It was amazing to watch as Dante stuck up a light conversation with the man we both thought could be the mole. He was still his charismatic self, not signs of wariness or anger in his person. He didn’t need an icy mask, as I did, to hide his true intentions. All he needed was his copious charm.
“Hi,” Bambi said, having come up beside me. She looked shy, a thick sheet of golden hair curtaining her face. “I’m glad you survived the home country.”
Despite my suspicions about her relationship with Marco, I laughed. “It was close a time or two, I won’t lie.”
“You seem much happier, now,” she noted, her eyes sweeping over me. “Lighter somehow.”
“And you?”
Her lashes flickered like a failing light bulb. “I-I’m okay.”
“So, Marco is your boyfriend?” I pushed quietly as Marco, Dante, and Jaco spoke together.
She bit her pink lip, eyes darting to him. “I love him.”
“Okay,” I said easily enough, but something didn’t add up. “Is he the man you came to me about, though? I know what it’s like to be in a relationship with a man who hurts you, Bambi. If you love him, it can be hard to understand we don’t deserve to be treated that way.”
“I don’t want to talk about that here,” she whispered sharply, her big eyes narrowing. “Please. You said you would be discreet when I came to you.”
“I did, but I’m worried about you and Rora. I’m worried about Dante, too. He doesn’t want to have a man on his crew who abuses women, let alone a woman he loves and respects as much as you.”
She made a tiny noise in her throat of distress. “Please, leave it for now.”
I had to compress my lips against the tidal wave of words and worry that crept up my throat. It went against everything in me to allow a woman in an abusive relationship to continue to dig her head in the sand, but I also didn’t want to alienate her. She had come to me before, I had to hope she would again.
So, I pulled her into an impulsive hug instead. “I’m here whenever you need me. For Rora too.”
Bambi sniffed a little. I noticed her eyes were red rimmed as she pulled away. “Grazie, Elena. She missed you, you know?”
Some of my anxiety smoothed out as I looked over at the little girl chatting animatedly with her hands to the three mafiosos who all watched her with indulgent grins. It was an almost comical sight and one that moved me straight through to my soul.
“Bambi,” Dante called as he stood up with Rora and moved over to us. They exchanged kisses. “Could you take Rora to get something from the cafeteria?”
He wanted to talk to Marco without the little girl around to curb his enthusiasm.
Bambi tucked her lower lip between her teeth, gaze darting from Dante to Marco and back. Finally, her shoulders sagged a little and she nodded, taking a reluctant Rora from her uncle.
As soon as they left, Dante’s casual, charming façade dissolved like pearls in vinegar. When he turned back to Marco, he seemed even taller, so broad and dark he blocked out the overhead lights and left a looming shadow over Marco’s hospital bed.
“What happened?” he demanded coolly.
Marco winced as he tried to sit up straighter against his pillows. After a moment of hesitation, I moved forward to help him. He squeezed my hand when I offered it as leverage, shooting me a slender smile.
“Honesty, Boss, I don’t really know. Bambi and I were out to dinner at Santa Lucia Pizzeria. We left the restaurant and then Bambi forgot her purse so I was waiting for her outside but facing the door. Didn’t know I had company until I got shot in the chest. When I looked up, there was a man on a fucking scooter at the curb with a massive S&W Magnum trained at me. He got the next three shots off before I could even fucking blink and then he took off.”
Marco blinked slowly, obviously remembering the ordeal.
“Bambi came out, started screaming and called 911. I black out pretty quick.”
“You didn’t get a look at the guy?” Dante pressed.
“He was wearing a helmet and leather. Not an inch of his skin to be seen, no recognizable marks or tattoos.” Marco sighed, sinking back into the pillows like he was suddenly exhausted. “Gotta assume it’s the di Carlos, though I’m shocked they’d come at me like that unprovoked.”
“They got Roberto outside a MacDonald’s drive through,” Dante informed him. “They’re coming for our clan whether we earned it or not. You wonder how they knew you’d be there?”
Marco flushed slightly, his eyes darting to me and back to Dante. I moved to the far corner of the room and took a seat, pretending to look at my phone.
“Bambi likes the pizza at Santa Lucia’s,” he muttered finally.
“And your wife hates it,” Dante added drily. “Che cavolo, Marco, what were you thinking? An affair with Bambi?”
“Didn’t mean for it to happen, Boss. It just…it did. Angie was chewing me out for one thing or another one morning and when I showed up at your place, Bambi noticed I was looking rough. She made me an espresso and we talked it out. Happened a few more times and then…” He shrugged, but his eyes were bright with affection for the woman. “She’s a good woman.”
“She is,” Dante agreed. “She deserves a man who isn’t married.”
Marco sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face even though it made him wince. “She told me for months she didn’t want me to leave Angie. She fucking insisted. Ang doesn’t have anyone else in this world, D. She ain’t right for me and she’s a la volpe sometimes, but I’d be devastating her if I left. Seemed like I was doing the right thing at the time.”
Dante pinned him to the bed with the weight of his dark stare, the gaze so heavy Marco seemed to sink even farther into the bed beneath the scrutiny.
“You treat her right, fratello?” Dante asked quietly.
Dangerously.
Marco blinked, his brow screwed up in the middle with bewilderment. “You ever known me to treat a woman anything, but?”
“No, but things change.”
“Not that. Bambi…I know you’re mad I didn’t tell you, but I love her, Dante. She makes me feel like a good man, maybe even the best.”
I smiled slightly as I looked at my lap. It seemed love had the capacity to turn even the most hardened villains into heroes for the ones they cared about.
“There are no secrets from me in this family or in this borgata, capisci?” Dante said after a moment, his words as final as a Judge’s gavel strike. “You keep something from me again, you won’t like the consequences.”
I watched Marco swallow thickly then nod. “Capisco, Capo.”
Jacopo cleared his throat, pushing off from the wall beside the door to clap Dante on the shoulder. “Not to change the topic, but I hear congratulations are in order, cugino.”
Like sun breaking through the crust of clouds after a storm, a brilliant smile overtook Dante’s previously surly expression. He shifted to open an arm for me. I went to him, sliding into his side like two clicking magnets.
“Si, miei Fratelli, vi present mia moglie,” he announced proudly.
Yes, my brothers, meet my wife.
Marco gasped so hard he winced in pain then laughed softly before hooting, “Auguri!”