Old Flame: Dante’s Story by Sam Mariano

25

Colette

We’re onlyat Dante’s friend’s house for about twenty minutes before I become intensely uncomfortable. Back in my day when we socialized, it was mostly with Mateo and Beth. I’ve gathered since returning that he and Dante aren’t as close as they were back then and obviously Dante wants me to keep a distance from anyone I could grow close to who might not stick around, so I guess now he has a new crowd.

I’m not going to lie, I don’t approve. Like, at all. Within ten minutes, three different girlfriends of Delmonico’s pop up. At least, that’s what my initial thought is because why else would he live with these women he’s clearly very familiar with? One is even pregnant, and judging from the way she looks at him, he’s the father. But then I see the way he treats them and I begin to question whether or not they’re here by choice. Surely no woman in her right mind would stand for this kind of treatment and stick around, right? Let alone multiple women.

Pulling me from my thoughts, Dante’s friend Luca snaps his fingers. My gaze jerks to his and he almost smiles at me, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“I’m sorry, were you speaking to me?” I ask, although I want to tell him I don’t respond to a snap of his fucking fingers.

“That depends. Do you answer to ‘whore’?”

My eyes widen. “Excuse me?”

There’s a trace of warning in Dante’s tone. “Luca…”

Luca’s deep gaze dulls like he’s bored by the prospect of interacting with me on a leash, then drifts to the woman approaching me with a bottle of water. She has bruises on her arms and a defeated look in her eyes. I don’t feel like I should take a drink from her, I feel like I should bundle her up in a soft blanket and get her the hell out of this awful place.

“Faster next time,” Luca snaps.

The girl’s fearful gaze jumps to his and she nods fervently, then drops her gaze, swallowing hard as if worried she offended him by making eye contact.

I feel like I’m going to crawl right out of my skin. I have to get away from this man. Shaking my head at the girl offering me the beverage, I hurriedly stand and go to move past her.

“Where are you going?” Dante asks.

“I need air.”

I feel as if I’m holding my breath until I get outside the house. Only then can I breathe, grabbing a post holding up the awning on the porch. My mind races in a confused attempt to both process where I just was and ignore it as hard as possible.

I’m only outside by myself for a moment before I hear the door close behind me. I feel Dante’s presence so I don’t turn to make sure it’s not the monster he calls a friend approaching.

I don’t know what to do with that. If that’s the sort of man Dante considers a friend, what the hell does that say about Dante? I’ve always known he dirtied his hands at work, but I never had my face rubbed right in the filth. Rather than feeling excluded by his family’s “keep the women out of business” rule, I’m starting to feel grateful for the practice if this is the kind of dirty shit business entails.

Is it even business, or does Dante just enjoy the company of sociopaths? I’m so confused.

“You didn’t bring your Valium, did you?” Dante finally asks.

I slowly shake my head, crossing my arms as a shiver runs through me.

“Do you need one? I’m sure Luca has some here.”

“I don’t want anything from that man,” I tell him, not bothering to try to hide my distaste.

“I know he’s a little rough around the edges,” he begins.

Pivoting on my heel, I stare up at Dante with wide eyes. “Rough around the edges? That man gives me the creeps. There’s something horrifying about him, and I’m a little horrified that you don’t agree.”

“I know him better than you do,” Dante tells me. The way he says it, like I should just give the nice psychopath a chance, blows my mind.

“I don’t want to know him. He’s awful to those women in there.”

“It’s work,” he says dismissively. “They’re not…”

He stops, but I think he stops just short of saying they’re not women. Trying not to look at him like he, too, is a monster, I shake my head. “I don’t think I can stay here. Can you call Xander to give me a ride home? If you want to be here, fine, but I—”

Stepping closer and grabbing my arm, pulling me close to him, Dante says with gentle authority, “You are going to stay wherever I am.”

Narrowing my eyes and looking up at him, I tell him, “I realize this doesn’t mean much to you, but I don’t want to be here with you. I don’t like that man, I’m not comfortable being around young women that look like they’re desperately in need of help… If this is the alternative to hanging out with Mateo and whoever the hell he likes now, let’s just take that risk. I’d prefer his company to Luca’s any day of the week.”

Nodding slightly, Dante runs his hands down my arms and says, “Unfortunately, that’s not an option.”

“Why not?”

“Because I said it isn’t. Because I don’t spend time with my brother anymore unless it’s work-related. Luca is my friend. I know he’ll never be your favorite person, but he’ll grow on you once you get over the initial shock.”

Laughing in light horror, I tell him, “I do not want to get over the shock, Dante. If I can ever walk into an environment like that and not feel horrified? I don’t even want to know what would have to happen in life to make me that callous and uncaring.”

Dante’s jaw locks, but he doesn’t let me go. “You’ve always known the kind of shit my family’s into, Colette.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I say, shaking my head and shrugging, at a loss. “But I didn’t know details, and I never had to see it. Maybe I don’t want to see it. I don’t like what I’m seeing, and I don’t want to like it, either. This is who I am, Dante. I always accepted you for who you were, but you have to do the same. I have no interest in becoming the sort of woman who could see other women in that much trouble and not feel compelled to do something to stop it. I know I can’t help them because I have a feeling you’re the one hurting them, so just let me go home. I don’t want to become desensitized to this kind of horror; I just don’t want to be around it. Being here makes me feel terrible and I don’t want to feel terrible.”

“You’re acting like—” He cuts himself off, but I can feel irritation radiating off him.

“Like what?” I ask, without humor.

Dante sighs, then looks out across the lawn instead of at me. “You’re being naïve, that’s all.”

“I am not being naïve,” I state, offended.

“You are. The world’s an ugly place, Colette. People do shitty things to get ahead, especially fucking gangsters. I’m sorry if this is news to you.”

“I want to hit you right now,” I inform him.

His lips curve up faintly and warmth dances in his dark eyes. “Please do.”

I sigh heavily, rolling my eyes as he tugs me against his chest. “I wasn’t trying to be sexy.”

“I guess you just can’t help it,” he states.

“Stop trying to butter me up.”

“Would I do that?” he asks in a ridiculous tone of innocence, as he bends his head and kisses the bare ball of my shoulder.

“Yes, you would, and it won’t work,” I tell him, even though, shamefully, I can feel it beginning to work.

“Why not?” he murmurs, bringing his lips to the shell of my ear.

“Everything you do is horrible,” I inform him.

“Not everything,” he disagrees. To prove his claim, he runs his palm over my ass before giving it a firm squeeze. “I can think of a few things I do that you like.”

“You can’t buy me with sex, Dante,” I say, struggling to ignore the stir of desire brought on by his touch.

“What about with money?”

That’s so absurd, I almost laugh. “Wow, how crass.”

Uncaring of whether or not he’s crass, Dante kisses his way along my jawline. “I’m gonna send you shopping tomorrow.”

“For Bibles? It’ll have to be for Bibles to make me feel less dirty about tonight.”

Dante rolls his eyes, then kisses me hard on the mouth. “No, not for Bibles. For clothes. Shoes. Purses. Make-up. Whatever you want. You’ve been cooped up in the house like a prisoner for long enough. It’s time for you to go out and enjoy yourself a little. You’ll have to take Xander along to make sure you’re safe, but I’ll give you your new credit card and you can go wild.”

“That’s not going to make me feel better. And it’s not even fun to go shopping alone. I want a shopping buddy.”

“I’ll find you one,” he promises me. “I’ll make you a lunch reservation at that place you like in the city. After shopping you can gab away, get the scoop on all my family’s new dirty laundry. It’ll be fun to blow off some steam. You always liked doing shit like that.”

“With Beth,” I say softly. “It’s not as fun without my friend.”

Dante’s quiet for a moment. I don’t know how that will land. I know at the end Beth was disloyal and I wouldn’t have defended what she did, but long before she hit her breaking point and did that desperate thing, Beth was my friend. Through ups and downs, good days and bad, when she annoyed me and when we had fun, we were friends. I still lost someone I was close to regardless of the circumstances, but I know Dante isn’t sympathetic and last time I expressed my feeling of loss to Dante, he was offended.

In his world, once someone shows disloyalty to the family, they’re cut off. It doesn’t matter who you are, that’s it. And I get it. I know his lifestyle makes loyalty much more crucial than it usually is. Families like his can fall if they have one disloyal member, and I get that… but I wasn’t born into a family like his, so it doesn’t come naturally to me.

“I know,” he finally says. “I’m sorry.”

Since he sounds more understanding than defensive, I look up at him. “I know she’s gone, but I need to be able to make a new friend, Dante. This life is hard enough, moments like these are hard enough when everything else is solid, but… we’re not there yet, at least I’m not, and I don’t have any friends here anymore. I don’t know where to turn for support. I don’t know how you expect me to do this alone.”

Pulling me against his chest and wrapping his arms around me protectively, Dante assures me, “I’ll figure something out.”

“Can we go home?” I request.

He’s still hugging me, so I can feel him tense a little when I ask. “No, we can’t. Not right now. I told Luca we’d be here for a while. He has Ivan coming over. I’ve gotta talk to Luca about some business, too. We have to stay for a little bit.”

“Why do I have to be here?”

Tugging me back and tipping my chin up to look at him, he asks me, “How would that look, Colette? What would Luca think if his first impression of us together is you dragging me around by the short hairs?”

“To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t give fewer fucks about how anything looks to Luca,” I inform him. “I feel like I need to call in the Red Cross to rescue every girl he’s ever touched.”

Looking almost pained, he says, “Don’t say shit like that, please.”

I roll my eyes. “You know I’m not really going to call anyone,” I mutter, a bit resentfully.

“I know, that’s not the problem.”

“What’s the problem?”

“You remind me of another pain in my ass when you say shit like that.”

A scowl transforms my face. “Who?”

Dante sighs, then shakes his head. “Forget it, it doesn’t matter.” As soon as the words leave his mouth, he stiffens and his gaze sharpens, but it’s not on me. “Son of a fucking bitch.”

I rear back. “Excuse me?”

“Not you. Motherfucker,” he curses, letting me go and taking a step away.

“What?” I ask, mildly alarmed. “What’s wrong?”

“I think I know why my fucking brother lied to me,” he says, gripping his head between both hands, then raking his hands through his hair. “Shit. That fucking—” He shakes his head and I can tell I’m losing him even before he takes a step back toward the house. “I’ve gotta go back inside. Don’t stay out here too long, I don’t like you being out here all alone.”