“Like you gave him any choice.” Enzo chuckled.
A pang of guilt went through me. He had a point—I’d just up and left them with Jay. Anything could have happened. But all I’d been able to think about was getting to Caitlin.
She blinded me to everything else, and that was a dangerous thing. Because when you were distracted—as I had been since she appeared in my life again—you dropped your guard.
The scenery turned familiar and the ache in my chest abated slightly. Caitlin was safe here. Not even someone as arrogant as DiMarco would be stupid enough to come into the heart of Marchetti territory and try to take her from us.
From me.
I left Enzo to go check in on Nicco and Arianne, and I headed to my parents’ house. He was right—I needed to talk to my father. And then, when I’d ironed things out with him, I needed to go to the cabin and break the news to Caitlin about Shaun.
“Ah, Matteo,” Dad said as I entered the kitchen. “I was wondering when you’d show up. Your sister said some interesting things this morning.”
“She did?” My chest tightened.
“Something about you leaving late last night to go see a woman.” His brow lifted as he shook out his newspaper.
“I… we need to talk.”
“Sit,” he commanded. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“There’s something you should know.”
He lowered the newspaper. “Go on.”
“When we drove out to see DiMarco, we got… intercepted.”
“Yes, Nora was sick, was she not?”
“That’s not entirely what happened.”
His brows bunched together. “I’m listening.”
“Enzo got a call from the hospital down in Pawtucket. He’d given his number to one of DiMarco’s girls, he was concerned that DiMarco was hurting her.”
“I see. And you went to check in on her?”
I nodded, growing hot all over. “I… I recognized her. She and I… we had a thing last summer.”
“A thing—” Realization dawned in his eyes. “And how serious was this thing?”
“It was one night.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “But I wanted it to be more.”
“And she’s one of DiMarco’s dancers you say?”
“We suspect she’s more than that to him. He… he hurt her, badly, and her friend—a guy that works at the club—got her out. But she said she couldn’t go back for fear of what DiMarco would do.”
My old man went as stiff as a board. “What did you do, figlio mio?”
“We… fuck.” I expelled a long breath. “We brought her back to Verona County with us. She’s at the family cabin with Luis.”
“Sei proprio un coglione! What the hell were you thinking?” he seethed, palm flat against the table.
“You didn’t see her lying there, broken and bruised at the hands of that… that fucker.”
“But bringing her here? Do you have any idea what you might have started? And Enzo went along with this?”
“We agreed—”
“Matteo,” he tsked. “Did either of you stop to consider what happens if DiMarco finds out we’re harboring his—”
“Don’t.” The word rumbled in my chest. “She is not his.”
His eyes flashed with understanding. “You feel for the woman?”
“I do.” I lifted my chin in defiance. “And sending her back to DiMarco is not an option.”
Tension radiated between us and then I added, “He killed the bartender who helped her.”
“Che diavolo!”
“It’s where we went earlier. We got a heads up from Lucino that the bartender had been reported missing. He turned up dead.”
“You saw the body?”
I nodded. “He was pretty messed up. The official report says he slipped down his stairwell and sustained blunt force trauma to his head.”
“Merda!” My father’s usual composed façade cracked slightly. “This is the last thing we need right now.”
“I know. We should have come to you straightaway, but I—”
“You were too busy thinking with your heart and not your head.” He cut me with a scathing look.
“I care about her—”
“A girl you barely know. I take it you didn’t know she belonged to DiMarco when you tumbled with her between the sheets?”
Jesus. This was so awkward. I didn’t want to discuss the details of that night with him. Not when just thinking about her soft skin pressed up against mine, the taste of her lips, made my body stir to life.
I shifted uncomfortably, clearing my throat. “This isn’t about my relationship with Caitlin; it’s about doing what’s right. She needed help and she called Enzo. What were we supposed to do?”
“You should have called me the second you got to the hospital and realized who she was.”
“Well, we didn’t. And now she’s our responsibility.”
He scoffed at that. “Just make sure she doesn’t become your doom, Son. Who else knows about this?”
“Nicco, Ari, Enzo and Nora, me, Luis… the bellhop would have seen her at Nicco’s place. Maybe security.”
“We need to contain this before someone talks and word gets out. DiMarco was a loose cannon before, we don’t need to light the fuse on him before we figure out how best to proceed.”
“I’ll call Nicco and—”
“No, I’ll handle it. Niccolò has enough on his plate. What’s done is done. We all just have to hope DiMarco doesn’t find out before we’re ready for him to know.”
I went rigid at that. “What do you mean… before we’re ready for him to know?”
“Son, be reasonable. We can’t just take out DiMarco. He has a string of businesses, a network of employees. He has connections. It wouldn’t surprise me if he has a contingency plan should we ever feel the need to sever our ties with him.”
“One way or another, this will get out,” he said. “Unless she disappears, and something tells me you won’t stand by and watch that happen. Anything else you want to tell me…”
Shit. “The Lombardi.”
“So you knew.” My father let out an exasperated breath.
“About the Lombardi sniffing around his clubs, yes.”
“Porca puttana! And when were you going to bring this to my attention?”
“I… I’ve been kind of distracted.”
“By a piece of ass.” He snorted. “I thought I raised you better than that.”
“No, you raised me to respect women and always do right by them. I learned that from you, Papa.”
He studied me, shaking his head slightly. “I take it you’re going to break the news to her?”
“Yeah, she needs to know the truth.” No matter how much it would gut me to tell her.
“Then go be with her.” He stood and gripped my shoulder. “If she has captured your heart, then she must be a good woman.”
I swallowed over the giant fucking lump in my throat.