Chapter Three

Damon

Never in a million fucking years would I had believed I’d be caught in the middle of such a shitstorm. My sister had always been impetuous and pulled a lot of harebrained schemes in the past, but fucking the son of the Sanfratello Family Boss took the damn cake. Apparently, it was the night for getting caught with my dick in my hand and unprepared for visitors since Dad and Uncle Leo walked in during that hell of a revelation.

Then my strong, independent, fearless sister started crying.

Fuck if that didn’t tear me apart inside. She never cried—not even when all of us boys would gang up on her when she was little. She’d stand toe-to-toe with any of us and put us in our fucking places. But she wouldn’t disrespect our father, especially not in front of Jillian and Lorenzo. Her hard veneer cracked because she knew what would happen to the man she loved when Dad and Uncle Leo left with him. And she blamed herself for it.

Then I put myself in her shoes, thinking about what I’d do if the situation was different and they forbade me from being with Jillian. But before I could speak up to stop Uncle Leo from his mission, Jillian beat me to it.

“No!” She stepped between Leo and Lorenzo. The brass knuckles were gone, and her gun was held flat against her stomach in an aggressive move. “You’re not taking him anywhere. This was my plan, my sting operation—you have no right to step in and try to take control of the situation.”

“Jillian, that’s not how this works, cara.” My father’s patience in business was nonexistent, but he at least attempted to use a soothing tone with her.

“That is exactly how this works, Mr. Marchetti. You interrupted me, not the other way around. I’m calling the shots here. If you want to get to Lorenzo right now, you’ll have to go through me. I will not just step aside, and I will not back down. If you think you can hurt the mother of your grandchildren and get away with it, by all means, give it your best shot.”

Uncle Leo glanced at Dad, then extended his arm with a quick reflex and pushed Jillian aside, bulldozing past her. When she fell to the hard concrete floor, all I saw was red. The next thing I knew, my father was yelling at me.

“Damon, let him up! Let go of him, son! Right now!”

I didn’t remember any of the details regarding how, but when I came back to myself, my hand was firmly wrapped around Leo’s neck. His face was a deep red, his eyes were bugged out, and his mouth opened and closed, gasping for air. Both of his hands clawed at my hand, scraping my skin off in his feeble attempts to break my death grip on him.

I leaned down, my face barely an inch from his to make sure he got my full message. “You don’t fucking touch her—ever. Being the underboss doesn’t give you the right to push the mother of my children. If you ever pull that shit again, they’ll find Hoffa before they find the first piece of you.”

When I pushed off of Leo, he sat up, holding his throat and struggling to inhale enough oxygen to replenish his burning lungs. Dad helped him stand but didn’t attempt to hide his anger at Leo. “Go wait in the car,” Dad growled.

Leo glanced around the room at the rest of us, contemplating what he should do next versus what he wanted to do. I embarrassed him in front of too many others. That wouldn’t and couldn’t go unanswered. No matter what they planned for me, I wouldn’t change a single thing about my response. No fucking way would he get away with putting his hands on Jillian in anger. He was lucky he was still able to breathe on his own.

When his angry gaze landed on Jillian, it lingered there a second too long. He was clearly laying the blame for the shift in family dynamics squarely on her shoulders. I moved to stand directly in front of her, hiding her small frame with my large one, and stared him down.

“Careful, old man. You won’t be so lucky a second time.”

“Leo. Outside. Now.” Dad’s thinning patience was obvious in the gruff tone of his commands. Once Leo was out of earshot, Dad turned his ire on me. “Do you have any idea what you have done, Damon?”

“What I’ve done? Really, Dad? You just watched him knock Jillian to the ground. She’s four months pregnant with my babies, for fuck’s sake. And you’re just okay with him doing that?”

“No, but that was for me to handle. Not you.”

“Yeah? Maybe he’ll walk into your house and knock Mom to the floor next. Are you just going to sit there and watch, let him get away with it because of who he is? Have a little talk with him later to explain why that’s wrong? Do you really expect me or any of your other sons to just sit there and not do anything?”

The mere mention of anyone doing that to Mom was enough to jar him. I immediately detected the fury that flashed across his face before he reined it back under control.

“That’s what I thought. Don’t expect me to just fucking accept it any more than you would.”

“You know every broken rule has a consequence, Damon. Leo has his own for what he did. It wasn’t your place to dole out the punishment for it—it was mine. You overstepped your bounds, you’ll have to face the consequences for that. Jillian disrespected Leo and me, she’ll have to face the consequences for her actions. You know this is how the family works.”

“I’m actually seeing a lot of shit I never thought I’d see in the family, Dad. But now that I know your immediate family is at the bottom of your importance list, it makes my decision a little easier to make.”

“What decision is that?”

“It’s past time for me to start my own family and leave your definition of family behind. I’ve given enough of myself to further your cause. That’s all I’ve done for my entire life—put you and the family first. Then Leo disrespected Jillian and me in that manner, and you think I’m not entitled as a man, as a father, to protect what’s mine. I’m not living like that. It’s not in me. That isn’t how I was raised.”

“You know what happens once you leave the family, Damon.” Sadness and dread infused his tone.

“Take care, Dad. Your family is disappearing before your very eyes. Next time you look around, you may be standing all alone.”

After cutting Lorenzo’s bonds, I hoisted him up out of his chair with one hand while guiding a stunned Jillian toward the back door with the other. Carrie wiped the tears from her face and met Dad’s uncertain stare.

“Goodbye, Daddy.” Her voice broke on his name, echoing the sound of her heart shattering in her chest.

Dad remained in his same spot, watching with a stoic expression as the four of us walked out the back door. I cast one last glance over my shoulder when I said my goodbyes.

“Give Mom our love. Tell her we’ll miss her.”

The scrape and creak of the big metal door closing marked the ending of one era in my life and the beginning of another. The new one would be without my parents and my extended family, but Jillian and our children would be front and center in my life.

“Jilly, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“I’m fine, Damon. But what have you done? Go back in there and make up with your father while you still can.” Jillian put her hand on my arm, squeezing tighter with each word.

“Damon was right in his decision, Jillian. Uncle Leo never should’ve touched you. Dad shouldn’t have allowed it, and he shouldn’t have called Damon down. That scenario couldn’t have played out any other way.” Carrie drew in a deep breath, trying to calm her own frayed nerves.

“I’m parked over in that alley. Let’s get out of here while we can. I have to get to the hospital and check on Benny.”

“How can you both be so calm after what just happened in there?” Jillian gaped at us, dumbfounded by our lack of emotion. “We’re talking about your father—the only one you’ll ever have. Do you know what I’d give to have one more day with my dad? You can’t just walk away like this.”

“Can I speak to her, Damon?” Lorenzo asked. I’d almost forgotten he was with us.

Jillian glanced at me, then turned her attention to Lorenzo. “Yes, you can.”

“Having family first pushed on you your whole life has a way of making you realize your place, whether you want to face it or not. The family always comes first—not the individual. None of us expected Damon’s father to put his kids first. They may have hoped he would, but deep down, both Damon and Carrie knew that would never happen.” Lorenzo spoke from experience, knowing as well as my sister and I did where we ranked overall.

Jillian eyed him with skepticism, still unsure if she should believe his narrative of her mother’s death. But I believed his story. He had every reason to put the blame on his father in an attempt save his own hide, but I trusted my gut instincts. They’d never steered me wrong. Reading the signs, watching his body language, and knowing what I did about his family, I had no doubt he’d told us the truth.

“You can believe him, Jillian. On all accounts. Lorenzo knows I’d kill him if I ever found out he lied to us, whether he’s with Carrie or not.”

“It doesn’t help anything now, but I never meant to shoot Benny. And I wasn’t going to shoot Jillian. I knew you wouldn’t risk hitting her, but I didn’t expect Benny to take all three of us to the ground. He tried to jerk my gun out of my hand when he tackled me. The trigger is light, and my finger grazed across it just enough to make it fire.” Lorenzo’s demeanor showed his regret in his downtrodden expression and his slightly slumped shoulders. He wasn’t cut out for this lifestyle, no matter how hard he tried to make it work for his old man’s sake.

“Thanks for saying that, Lorenzo. I do appreciate your honesty.”

A car screeched to a halt in front of us, and I stepped in front of Jillian, ready to shield and protect her from whoever waited inside. When the door opened, I slid my gun into the holster and extended my hand to Matteo Falco.

“Doc, I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you. Sorry to drag you out here at this time of night.”

“I’m an emergency physician, Damon. I’m used to these hours by now. I’m just sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. What can I do?”

“Can you check Jillian over? She got knocked down pretty hard a couple of times. She insists she’s okay, but she’s pregnant, so I don’t want to take any chances.”

“I’ll do what I can for her, but I’ll give my standard advice of following up with her obstetrician for the baby. I don’t carry that kind of equipment around with me.” Matteo walked Jillian around to the passenger side of his car. He helped her recline in the luxurious leather seat while he knelt down on the ground beside her.

I listened intently while he asked questions about how she fell, where she hit, and if she was hurt or sore anywhere. Then he asked about her pregnancy, how far along she was, and if she’d had any concerns to date. Then he grabbed his stethoscope from his bag and checked her over, listening in all the routine spots.

“Can you hear a fetal heartbeat with that?” I asked.

“Not yet—not until she’s at least twenty weeks along. But from her account of what happened and the way she fell, I can assure you there’s no cause for alarm. The baby is well protected in there.”

“Babies,” I corrected.

Matt looked up at me, surprise registering in his face. “Twins, Damon?”

“Yeah. Can you believe it?”

He laughed good-naturedly. “Actually, I can. You always did have to try to show everyone else up.”

“Try, my ass.” It felt good to laugh again for a second. Then I recounted the last conversation I’d had with my father, filling him in on the recent split from the family.

“Look, Damon, I’m not one to judge you. Everyone knows I’m here to patch up the holes when they get shot, but that’s the extent of my involvement with the family business. I didn’t spend all that time in medical school to be sent to prison, lose my license to practice medicine, or get shot in some dark alley over a stupid turf war.

“If you’re ready to get out of all this, you know I’ll support your decision. And I don’t blame you for putting Uncle Leo in his place. He had no right doing what he did to Jillian. Had he used his usual tactics, he really would’ve hurt her.”

Jillian’s eyes grew bigger at Matteo’s revelation about Uncle Leo. She’d never witnessed Leo’s aptitude for savagery. From the day she met him, she’d only seen his charming side, the part of him she found warm and charismatic. When he knocked her aside, he showed restraint in his actions, though she didn’t see it. Leo was a cold, cruel bastard when he wanted to be.

Like his brother, my father.

Like my father’s son.

“Thank you, Matteo. I appreciate your support.”

He turned his attention to Carrie and Lorenzo, a small smile playing on his lips. “You two always were competitive, trying to one-up the other. I don’t know which of you won this round. Damon and Jillian having twins, or a Marchetti and a Sanfratello falling in love. Maybe we should call it a tie now before this goes any further. If you two have kids, which family should we expect them to support?”

Matteo’s words were spoken in jest, something the rest of us would expect from anyone who understood how the family worked. Jillian’s gaze moved to meet mine, and I watched her expression change as she processed the true gravity of what he’d said. Her smile over Matteo’s playful jabs at Carrie and me slowly faded. Then his words began to sink in, and she couldn’t hide the unease in her eyes. All roads would only bring her to one conclusion, though, and I knew she’d hit that dead end before she’d even realized it.

“Well, Jillian, you seem to be perfectly fine. You may be a little sore tomorrow when all the adrenaline of the night’s excitement wears off. Have you felt the babies move yet?”

“Actually, yes, I felt them move for the first time during this unbelievable clusterfuck of a family reunion.”

“Unfortunately, you didn’t catch us at our best tonight. Have you felt them move since you’ve been resting here?”

“Yes, I have a couple of times.”

“That’s a good sign. I’m not concerned, but it’s still a good idea to follow up with your doctor since he has the proper equipment. Is there anything else I can do for you, Jillian?”

“No, Dr. Falco, I’m okay. But thank you anyway.”

We said our goodbyes and watched Matteo drive away, each of us temporarily lost in our thoughts.

“What happens now?” Jillian asked, looking to me for direction.

“We get you somewhere you can rest and relax until the doctor’s office opens, and I go to the hospital to check on Benny’s status.”

“Don’t do that, Damon.”

“Do what?”

“Treat me like I’ll break, so you have to hide everything from me. I’m fine and so are the babies. But I’m concerned about Benny too. He was shot trying to save me, so I want to go to the hospital with you.”

“You two go ahead to the hospital, Damon. My car is parked only a couple of blocks away. Besides, Lorenzo and I apparently have a lot to discuss now.” Carrie wrapped her arms around my neck to hug me goodbye and whispered as she squeezed, “Watch your back, big brother.”

“You be careful, little girl.” I hadn’t called her that in years. Using that moniker seemed fitting given the circumstances.

She stepped back, a sad smile crossing her face. “Thank you, Damon. For everything you did tonight. You’ve never let me down.”

“And I never will, Carrie.” My eyes shifted to Lorenzo. “Don’t let anything happen to her. I’ll be in touch with you two later.”

Lorenzo nodded in agreement and wrapped his arm around Carrie before they began walking toward Carrie’s car. We didn’t have long before the Marchetti council convened an emergency meeting to decide our collective fates. A hit on two of their own family members, on top of a capo in a rival family, wasn’t a decision that would be made lightly.

But it would be made.

“We should get going too.” Jillian put her hand on my arm, pulling me out of my thoughts about our impending doom.

“Looks like I get you all to myself again, doll.”