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CHAPTER 14
DANE
Rory and I decided to hold off on an extravagant honeymoon because we both wanted to spend a week with Michael and Anna for some family time at the beach house in Cape May. We packed bags, and I drove us to the beach house but stopped to surprise Anna and Michael by showing them the new mansion. Michael got lost running through the massive house up and down the hallways, but Anna caught up to him. He’d already chosen his bedroom situated on the backside of the house, with a window overlooking the pool in the backyard.
We were a family now, and though it made me feel like the luckiest man alive, I felt this churning in the pit of my stomach. It was fear. Before Rory and Michael came into my life, all I had was Gina. There were only bits and pieces, of memories in my head of my mother, Janice. A stray bullet killed that was meant for my father had killed her. Gina and I were very young, and I didn’t know the truth about my mother’s death until I became eighteen.
When I turned eighteen, my father, Marco, began to groom me for his business within a corrupt empire. That’s when he told me the truth of how a stray bullet killed my mother meant for him. Gina was only thirteen then. Most young men were going away to college or joining the military, but not me. My father was a mob boss, and I was the heir to the Neri empire.
I was in the study, with my feet propped up on the desk, talking to Nolan on the phone. He didn’t think it was a good idea that we were at the beach house without protection.
“Everything is still on shaky ground, Dane. There’s no one we should trust, especially after Push made Bernie Lombardi disappear somewhere in Lake Michigan. Then the Tommy Gallo matter you took care of in AC. Mr. Takata has offered up a few of his good men to drive up there today.”
I left the chair, pinching the bridge of my nose as my temples throbbed. That uneasy feeling in my stomach wouldn't go away.
“Carlo and his crew are only a phone call away,” I replied.
“Dane–– “
I cut him off, “Alright, alright! I’ll drive us all back in the morning.”
I hung up with Nolan, then left the den and walked out the patio doors toward the shoreline. Michael and Anna were building a sandcastle as Rory laid on a lounge chair underneath an umbrella wearing a sexy black and white bikini with a pair of shades. I sat on the lounge behind her, and she leaned back against me. I wrapped my arms around her and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“We’re going to head home early morning tomorrow,” I said.
Rory leaned forward and turned to look at me, lifting her shades, “Oh, Dane. Do we have to? We’ve only been here two days.”
“We need to be close to home, with Gina and Nolan. We have a lot of work to do with moving us all into our new house too.”
Rory knew me well enough to sense my uneasiness, or maybe it was just the look in my eyes.
“We’re in danger, and it will always be like this, won't it?” She asked.
“Yes.” That was all I could say.
We both turned to look at Michael as he laughed. Anna handed him her phone and showed him how to take photos of the sandcastle they just made together.
****
Rory and I woke Anna and Michael before dawn. They all slept in the car while I drove us toward home. I noticed a black Dodge Challenger in the rearview mirror as the sun rose, following close behind. I pressed on the gas, picking up speed.
My eyes steered from the rearview mirror to Rory as she slept in the passenger seat.
“Rory, wake up,” I said. “Open the glove box and hand me the gun.”
Rory’s eyes fluttered open.
The Challenger drove over the centerline and sped up next to my side of the car. The blacked-out passenger window rolled down— and a man wearing a black mask appeared.
A bullet shattered the driver's side window, exiting through Rory’s window. Shards of glass fell everywhere.
Rory screamed.
I gripped the steering wheel and swerved off the road while I slammed on the brakes.
The screams of terror from Anna and Michael in the backseat made my blood pump fast through my veins. Rory opened the glove box and handed me the gun. Pieces of glass cut my hand as I grabbed the door handle and threw open the door. I climbed out of the car, aimed at the back of the black Challenger, and fired, emptying the clip. But the black car sped away, and I didn’t get a clear shot.
