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“Ah.” I nodded, tutting at Dario. “That explains why Mama looks like that.”
“Hey!” Navy shouted, but it was followed up with her laugh taking over her entire body.
“Sorry.” I wasn’t really sorry, but it was nice to just be laughing and joking for once. Everything was so damn serious in my life right now, and this…this was just a few moments of uncomplicated that I desperately needed.
“You will be,” she warned, reaching for Dario as Dante and Lorenzo came out of the office. “You can make it up to me by bringing Bailey to come and see me.”
“Bailey?” My muscles froze at her name. “How do you know about Bailey?”
Navy’s gaze skirted to Dante who was now only five feet away. “He tells me everything, Romeo.” She paused, putting Dario on her hip. “Just like you should tell her everything.”
I shook my head, disagreeing with her. There was no way in hell that I’d tell Bailey everything I did. No way I’d be able to tell her what I’d witnessed just yesterday. If she’d known that it was Gio and not Lorenzo who contacted me in the middle of the night and that I’d left her in my bed to go and meet with him, I wasn’t sure what it would do to her.
Sometimes secrets were necessary. Sometimes, keeping things from the people we cared about was something we had no choice in doing to guard them from the hurt it would cause them.
“Let’s go,” Lorenzo barked out, not bothering to stop as he strolled past us. “We have an emergency Enterprise meeting to get to.”
I frowned but then looked over at Dante as he placed a kiss on the top of Dario’s head. “You can’t help but just keep fuckin’ up, can you?” he murmured, only loud enough for me and Navy to hear.
His words had me on edge, the anger pushing forward and wanting to take over. He may have been the underboss, but fuck him if he thought he could judge me like that. “Fuck you, Dante,” I growled out, completely forgetting the fact that Navy and Dario were still standing there. “Your judgment is un-fuckin’-believable.”
“The hell you just say to me?” He pushed Navy and Dario behind him, a protective move that he didn’t need to do, a move that he did on purpose knowing it would enrage me even more.
“I said…fuck you.” I took a step toward him, meeting him head-on. “I fucked up with Bailey, you think I don’t know that?” I hauled in a breath, lightheadedness taking me over. “But Jesus Christ, I’m trying to make it better. I’m trying to protect her, that’s all I’ve ever been trying to do.”
He laughed, the sound causing goose bumps to break out on my skin. “Protect her? Is that what we’re calling it now?”
The steam was rolling off my skin I was that hot. “Yeah. Protect her.” I pushed closer to him, making sure he fuckin’ knew that I wasn’t playing any longer. “You’ve got no fuckin’ idea what it was like going into that place over and over again. Seeing the people he had literally wrapped in chains while the men did things to them…” I trailed off, feeling a lump build in my throat. I hated the images and memories that popped up when I thought about the club. It must have been a hundred times worse for Bailey. “You have no fuckin’ idea, Dante. I did everything I could to get her out of there. Everything I fuckin’ could. I paid nearly two hundred k to get her away from that piece of shit.”
“Romeo,” Navy said, her voice a small whisper, but it didn’t deter me; nothing would deter me.
“You’re supposed to be my family. You’re supposed to stick by my side no matter what, just like I did with you. Just like I did with Lorenzo when it came to Aida. Just like I did with Sof and Christian, just like I did with Luna and Mateo. Not once have I questioned any of the shit you all brought to our table.”
Dante took a step back, his gaze slipping to the front door, to Navy, then back to me.
“I know I fucked up, Dante. And fuck knows why, but Bailey said she forgives me. And I’ll spend every spare moment proving to her and myself that her forgiveness is warranted.” I paused, breathing heavily, the silence surrounding me speaking volumes. “Just…give me a break, Dante. I’m trying my fuckin’ hardest.”
I closed my eyes, clenching my fists at my sides, trying to calm myself as the silence became deafening. I wouldn’t say a word though, I’d wait, knowing I’d said my piece now.
“Let’s go,” Lorenzo called, this time his voice a little softer. “We need to get there ASAP.”
Taking one more breath, I then opened my eyes, took one last look at Navy’s sad face, then spun around and walked toward Lorenzo.
Dante followed behind and we all piled into the SUV, Mateo driving, Dante up front, and Lorenzo and I in the back. Not a single word was spoken on the drive to the meeting place, not that I could have said anything anyway. I was too wound up and on edge to have a civil conversation at that moment.
So I just stared out of the window, working on automatic as Mateo pulled to a stop in front of the restaurant that all of The Enterprise meetings were held at. All four doors opened, Mateo taking up the rear as we headed inside, but he didn’t come with us.
I was only going in because of the intel that I could provide, and even though it was a little nerve-racking, I was intrigued to see how all of this worked.
Men were already sitting around the table, and as soon as Lorenzo was standing at the head with me and Dante behind him on either side, they all gave him their full attention.
“Gio Pozzi has broken the rules,” Lorenzo started, not sitting at the table like the rest of the men. I recognized them all as the bosses to the Mafia families in this state, although one seat was empty—that must have been Gio’s seat.
“What rule?” Alessandro Roti asked. My dad had told me that he was one of the vocal ones, always had been, most probably because he’d come into The Enterprise as the first person from the next generation.
“The one where we sell anything and everythingbutpeople.”
The tension in the room thickened, Lorenzo’s words sinking in and making them all understand why Lorenzo had called this emergency meeting. My gaze slid around the room, taking in the men one by one: Alessandro Roti, then onto Neri Riva and Stefano Cerutti, the latter two the only remaining original members that had been here since Luca—Lorenzo’s dad—had set this entire thing up.
