Page 78 of Pretty Lies

Because he didn’t want to lose her.

She was kind of a mess. A bit of a brat. And he liked it all. He just found her, and he was scared to death that he might lose her before he could even tell Della that he wanted to keep her.

“Sleep, babe,” he murmured when Della shifted under the blankets. Her lax features peeked out from beneath the blankets; her eyes were still closed and those breaths of hers came out steady. “Don’t let it all catch up yet.”

Because once it did …

Nothing would be the same.

Though it was the last thing Cory wanted to do, he left Della behind in his apartment’s master bedroom to sleep in peace while he locked the door behind him and took the elevator downstairs. When the doors opened, the first people he saw were his father and brother sitting in the leather couches that faced the receptionist desk of his building.

More surprising was the pup waiting.

Mace’s ears perked and the bark left him before Cory’s father or brother even noticed he’d finally come downstairs. Theo hadn’t been wrong—they showed up just like he said they would. A little late in the evening, considering it was closing in on eleven at night, but he didn’t care. Neither did Damian or Joe, likely.

Stepping out of the elevator, Cory kneeled down and slapped a hand to his knee. Mace broke away from Joe—who stood from the couch with their father—with his tongue hanging out and his stubby tail wagging so hard his entire rear end swayed with each flick.

It made Cory smile.

And laugh.

God, he needed that.

Soon, he had his pup in front of him wanting to be loved. That was the great thing about dogs. They could make anyone happy in any situation. It’d been far too long since he was even able to pet his damn dog, considering he wasn’t home enough lately to care for him, so his family stepped up to help his sister, Mon, care for Mace.

“Hey, buddy,” Cory said, running his hands all over the dog’s fur. From his head to the bottoms of his feet. Mace lapped up every fucking second of it, too, his drool wetting Cory’s arms but he didn’t care at all. “Did you miss Dad, huh?”

That earned him more licks and excitement. By the time he stood, his father and brother had crossed the space to come and stand in front of him. Mace stayed sitting on top of Cory’s boots, refusing to move even at the sight of his leather leash hanging from Joe’s hand.

“Thought you might like to see him tonight,” Joe said, shrugging.

Cory nodded, his hand drifting atop Mace’s head. “Yeah, I might keep him with me for a few days. Shit is gonna be quiet, I think.”

“Better be quiet,” his father grumbled.

Then, Damian gave Cory a look from the side. The thing people didn’t realize about the Rossi brothers’ father? Damian seemed cold and unaffected from anyone on the outside of their life looking in. The boss’s underboss, he couldn’t afford to appear as anything other than someone who would and could kill for the slightest disrespect.

But as their father?

Damian was everything.

Like their ma, he was their world.

“Bit too close today,” Damian said to Cory.

“Yeah, I know, Dad.”

His father sighed. “I would have given you the night, but—”

“Wanted to see me alive, yeah?”

That made his father flinch.

“I chose this life, and so did you. It doesn’t get easier, Cory.”

Yeah, it never did.

“And,” his father added, “I wanted to tell you Tommas is on it now. With what happened today, Frankie Costello’s little problem just became an Outfit issue.”