Page 43 of Worth of Waste

Why would he get their son a cupcake?

Karen dropped the potato and knife again, heading for the living room. She came to a full stop in the entryway as she saw Dino bend down and open the Styrofoam package, a small chocolate cupcake with rainbow frosting resting inside. On the top, a small candle rested there, and he pulled a lighter from his pocket, lighting the colorful wick.

Then, he held it out to the baby, but not close enough for Junior to grab.

“Blow it out, little man,” Dino said softly.

Karen’s throat tightened with emotions as she said, “He’ll need a bit of help for that.”

“Oh.” Dino flashed his son a smile, but Junior was far too entranced with the flickering flame on the candle. “Like this, J.”

Dino blew the candle out, and Junior’s gaze snapped to his father’s faze, amazement lighting up his brown eyes. “Da!”

“Happy birthday. Daddy didn’t mean to miss it—it won’t happen again, I promise.”

Karen didn’t say a thing about his promises that time.

She needed this one to be one he kept no matter what.

Dino

“STILL just as amazing as it was the first time I saw it,” Karen murmured as Dino parked her car.

“It’s a little different this time around.”

“Oh, how so?”

“Your name is on the deed.”

Karen’s smile bloomed, but she didn’t respond, instead pushing out of the car and rounding to the back passenger seat to grab Junior from his car seat. Dino stayed right where he was in the driver’s seat of Karen’s car, watching as she made her way up the front steps of the lake house that now belonged to her.

It hadn’t taken much prodding on his part at all to get her to come out. She had the weekend off, anyway, and Dino only had to mention how he’d like a day or two with their son before he had to get back to life on the other side of Chicago.

Karen agreed.

Quietly, but she had agreed.

Fumbling with the keys on the front porch, Karen got the front door unlocked and disappeared inside. Dino stayed where he was for a while longer, thinking over what would be happening next, and where he was going to go from here.

Or rather, what he was going to do when he couldn’t hide away any longer.

It was a daunting thought, and one he knew would come to fruition a lot quicker than he wanted to admit. Soon, he would make his way back to Chicago, insert himself back into the Outfit and the business, and try to pretend like nothing had happened.

Except something had happened.

Something big.

A much bigger fear rested in his gut, climbing up to his throat and choking him silent. A constant, unrelenting reminder that the things he loved the most—his family, Karen, their son—were not safe in his world.

And how was he supposed to keep them safe, when the largest threat was the person who loved them so much?

Dino didn’t have an answer to that question.

Not one that he liked, anyway.

He was selfish, he knew. Selfish because it would be better for him to step away from the innocents in his life that could be stained and harmed by the monsters waiting to jump from his back to theirs. Selfish because he wasn’t willing to say goodbye, because his happiness was always so fleeting, and he wasn’t ready to let it go.

Selfishness was a DeLuca trait he’d earned fair and square.