Bastiano Romano: A Standalone Mafia Romance Novel (The Five Syndicates Book 4) by Parker S. Huntington (33)

“Asher.” I answered his call on the first ring, already running to my car from the run-down alleyway of the lead I was chasing. “Did you find him?”

“I need you at my place. We have something.”

The line went dead as I slid into the car and broke every vehicle law in the state to get to Asher’s place in under ten minutes. That sinking feeling I’d felt before I'd found out Vince had gone missing had never left. Ariana De Luca had just distracted me from it, playing house with me like we were in a 90s sitcom or something.

When I left the elevator into Asher’s penthouse, dread was the only thing that pulsed through my body. We’d torn the city apart for fourteen days, each search fruitless, each day ending with dread and a drained soul.

It couldn’t be as easy as a sudden lead on day fourteen.

Lucy met my eyes when I entered. Nothing but apprehension and resignation in them. I cut my eyes to Asher. Asher lived in a ten-bedroom “apartment” close to Lucy’s school Wilton, but in this moment, it felt like a tiny studio apartment with no air to breathe nor room to move.

The suitcases Asher and Lucy were supposed to take to their honeymoon remained abandoned in the foyer. I stepped around them as I made my way to Asher and Lucy and sat on a bar stool.

“The line went dead.” Asher raked a hand through his haggard hair. “I was on the phone with Niccolaio. Sounded like he had something, and he wanted to meet."

Behind me, the door opened, and Niccolaio walked in with his red-headed girlfriend Minka, who reminded me a little too much of Elsa. Physically at least.

Asher sprung up at the sight of them and shot out questions without a greeting. “What is it? Why did you call this meeting? Did you find him?”

Niccolaio ran a hand through his hair, the movement so natural I suspected he’d been doing it a lot lately. “No, but we need to talk. Dex tracked down that lead we’ve been following.”

Dex was Niccolaio’s neighbor and a tech guru. The lead he referred to was a burner Vince had been calling twice daily for the past few months. He’d had another burner, too, but that one had been thoroughly destroyed, so we’d focused on the one intact.

Niccolaio squeezed Minka’s hand before stepping away from her. “And… God, Vince didn’t want me to tell you guys this, but given the situation, I think I should.”

I held back my anger. Fourteen days. Vince had been missing for fourteen days, and Niccolaio held something back from us?

Asher grit his teeth. “Spit it the fuck out already.”

“Vincent has cancer. Late stage. The number belongs to his oncologist. God, Asher, he might even be dead already. I don’t know how bad it is, but don’t you see how he’s been looking lately?”

I bit back a curse. I’d first noticed it when we were planning Asher’s wedding security the day I’d first trained Ariana, but I’d been distracted by a phone call from Everett. I’d been so wrapped up in my own world, I hadn’t considered it again. But I’d seen it, and I’d ignored it. It was worse than not seeing it at all.

Sorrow. Rage. Guilt. It consumed me as I forced myself to keep breathing. Asher’s face had gone blank, but I knew he felt the pain. Vince had practically raised him. His shoulders tensed, and his fists clenched, but he said nothing.

Lucy held her head high, but she let fat drops of tears wet her cheeks. They splashed onto the floor. One by one. I watched them fall, so I had something to do that didn’t involve violence as I waited for someone to say something.

Instead, a phone rang.

Niccolaio pulled his phone out, his eyes widening when he took in the screen. “Holy shit, guys.” He showed us the name on the screen. “It’s Vincent.”

We all sprang into action, crowding around Niccolaio as he accepted the video call. But when Ranieri Andretti’s face came onto the screen, I nearly lost it.

Black hair. Green eyes. Niccolaio’s same jaw. I’d never met him in person. Not with the war between our families. But I felt like I’d seen him before with how much he resembled his brother.

Ranieri opened his mouth, so fucking smug. “Hello, brother.”

Niccolaio’s fist clenched, but it stayed hidden from the phone camera’s view. “Why the fuck do you have Vincent Romano’s phone, Ranie?”

“It’s Ranieri to you.”

“Just answer the fucking question.”

“You owe me a blood debt, and imagine my surprise when Vincent fucking Romano just offers himself as a sacrifice.”

Shit.

I bit back the swear when all I wanted to do was scream. Blood for blood. The Romano family had taken a caporegime from the Andretti, so they would take one from us. The blood debt. The only way to settle this war.

And Vince had given himself up.

Of course, he had.

Not just because he had cancer, but because he—despite being the head of enforcement—believed in peace and sacrificing himself for family. I hated his loyalty right now. I wished he had Elsa’s selfishness and self-preservation, so he’d at least be here. Safe.

“No,” Niccolaio protested. “I don’t accept his sacrifice.”

Ranie smiled. Genuinely. A little too eager for the blood debt to settle. “Well, it’s not really your decision. Is it, Niccolaio? And I most definitely do.” He leaned the phone against something and backed up, so we had a view of the room. Of Vince. “Any last words, Romano?”

A half-eaten steak dinner sat in front of Vince like the last meal prisoners on Death Row received. He had some bruises on his face, but they looked old and tended to.

Vince stared straight into the camera. “Is Asher there?”

Niccolaio passed the phone to Asher, who answered with a guttural, “Vince.”

I didn’t want to, but I cleared the room with Niccolaio, Minka, and Lucy to give Asher privacy. Tears continued to stream down Lucy’s face, but she kept them silent as Minka took Niccolaio’s hand and led him to the balcony.

Silence nipped at my sanity as we waited for Asher to finish.

“I know you blame him.”

I kept my eyes on the door. “Niccolaio is the reason Vince is in this situation.”

“It’s not Niccolaio’s fault your families are at war. It started long before him.”

“Vince gave himself up to settle the blood debt. To remove the bounty from Niccolaio’s head.”

“Have you ever considered there’s more to it? Maybe ending the war benefits everyone he loves.”

She had a point, so I shut up. Lucy went in the room to see Vincent after Asher left. Ten minutes passed before I took my turn. Alone in the room, I had the damnedest urge to call Ari here. She’d been the distraction I’d needed for the past two weeks, and all I had left was the beat of my fingers against my thighs as I tried to prolong the conversation that needed to be had.

“You look like shit,” Uncle Vince drawled.

“Thank you. So do you.”

Yeah, tell the guy with cancer he looked like shit. Clearly, he and Gio had raised me right.

“How’s the girl?”

“Elsa’s still the bitchiest bitch of the East. I don’t think that will change anytime soon. Or ever.”

“I meant the De Luca girl.”

“Oh. Her.” I didn’t know how he knew to ask about Ari, but I could either question it or give the dying man the answers to his questions. “She’s… something else. She’s been watching Tessie while I searched for you. Tessie likes her.”

My throat felt full as I realized he wouldn’t have an opportunity to say bye to Tessie.

“Do you like her?”

“What a convenient time to play matchmaker.”

“Evasion. That’s a yes.”

“She’s no Elsa.”

“Well, I didn’t think Elsa was a bitch either until her bitchiness throat punched me, and I had no choice but to pat her head and send her on her way.”

“Remember when I told you about Jupiter and Ganymede?”

“The moon and the planet. Always revolving around one another. Ariana De Luca is not my Ganymede.”

“No, she’s not. You’re her Ganymede.”

“No, we’re—”

“Stop fighting it. You have spent eight years lonely and miserable, penance you never deserved, and now you have an opportunity of happiness most don’t have”—an opportunity he didn’t have, I read between the lines—“and you’ll brush it aside over fear and pride. I knew you were stubborn, but I didn’t know you were foolish, too.”

Only he could speak to me like this. I’d volley back at Gio, ignore my mom, give Tessie a run for her money, and continue the back and forth banter with Ari. But with Uncle Vince, there was this reverence.

He spoke, and I listened because I’d known from a young age that he saw parts of me I never understood myself. But, I realized, Ariana De Luca did, too. Which was how I knew Vince had a point.

Ganymede and Jupiter.

It sounded crazy until it didn’t.

“This isn’t supposed to be our last conversation.”

He shook his head. “Life never turns out like it’s supposed to, but I have a gift most don’t. An opportunity for closure. I’ve stitched together the wounds my sins have left, made peace with the ones I’ve loved, but there’s still you I worry for.”

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I do. You don’t see it because you’re so used to it, but you’re spiraling. I knew Graham wasn’t the mole. It was Dana, but I used Graham to keep you at the bar because I saw you with Ariana. When you saw the burner phone, I told your dad there was a second mole so you’d have a reason to stay on the bar side.”

I swiped a hand across my face. “You can’t play God like that.”

“It’s not playing God if a human can do it.”

That.

His wit.

The way he cared.

The way he saw me.

I’d miss that.

I couldn’t live without it.

“Don’t go.”

“It’s my time. I’ve made my peace with it. My only wish is you open your heart to the people who love you. Asher. Gio. Frankie. Eli. Niccolaio. Tessie. Lucy. Everett. Ariana.” Someone behind Vince shoved his shoulder, and he spoke quicker, his voice more urgent. “Promise me.”

No, I wanted to say. Only if you stay.

“I promise.”

For a legend, I’d never had a good radar for impending doom.

It happened when it happened, and I was more reactive than I was proactive. But tonight, I stayed awake in bed as I waited for four in the morning to come instead of catching a quick nap. Something kept me up. I couldn’t pinpoint it. It was like gravity pulling me in a direction before I knew it was happening.

My eyes were open, and I was alert as Bastian pushed his way past the bedroom door. He stared at me for a second, his eyes almost relieved to see me, before he spoke.

“He’s gone.” His voice was guttural, raw, and everything wrong in the world. A lone tear trailed down his cheek, and he was the strongest man I’d ever met.

Bastian made my skin crawl. He made me second guess my confidence. He made me wonder if it was misplaced. He also inspired a sense of loyalty I couldn’t shake. I couldn’t hurt him. Not when he was already hurting so much, the pain so tangible in his eyes, I wished I could grab it and burn it.

I knew Vincent would die, and I’d felt like a traitor for keeping it to myself. He’d come to me. One of the most important people in his life had died, and he’d come to me.

“I… I don’t know what to tell Tessie.” He opened his mouth to speak. Closed it. Opened it again, then shook his head and stared me down. “I need you to help me forget.”

Instead of telling him the truth, instead of confronting our demons, I met him at the door and let him use me to heal.

No words.

Just us.

And neither of us were ready to confront why he was here instead of with his family.