Page 111 of Deathless & Divided

“Power tools?” Dino asked.

Damian cocked a brow. “Yes.”

“Perfect.”

Dino grabbed the edge of the dark tarp and pulled hard. Beneath the tarp sat a familiar black suburban. At the sight of the vehicle, Damian’s anger over Dino’s carelessness at the Trentini home shooting rushed back.

“Still can’t believe you almost—”

“Oh, shut up about that,” Dino barked, flipping Damian with the middle finger before his companion could get out another word. “I fucking told you it was all good.”

“You shot her car up!”

Dino rolled his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, D, her car couldn’t be the only one in that driveway without bullet holes. Don’t you think that would look just a little bit suspicious?”

“We were standing right beside it,” Damian growled. “Theo was in the driveway, too!”

“Theo has a cherry red Stingray with racing stripes. Lily’s car is bright yellow for a goddamn reason. I took the right shots knowing where they were. You knew I was going to be there, and you handled it like you were supposed to. What is the problem, Damian?”

Damian knew exactly what the problem was even though he didn’t want to admit his mistake out loud to Dino. He’d been distracted by Lily at the Trentini home and nearly missed seeing Dino’s arrival. Because of that, Lily had almost been hurt. The guilt Damian felt over that was manifesting as anger toward Dino.

“That is not the point, Dino.”

“Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?” Dino asked.

“Nothing. Let’s just get this done.”

“This is about Lily, isn’t it?”

Obviously, Damian thought.

“It’s like you didn’t even think about her, Dino,” Damian said. “Did you think it was going to get this big? Did you think it was going to be this bad? Did you realize how fast this would spiral out of control?”

Dino shook his head. “You’re right, it blew up a lot bigger than I thought it would but there’s nothing wrong with that, either. It’s done. We move on.”

Damian’s frustration level rose higher. “Ben’s dead. You got what you wanted, Dino.”

“Yeah, but did you get what you wanted?” Dino asked.

How could he truthfully answer that question? In the simple span of a couple of short months, the things Damian thought he wanted had changed. He was still fully convinced that he was happy in his role doing what he was doing in the Outfit. He wasn’t looking to move higher or have more control. But then Lily flickered into his mind and he couldn’t help but to consider her, too.

The wedding had never once been a ruse. From the moment Dino approached Damian about his plans, it had been made perfectly clear the marriage would need to happen for Lily’s sake. Dino wanted his sister safe, he wanted her to be cared for, and he believed that to make sure her protection and happiness was always guaranteed, she would need to be settled into a safe marriage of good standing.

Because Lily was affiliated to the Outfit, regardless if she wanted to be or not, there would always be a risk that someone else could take control if Dino couldn’t. That was where Damian stepped in.

But that girl … that woman hadn’t been anything like what he thought she would be. Instead of simply treating Lily and the marriage as the duty it should have been—the debt Damian was required to pay—he’d ended up letting her in. She got under his skin in the best way, made herself a little home there, and now he was fucking stuck like that.

Damian knew loyalty better than most. Dino earned Damian’s a long time ago, but now he was wondering if it was worth the price.

“It’s more than Ben,” Dino said firmly. “It was always more than Ben.”

“For you or for me?” Damian asked.

Dino smiled a cold sight. “Both.”

Damian wasn’t surprised. He’d never once thought that Dino forgave the people around him for doing what they had back when he and his siblings were younger. Like the smart man he was, Dino waited patiently before striking back.

“I thought you were the one who told Lily not to blame the gun,” Damian said quietly.