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Dante chuckled.
I leaned back because of the serious glare in Dante’s eyes. They seemed to change colors brown to black when he was being deadly serious, or when we had sex. We weren’t having sex, and we were talking about killings.
“Alonzo died we know that... but it was no accident. I met him in the living area going through the drawers probably looking for a gun, and he found it. He said he was going to kill me and my companion, and Mary if I didn’t tell him where his brother was, and whether Nico had killed him. I stalled him and told him everything he wanted to hear.”
“Why didn’t you give him Nico?”
“I did, but I knew him for what he was. Just like Nico and he would have killed me anyway and you too. I stalled until I could get him to turn away, and then I picked up that fireplace poker, and struck him several times with it. He fell and struck his head on the stone around the fireplace, but he was dead before he hit the boulder, and with all that blood, you couldn’t tell whether I had done this or not. I was thinking about what you thought of me, Rome. Nothing else. I didn’t want you to think I could kill a man. I didn’t want you to know what I was really like. You said yourself no one really knows anyone.”
Yeah, I said it, but I wasn’t thinking about Dante in that way. I had blinders on and everything in front of me said he was capable of doing this. I had all these unwanted thoughts coursing around my head and most were wrong, and therefore I wanted to believe he wouldn’t do anything like that even when I knew the truth.
I wanted to be wrong about him.
“But you have... how many?” I didn’t want to know. It was just something to ask.
“A lot of men. But no more. I’m not doing it anymore. I was the underboss, and it was my job to do things like that for Nico, but I’m going to be Boss and someone else can have that job.” I narrowed my glance.
Is he serious? Doesn’t he know? “Oh no you’re not.” I rose from my seat and turned, marched to the door. I didn’t know where I was going and how to get out of there, but I was ready to do it, but Dante jerked me by my shirt and turned me around and brought me to him.
“Don’t leave me, Rome. I can’t figure this out. You know wanting, you being... gay. You can’t go because you’ll never be safe. I can’t protect you if you leave me.” Then he said what I wanted to hear, but had been crazy on my part. I didn’t want to leave Dante. I didn’t want to go away from him. No matter what happened to me or him, I wanted to by his side. “I’m not going to let you go. Do you know what you’ve done to me and how much I love you, and want to be with you?” He loves me is all I heard.
“No I don’t. If you cared about me, you’d get us both out of this situation.”
“I’m working on it, Rome. I need time.”
“How much time?”
“Until Nico leaves, and is on his honeymoon, then we can figure this out together. We’re good together. You and I can do this, but only if we’re together. Then we can go somewhere else anywhere you want. But I have to put things in motion first. Promise me you’ll stay with me until I’m able to do this.”
I promised without knowing how long it would take. Then we fell into bed, him naked and me with my clothes on. When we woke it was because someone was hammering on the door and when I glanced around the sun was high in the sky.
It had been Nico calling out Dante’s name.
“Dante, wake up.”
Dante sprang from the bed and I lumbered into the restroom to take a shower. But I needed to listen to Nico’s and Dante’s conversation. Normally I wouldn’t do something like that, but now I needed to get as much information as possible. It might save my life.
“You have to go to Atlantic City to take care of something at the casino.”
“I can’t, and don’t talk too loudly. Rome can hear you.”
“Since when do I lower my voice for that young...” He didn’t complete his statement. Maybe it was because he knew what I meant to Dante and he needed him for now.
“You have to. There are things going on in there that only you can handle and I’m going off to Europe and I told my crew that to take orders from only you. They think I had something to do with Alonzo’s death. He just disappeared from the face of the Earth and the Feds are looking into everything as if they give a fuck about what happened to him.”
They’re after my ass and everyone knows it. I protected you—”
“By doing all your dirty work. I protected you and I’ve been doing that all my life.”
“Well, not all my life. You told Mom and Pop what I did to that cat.”
“Now the cat doesn’t matter, Nico. You know what I’ve done for you.”
I waited to hear Dante confess to a number of horrible things, but he never did, and Nico didn’t say. Perhaps it was because they knew I could be listening.
“You are doing this for yourself because I plan on giving up this, and will take my money out of the casino and leave it to you.” I waited to hear Dante refuse, but he didn’t. “You’ve always wanted to be boss of this organization and now you have your chance at being one and having more power than anyone in New Jersey and New York and that includes the governors.”
That is news to me, I thought.
