I can count on two hands how many times I’ve eaten there in the past three years, but there’s no way I’m going to admit that I stalk her.
“Yeah, I think so,” he says. “I don’t believe it’s a door as she claims. I’ve met the guy a few times, and he seemed friendly enough. But I overheard a phone call she had with him a few months back. He rang her at the restaurant, asking for money—money she said she didn’t have—and he completely lost it. He was swearing, yelling, calling her themost derogatory names, and accusing her of hiding cash from him again.”
A growl permeates in the back of my throat at the thought of her being disrespected like that, especially by someone who is supposed to love her.
“The disrespectful way he spoke to her …” He shakes his head in disgust as he speaks. “My wife would serve me my nuts for dinner if I ever dared talk to her that way. I think the man he portrays himself to be in public is very different to the one behind closed doors.”
“Why does she stay?” I ask, even though deep down I know it’s not that easy when you’re in a situation like that. I know my mother wanted better for herself and for us.
“I’ve tried to help her as much as I can, but she’s so closed off. She’s not the sweet bundle of sunshine she was when she first started working at the restaurant. She tries to be, but I see straight through it; underneath all those pretty smiles is a very unhappy woman. She has no family here. Her mother lives in Queensland, and her father is somewhere overseas. She only has the boyfriend, and I get the feeling he takes advantage of that. Some of the other waitresses have invited her out with them, but she always makes up excuses as to why she can’t go. It makes me wonder if she’d be allowed to, which is stupid, but nothing would surprise me.”
My hands clench into fists at my sides as rage claws its way to the surface. As far as I’m concerned, that fucker just signed his death warrant.
I’m riding in the back seat of Romeo’s car. Dante’s in the passenger seat, and his brother, Alexander, is beside me.
None of us were supposed to stay over at the De Lucaestate last night after the Christening, but to my irritation, it turned into a giant fucking sleepover.
Some of the men got into the sambuca after the rest of the guests left, but not me; I don’t drink. I had the perfect excuse to leave, but when Lil’ Peach gave me those damn puppy eyes, I caved like a house of cards.
Peach, of course, slept like an angel curled up against me, her little hand fisting my shirt the entire time, like she was afraid I’d get up and leave without her. I couldn’t even roll over, which only seemed to sour my mood further.
I’ve never slept in the same bed as her before, because I was terrified I’d squish her unknowingly, not even when she was teething or had a temperature. She’d either sleep on my chest on the recliner, or I’d camp out on her bedroom floor.
Now I’m crammed into Romeo’s Range Rover at eight in the morning, running on fumes. Why it takes four grown men to get breakfast supplies is beyond me.
I’m pulled from my thoughts when Dante turns in his seat and glances into the rear of the vehicle. “I got some intel on the waitress from La Riviera,” he says, and those words have me sitting up straighter in my seat.
Lucia, Dante, and I discussed her last night as we sat around in the kitchen. I just sat and listened, though, not giving much away.
The fact that I barely slept last night gave me way too much time to think about Emily and the things I’m going to do to her boyfriend when I get my hands on him.
“Yeah? What’d you find out?” I ask.
“You were right about the bikie. She’s shacking up with one of the Steel Reapers motherfuckers.”
“Do you know if it’s him? The one hurting her?”
Dante doesn’t answer right away. He stares out the front windshield, but I don’t miss the tic in his jaw.
“I asked one of the cops on our books to look into it,” he finally says. “The guy she’s living with is the VP of the club,Michael Bucannon. Goes by the name Muzzle. The bloke’s got a rap sheet as long as my arm. Assault, weapons, intimidation, possession. He went to juvie at the tender age of eleven for beating his stepmother with a baseball bat, so it’s not a stretch to make that assumption.”
My mood darkens in an instant; it feels like something inside just snapped. That cunt has to go, sooner rather than later. I can’t risk something like that happening to her. What she’s been through already is enough, and I’m sure we don’t even know the half of it.
“I’ve got a home address,” he adds, pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to me. “If you decide to take matters into your own hands, make sure you run it past me first. I don’t want you doing anything that’s going to come back on theFamigliawithout my knowledge.”
I lean forward in my seat, take the slip of paper, and sit back without saying a word. They don’t need to know I already have her address or that I’m mentally planning to end this once and for all.
Chapter 14
Dominic
Irise from my seat on the back patio and quietly slip into the house, where I find Lucia in the kitchen stacking the dishwasher.
“Luc,” I say, running my hand over my buzzed hair. “Have you got a minute?”
She pauses and glances at me over her shoulder. “Hey, Dom, what’s up?”
My eyes flicker out the back window, where I see Lil’ Peach kicking a soccer ball around on the grass with Alexander’s boys. Seeing the smile lighting up her sweet face has the corners of my mouth curving up.
