CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

El

I DIDN’T WANT to leave.

I knew what was waiting for us when we stepped outside that ranch house. But our time was up.

We’d spent the morning in bed.

Talking.

Laughing.

Like we were normal.

Like this situation was normal.

And every time he didn’t think I was watching him — I could see the uncertain future age him before my very eyes.

Dante may have walked in here still figuring out life.

He was walking out of the house a man.

It was in his gait.

The way he watched everything, the cow included. Like he was trying to figure out a puzzle, the puzzle of our future, the Russians, and whatever the hell was going on.

“You ready?” He held out his hand.

I didn’t want to take it.

Dante’s face softened, he kissed my head and pulled me into his arms. “We’ll be back.”

“For longer than twenty-four hours?”

“Absolutely, besides someone has to feed that damn cow,” he teased.

The cow moo’ed as if he’d heard promises of food.

We both shared a smile and then slowly walked down the porch steps to the waiting car.

Gravel crunched beneath my shoes.

Sadness hung between us like a heavy tether.

Dante opened my door for me.

“You think it was like this for your mom and dad? When she had to leave him?” I asked.

“I’m sure it was worse.” Dante looked out into the distance. “She belonged to someone else, and you, you will always belong to me.”

I sagged in relief. “I’m yours.”

He locked eyes with me. “And I’m yours.”

He kissed my fingertips one last time before going to his side of the car, getting in and shutting the door.

Silence existed around us.

A heavy silence that spoke of every single fear I refused to admit out loud.

He started the car.

My heart hammered in my chest.

We were leaving the fantasy.

Back to reality.

Back to blood, guns, war.

How did they do it? How did they still laugh? Drink? Have babies? How did they do it?

Without dying a little bit inside every single time one of their husbands left the house — knowing that they may not come back.

How did you keep yourself from resenting the very thing that gave you this life of luxury?

Because these men, they were molded by the violence, had they not been in this life, I don’t think the love would be as intense.

What made them mafia — is what made them people.

Dante inched the car forward, then gripped the steering wheel with both hands and exhaled slowly.

And then we were driving down the gravel road and suddenly back on the freeway.

We didn’t talk.

I think both of us were more consumed with what today would bring. I was just about to ask him if he was going to go to The Spot and see Andrei that night when Dante let out a curse and changed lanes.

“What’s wrong?” My heart skipped a beat.

“We’re being followed.” He tossed me his phone. “Call Nixon, now.”

I fumbled with the phone and hit Nixon’s number.

“Yes?” He answered on the first ring.

“Dante says we’re being followed.”

“Shit.” I heard rustling behind him. “Where are you guys?”

“Freeway.” My hand was going numb from gripping the iPhone so hard.

“Tell him to hit it.”

“Hit it?” I repeated out loud.

Dante slammed his foot into the accelerator and did some sort of weird move I’d only ever seen stunt devils do as he maneuvered through traffic and took the next exit.

My body slammed into the door. “Okay I think we lost them.”

“Shit!” Dante roared twisting the steering wheel to the right and going down another side street. His eyes darted from right to left, then back before he put the car in park. “Give me the phone.”

“Why are we stopping?” Panic seized my chest.

“The phone, El.”

I handed it over.

“I’ll need clean up,” was all he said to Nixon before turning off the phone and holding my face between his hands. “Get on the floor. Now.”

“But—”

“You love me. I need you to trust me. Right now, El.”

I undid my seatbelt and moved to the floor just as he popped the trunk and walked around it.

Why was he walking so slow?

I peeked over the seat.

That was in there the whole time?

He pulled out an AR-16, shoved in some ammo and held it in the air.

I scrambled for the phone just in case.

I had no weapon.

I squeezed my eyes shut as a black SUV screeched to a halt in the street in front of us then turned toward our parked car.

They didn’t stand a chance.

Dante started firing rounds so hard and fast I had to plug my ears.

Tires popped in the SUV, a guy with a gun tried to shoot at Dante but he got him in the head before he could.

A ringing sounded in my ears as a man got out of the car and started shooting at Dante.

One shot.

The guy fell.

Another followed.

Until six bodies scattered around the road.

I jumped a foot when Dante appeared at the passenger side and knocked on the window.

I opened the door.

He knelt down. “Are you okay?”

“I wasn’t getting shot at.”

He smirked. “Yeah well—”

The sound of a foot crunching against gravel hit my ears, Dante pointed the gun to the left and fired off two more rounds.

The guy, whoever he was, fell clutching his chest.

I sagged back against the seat.

“We’re almost home,” He kissed my cheek, tossed the gun back into the trunk and then grabbed his phone and called Nixon. “About ten miles out—”

I toned out his voice, the address he gave, the explanation.

This was the life I signed up for the minute I married him.

I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

The fighting.

The guns.

The blood.

Seven bodies just… dead.

By my husband’s hand.

The same hand that held mine like a vice the entire way home.

I was still in shock when we pulled into the driveway.

Nixon, Sergio, Frank, Phoenix, Chase, and Tex were all waiting in front of the house, arms crossed.

Mil was nowhere to be seen.

Which just made my stomach even sicker.

Dante killed the ignition and squeezed my hand one last time. “Trust me.”

“I do.”

“Love me.” He smiled sadly at our joined hands.

“Always.”

His eyes saddened. “I’m sorry, El, for what’s coming, for what I need to do, just know. If I could I’d run away with you — do the whole starving artist thing.” He bit down on his lip. “Draw couples on the street.”

“And I’d bake.”

He choked out a laugh. “And do dishes.”

“Make everything from scratch,” I added.

“These are our cards, El.”

“I know,” I admitted sadly.

He nodded his head and slowly got out of the car. I followed. We walked hand in hand to the men.

Dante stopped in front of Frank and slowly, confidently, raised his head and spoke the words I never thought I’d hear him say. “I, Dante Nicolasi Alfero accept my role as boss to the Alfero family.”

Frank’s eyes were a mixture of sadness and joy.

Nixon’s shoulders sagged in relief.

Dante released my hand as Frank leaned forward and kissed his left cheek then his right.

And down the line Dante walked.

Until he was faced with the capo. With Tex.

Tex held out his hand to Frank.

Frank slid a ring off of his right ring finger and placed it in Tex’s palm.

It looked heavy.

It was the crest of the Alfero family.

Tex kissed it, then slid it onto Dante’s finger.

The heaviness of what just happened hit me in the chest so hard, I swayed on my feet.

I’d left married to a made man.

And returned with the rightful boss to the Alfero throne.

One ring to rule them all, never felt so right.

And wrong at the same time.

“And now,” Frank grinned. “We toast.”

I tried to muster up a smile, but I was too sick over what Dante had done what I knew he had to do.

And what that meant for our future.

Especially since I knew he would be hunted more than ever.

Resented.

Despised.

Feared.

Revered.

I took a deep breath and followed the men in, and was stopped by Frank, by the killer of my ex-husband.

By the former boss of the Alferos.

“He did the right thing,” Frank whispered in a solemn voice. “This is his path, this should have been his father’s path, he is making right what I made wrong. It is my fault. And I will carry that burden all the way to my grave until I can see my brother again and apologize, until I can see Dante’s mother and kiss her face—” He shook his head at the house. “This life it is hard, but we make up for it. We laugh hard. We drink hard. We work hard. We live hard, and in the end, isn’t that what every human wants? An existence where they can close their eyes every night and know that if God took them — they did life well.”

I blinked up at him. “I never thought of it that way.”

“Eh, the mafia, makes you think of a lot of gray areas, there is no black and white in life don’t let anyone tell you any different. No straight lines. No rules. Life is life, it is up to us to decide how well we live what’s been given to us.”

I hung my head.

“No matter what happens, El,” Frank tilted my chin toward him. “You live hard. You live well.”

“Yes, sir.”

He smirked. “I’m not that old, and I am Dante’s uncle, that makes you my niece now.”

Family.

I had family.

Stunned I could only stare at him.

“What? You did not make the calculations in that head of yours.” He wrapped an arm around me and led me toward the door. “Now, we drink, every last drop of Nixon’s wine. I take great pleasure in raiding his cellar.”

I laughed at that. “I bet you do.”

“Serves him right for seducing my granddaughter and giving me a great-granddaughter who’s so damn beautiful it brings tears to my eyes to see her pink face.” He sighed. “Did I ever tell you the story of how I almost shot Nixon in the face?”

“Which time?” Tex called from inside the house.

“Or the time when Nixon almost beat the shit out of Tex and shot him at point blank range,” Chase mused into his wine glass. “Best bedtime story ever, wish I had a picture of his face, oh wait,” he closed his eyes. “There it is!”

Tex grumbled into his wine.

And soon we were joined by all the wives.

More bottles were opened in celebration.

And when Mil came home late — again.

Nobody said anything.

She acted perfectly normal.

Except for the fact that Chase watched her every move like a hawk and when he didn’t think anyone was looking, wiped a tear from his eye and walked off.