things.”
“The wedding?” Damian asked.
“Something like that,” Lily replied under her breath. Damian felt Lily’s elbow dig into his shoulder as she propped her hand into her palm. “Who called you?”
“Tommas.”
“Little rat.”
Damian didn’t grace that with a response. The late June air outside of the club was cooler than inside, packed with all those drunk, dancing people. Lily sucked in a huge breath as Damian strolled across the parking lot with her still slung over his shoulder. At least she’d stopped fighting. He appreciated that.
“Did you tell Dino or Theo?” Lily asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re my responsibility,” Damian answered honestly.
“Since when?”
“Since we became engaged.”
Lily made a disgruntled noise under her breath. “Great.”
Damian had parked his car at the far end of the parking lot. He walked the dark space in silence, letting Lily’s attitude and anger bounce off him. The girl could have her feelings—he didn’t begrudge her right to them as far as that went. What he did hope was that she would eventually settle herself to the idea of their marriage.
It was for life, after all.
Neither of them got much of a choice in the matter.
Damian would like for his future wife to tolerate him, in the very least. He didn’t want to live the next fifty or sixty years in a household like the ones he grew up in with the couples fighting all the fucking time and hating one another.
Frowning, Damian tried to shake those thoughts off. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he liked Lily a great deal. He’d started to remember more and more flickers of memories from when they were younger and he used to chum around with Theo. Lily DeLuca was a sweet, honest piece of Damian’s past he’d forgotten about.
Lily’s fingers drumming on the back of Damian’s neck brought him out of his inner turmoil.
“So, what difference would it make if you told my brothers I was out partying without a babysitter, anyway?”
“Well, for one, you were just having some innocent fun. I don’t fault you for being young and wanting to go out with friends. Dino might not see it the same way, is all. Except that asshole you were dancing with. That’s unacceptable, Lily. I won’t stand for that.”
Lily snorted. “We were dancing. It was nothing.”
Damian’s grip around her waist tightened like he didn’t want to let her go. “He was touching you. His hands were on you. That can’t happen again.”
Her voice went lower when she said, “I told him to back off.”
“And he didn’t.”
“And then you acted like a damned barbarian,” Lily said.
Damian could practically feel her eyes rolling.
“Listen, if you want to go out, we’ll do that. You just have to ask or tell me. Whatever. I don’t care. But you can’t be going out like that alone. It doesn’t look good on your brothers or me for you to be kicking it free without someone—”
“Babysitting me,” Lily interrupted, clearly annoyed.
“I’m trying here,” Damian said softly. “The least you could do is try, too.”
He had a feeling it wouldn’t work out that way, though.
Lily mumbled something unintelligible under her breath.
“What was that?” Damian asked.
“Nothing.”
Damian used his free hand to tickle up the side of Lily’s calf. She couldn’t have hid her breathless giggle even if she tried. “Do I have to ask you again?”
“Mr. I-don’t-like-to-repeat-myself, huh?”
“Caught that, did you?”
“Yes,” Lily said. “You didn’t have to scare him off, you know. I was doing just fine by myself, Damian.”
“Well, I didn’t fucking like it, all right? Maybe you could have handled it, but I did, so let’s move on.”
Lily hummed under her breath, the sound coming off playful and teasing. Maybe that was the alcohol in her system making her do it, but Damian liked to hear it all the same. “Oh?”
“Yeah, don’t think on it too hard.”
“You know …” Lily poked Damian in the back as he came up to the side of his Porsche. “… Abriella said something to me today.”
Damian fought the urge to scoff. Abriella Trentini said a lot of things. Nearly getting his girl in some kind of trouble put Abriella on the top of Damian’s shit-list. Sure, Lily was an adult capable of making her own good or bad decisions, but Abriella damn well knew better.
“I don’t care to hear much of what she has to say or what she thinks at the moment,” Damian admitted. “That girl likes to find trouble wherever she can. One of these days it’s going to catch up to her but you’re not going to be one of the ones suffering from the backlash, Lily.”
“Aw, are you pissed off because she took Eve and me out?”
Her sweetness act didn’t convince Damian for a second.
“Yes.”
Lily sighed. “I’m not. This was nice. I needed it.”
“She knows better.”
“So do I,” Lily confessed softly. “Everybody likes to use the excuse that because Dino let me spend so much time away from home that I don’t know what is expected, but I know, Damian. I do.”
Damian set Lily to her feet. Her sexy black heels clicked on the pavement as she righted her dress and stared up at him. “You knew, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Why did you go, then?”
Lily shrugged like that was supposed to explain it all. “I told you, I needed it.”
Damian waved at himself. “Am I some kind of fucking death sentence for you, or what?”
“Well …”
“Well, what?” Damian demanded. “Does the thought of marrying me sicken you; does it make you want to run for the hills; is forever with a man who will care and provide for you that awful, Lily?”
Lily’s brow furrowed before she pointed at her chest. “Nobody thought to ask me, Damian. It’s my life and I was having fun doing what I wanted to do.”
“No, you were running.”
“Hey, you don’t know—”
“Yes, I absolutely do know,” Damian interjected sharply. He ignored Lily’s wince. “I have had more than enough discussions with your brothers and time to myself when I was able to think it all over. Dino let you go because you couldn’t handle the Outfit. You couldn’t handle seeing your family pretending like your parents didn’t exist and that they didn’t love you with all they were. Because they did, right? Your dad loved you kids enough that he wanted what he thought would be better for you—a free life, a clean one. So, there you go. Dino let you run for as long as he could. You can’t run anymore, Lily. Stop blaming him; it’s not his fault.”
Lily wouldn’t meet his gaze. “He’s marrying me off like a piece of meat.”
“No, he’s trying to save you from that. Christ, girl, think about it.”
“But—”
“But nothing, Lily. You don’t get to know everything, okay? You just don’t. It’s better for you and everyone involved if you know as little as possible in this life. Learn to trust people for once instead of depending on only yourself. You never know what might happen if you do.”
Lily barked out a bitter laugh. “Trust, right. That’s a joke. After everything the Outfit did to me when I was a kid, trusting them or anyone in it is fucking impossible.”
Damian was over her pity party. He waved a hand in her direction dismissively, done with the charade. “Poor you, Lily. Here’s a newsflash for you—you’re not the only person in this parking lot holding a fucking membership card for a club no one wants to be a part of.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re an orphan, right? That’s how you feel. Guess what? You’re not the only one standing here without parents. You’re not the only one who grew up without them and you’re certainly not the only one who was raised by the Outfit. Got it? Mine might not have been killed like yours were, but I still lost them all the same. It’s time to move the hell on. Leave the past where it needs to stay. Behind.”
Lily sucked in a hard breath, her bottom lip catching between her teeth. “I’m—”
“Don’t apologize. That’s not what I want or need to hear. I don’t look for sympathy from others. It does nothing for me.”
“Okay,” Lily said quietly.
Damian crossed his arms and willed his irritation to leave. “I’m not sorry about earlier—that asshole deserved it and he’s lucky I didn’t break his face just for breathing. But, I am sorry about this past week.”
Lily mimicked his pose, hugging her frame in the bodycon dress. “Oh?”
“You’re my responsibility,” Damian said, repeating his words from before. “I should have been around this week, maybe asked you out to eat or something just so we could talk. Tried, at least. Clearly you’ve got shit on your mind you need to get off. You’re angry, I get that. You can be angry; you need to take it out on the right people, but you can’t do that if you don’t even really understand what you’re angry about.
“Nonetheless, I didn’t try this week,” Damian continued, the corner of his mouth tugging down into a half-frown. “I was busy and something else came up I had to take care of. I figured you wouldn’t want me anywhere near you for a while as it was. Maybe you still don’t.”
Lily shrugged. “I figured you didn’t want to be around. This is just … a duty for you, right? You have to do it and you don’t get a choice, either.”
Partly.
It might have been a little bit more, too.
“Unless you try to get to know me a little bit, you don’t have the first clue about this, us, or why I am doing it, Lily.”
“True,” Lily said. “But you’re not like me, Damian. Everybody will turn their cheek to what you do after this is followed through. Nobody will care a bit who you’re fucking or what you’re doing even if you have a wife. Me? I’m stuck with you even if you don’t have to be stuck with me.”
“Back up a second,” Damian said, cocking a brow. “Is that what you think my plans are? To marry you and keep you looking pretty on a shelf like a proper trophy wife while I have a dozen whores on the side?”
“Seems like that’s the norm, doesn’t it?”
Damian shook his head. “Not for me.”
“So, what, I’ll just be your warm body in the bed whenever you feel like using me?”
That was disgusting in more ways than Damian cared to explain.
“I’m not going to force you into my bed. I’m not into that nasty shit, but I kind of hope I don’t have to force you, Lily. I want you to come all on your own because you want to.”
She swallowed audibly, a pink tint coloring her cheeks. “I beg your pardon?”
“Just like I said. I’m not going to make it some kind of mission to seduce you, but I don’t think I have to. You’re young, beautiful—incredibly vibrant and sexy. I would be stupid and blind not to notice. So no, I won’t force you into my bed now or ten years from now, but chances are, you’ll make your way there all on your own. I want you to come to me willingly.”
“Wow,” Lily murmured. “I did not expect to hear that. You’re either terribly arrogant or mighty cocky.”
“Both, actually. I’m also honest,” Damian added, chuckling. “Despite what my profession may say about me, I am upfront with my motives. So why don’t I show you some of them right now, huh?”
“Like what?” she asked.
“We don’t have to be strangers. You don’t have to hate me and I really don’t want you to. You’re goddamn gorgeous—I wasn’t looking for a wife but I think I’d like to have you as mine. We’ll work out the details and while we do …”
“What?” she asked, her brown gaze meeting his, unashamed.
“You make all the calls. Just know the marriage will happen. It has to.”
Lily’s jaw clenched. “Yeah, I got that. Dino made that perfectly clear.”
Damian figured Lily needed to be let in on a part of her brother’s plan so she could finally—maybe—understand what Dino was trying to do for her. “Do you know what he asked me to do for you? What he wanted from me as the other half of this equation with the marriage?”
“What is that?”
“He asked me to take care of you and keep you safe when he couldn’t. Think about it, Lily.”
Lily shifted in her heels. “He’s going to prison soon.”
“Well, it sure seems like it.”
“He won’t be able to keep me safe from there.”
“He let you run for as long as he could.”
Lily blew out a shaky breath. “You still haven’t told me why you’re doing this.”
“I did. Because I have to.”
“That’s a non-answer,” Lily pointed out.
Maybe so, but it was the best he could give for now.
“You’re looking at a pretty decent future if you would just quit fucking fighting it, Lily DeLuca.”
Lily blinked, a soberness clearing her vision. “Actually, I’m looking at you, Damian.”
“And I am not that bad of a choice, considering the men you could have been married off to.”
“Maybe so,” Lily agreed. “I still didn’t get any say in the matter.”
“There’s no maybe about it, sweetheart. Give me a little bit of time, and I’ll give you back everything you need.”
“That’s a pretty heavy promise,” she said. “And this life does nothing but break them, Damian.”
“Do I fucking look like a fairy godmother to you? I’m not handing out wishes, Lily.”
“Well, I didn’t exactly wish for this, did I?”
“Exactly,” Damian replied. “So make the best of it.”
Damian cut the lights to his Porsche and let the car roll down the quiet, dark street. Checking his phone, he could see none of the sensors inside his apartment had gone off, meaning Lily was still safe and sleeping in his bed where he left her hours earlier.
If all went well, he would be back at his place before she even woke up with her none the wiser that he left.
The east side Chicago neighborhood was quiet for it being early morning. Most of the homes in the middle-class suburb were still dark as the sun had yet to rise. No one liked to be up before dawn, after all. With the sun still below the horizon, the roads offered little light but for the street lamps up above.
Damian found a place to park his Porsche, cut the engine, and waited.
Sometimes, his job was all about the wait.
Terrance had probably wondered why the hit hadn’t already taken place, but the boss knew better than to question Damian’s motives and choices when it came to carrying out business. Damian did it on his terms and his time so the job was done correctly and without fuss.
Damian didn’t plan on spending his life behind bars.
No other man’s life was worth that price.
He’d watched the Poletti man for a good week. The guy had a variance of routines between working some schemes, running between his favorite places, and making his way home every night. Damian had taken note of the fact the guy had no wife or girlfriend and probably no children. The guy hadn’t visited any during the week, anyway.
Damian hoped this little lesson Terrance wanted taught to Joel did the job. Senseless deaths were just that—senseless and useless.
Regardless, Damian let his thoughts and feelings on the matter bleed away so he could do the hit, get the fuck home, and start the day out fresh. It was always better if he didn’t let this kind of nonsense work its way into his conscience.
The mafia was what it was. Death came hand in hand with living the life.
Damian was no exception and neither was anyone else.
No one was deathless in this world.
As a light turned on down the street, illuminating a split-level home and the front yard, Damian leaned over in his seat and opened the glove compartment. He pulled out the glock he’d chosen for the job, checked the clip, slid it back in, and turned off the safety.
James Poletti pulled his hood over his head and did a few minutes of stretches on his small front porch. Damian rolled down the window on the passenger side of his Porsche, letting the late June air wash through his car. The breeze was just enough to keep the mugginess down to a bearable temperature with the AC in Damian’s car turned off.
Before long, James Poletti started his usual morning jog down the dark street. Damian had wanted to do the job at another location, but this one worked just as well.
Damian didn’t make much of a fuss about killing. He didn’t make a show of it unless asked to, either.
Quick, Terrance had said.
When James was nearly at the passenger window, Damian turned the key and gunned the engine as he flicked on the car’s lights. The man outside the car stumbled but caught himself easily enough. With a mumbled curse, James tossed a glance inside the open window, straight into the barrel of Damian’s gun.
Lights out.