Page 106 of Worth of Waste

Dino attempted to find some sense of guilt within himself, and yet he found nothing.

It just wasn’t there.

“Thanks for the heads-up,” Dino said before hanging up the call.

Then, just as quickly, he called someone else.

Someone who could finish the job he thought he had done.

Damian Rossi picked up on the second ring. “Rossi speaking.”

“I’m going to make it easy on you,” Dino said, “and say you won’t have to do very damn much except show up and pull the plugs.”

“What—Dino?”

“Who else calls you from this number?”

Damian sighed. “It’s … ten at night, man. I just got Lily to go to bed.”

Dino managed a smile, happy his sister had finally opened up a little to her soon-to-be husband. The two were getting along much better.

“Where are you?” Damian asked. “You didn’t come back to the house after—”

“I don’t talk about that,” Dino interrupted.

Damian had known about Dino’s attack before it happened, but only because Lily had been expected to show at that stupid dinner at the mansion, and he needed her to be safe.

“I’m doing things tonight,” Dino added. “Work.”

Or not.

“What do you want?” Damian asked.

“Ben—I want him gone. That deal we made; your end of the bargain was to keep Lily safe at all costs, so do that, and finish the job I started.”

“I heard he is—”

“Do what you need to do.”

With that, Dino hung up the phone.

The fact was simple, no matter if he liked it or not.

Ben DeLuca could not be trusted, he could not be allowed to live. The power of his manipulation and control over the DeLuca siblings had been years in the making, and just because he was injured, or wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life, did not and would never undermine his ability to hurt Dino, his brother, or his sister.

Dino couldn’t let that happen.

He wouldn’t give Ben the chance to hurt the people he cared about one more time.

It was the last piece to his puzzle.

Once Ben was gone, then Dino could be finally be free.

He could live.

Dino tried to clear his mind as he pulled up to a familiar, tucked-away cabin that felt far more like home than anything else ever had. Karen had stayed there, no questions asked. She never argued with him when he said she might need to stay a while longer.

She liked it there, too.