Page 35 of Worth of Waste

Karen passed him a look, her brown eyes holding his gaze strong for the briefest second before she dropped it. “It didn’t take you very long.”

Understatement.

He’d actually found Karen quite quickly.

It’d only taken a look in the phone book, then a call for an address, and finally, a drive. Of course, nothing was ever simple, and while he had found her and his son easily enough after being released, Dino still had to be careful.

Especially now, he had to be extremely careful.

Karen was only now finding out Dino was released, but she was the exception to the rule. The Outfit—his family and uncle—already knew. He hadn’t gone home yet, not in the proper respect, and he hadn’t shown face to his uncle or his boss, but that would happen.

Soon.

Or … when he felt like it.

Dino made a special effort to disappear after he’d come out of the prison, not wanting to make much of a fuss or draw too much attention from the police, FBI, and especially not Ben DeLuca. He had more important things to be doing, rather than playing pretend for those people.

Things like Karen.

And his son.

So he disappeared, but he had zero doubt that Ben wasn’t already demanding someone find him.

Dino was hoping for a couple of days.

A little bit of time …

Anything.

“Why that name?” Dino asked. “JD Martin. Why that, Karen?”

She looked over at him again, and he stared right back at her, not letting her drop his gaze that time around. He’d waited so long for her, hoping all the while that she had been out in the world, waiting on him, too. Seeing her, being close to her, brought up all those feelings and memories he had suppressed while in prison.

Things that he felt would have led him down a rabbit hole of pain.

The way her eyes sparkled—how her soul shined.

The slight curve of her lips, and her brilliant smile.

Her heart—how it beat; how he’d broken it.

All of that rushed through his emotions like a wrecking ball, never giving him enough time to think one thing over before the next was smashing through his veins, too, ready to devastate him with the impact.

Dino didn’t care.

He never minded.

He let each one of them crash into him, and take him under.

“I still love you,” he told Karen softly. “I never realized just how much until I didn’t have anything to do but think about how much I love you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you properly, and that I left it just hanging there for so long, Karen.”

She blinked, slivers of wetness coating her bottom lashes before the tears fell down her cheeks, making track lines for pathways on her skin. Still, she didn’t make a move to wipe the tears away; she didn’t hide her emotions.

It was such a foreign sight to Dino.

He’d spent his whole life hiding his emotions and the way he truly felt from others. He had been taught never to be seen as weak by those around him; he’d been taught to hide the weaknesses someone else might exploit for their own benefit.

He’d had no other choice.