The Italian Dom by N.J. Adel
CHAPTER 9
Nicky
I could use some of Dom’s hash right now.
I paced the room like a caged animal. It was almost the case here, locked up in Don Bellomo’s room like that. “That fucking asshole won’t just leave you alone, will he? How did he even escape that over the top loony bin in fucking exile?”
Lina rocked the crying baby gently. “Take it easy, Nicky.”
“Easy?! Leo is much sicker than your husband. He tried to...” I slapped the memory away. One of the worst moments of my life.
“I’m not worried about myself. If Leo is still…fixated on me, I don’t think he’ll hurt me or Nicco, but he’ll hurt Tino. And Tino will let him because he’d rather get hurt than…” Her voice cracked at the end.
“Hey.” I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, placing a kiss on her hair. “It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.”
“I know you don’t care about Tino or Leo or anyone in the family—”
“I care about no one but you and Nick, and sadly, you two are Bellomos, and that means I have to care about that family, Tino included. He’s my nephew’s father, and as much as I hate to say it, a good one, too. That other son of his, though…”
Nick wouldn’t stop crying even though he was dry and she’d already fed him. “What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Give him to me.”
She handed me the little sucker. His temperature was normal. I started making silly faces at him, cooing in gibberish. A few seconds later, he stopped crying and his limbs jerked aimlessly as he drooled with a toothless smile. “Ah, someone wants to play.”
Lina laughed under her breath. “You’re so good with him, you know?”
I shrugged. “I’m just the fun aunt. He can sense it.”
“Will I ever get to be the fun aunt?”
“Lina, don’t start. I’m really not in the mood.”
“Don’t you want one of your own?”
I shot a glare at her. Then I shook my head, sighing. “Yeah. Sure. But not before I finish school, find a good job and my skin stop crawling every time I picture a guy touching me only for his face to be replaced by Frank Baldi’s.”
Yeah, that silenced her.
“I’m not like you, Angel.” I wish I were.
“That’s the first time you called me Angel.”
“I don’t think there is much Lina left in you. My little sister is no longer little. She’s made her choices, built her own family, become a powerful Signora, and an adorable mother. She’s the one looking after me now, and she doesn’t need my protection anymore. I might as well call you Angel, too.” Nick started wailing again, and I swooped down on the opportunity. “I’m gonna take him out for a walk.”
“But—”
“Inside the mansion.”
My eyes caught the ceiling, and I pointed at the new secret opening Tino had installed after the wedding here and in the nursery. It opened to a hidden elevator that went down to a secret tunnel under the pool and led half a mile away from the mansion. An escape plan. As if Tino knew that day would come. “You know how to use that by yourself?”
She nodded. “Tino showed us so many times.”
I didn’t know why he included me in his circle of trust. Nobody knew about the new exit except the three of us and Michele, the only bodyguard he trusted with me and Lina. Perhaps Tino did see me as family after all. “And the remote that opens it is fully charged?”
“Yes, Sis. Just go take your walk. That is if you can get out,” she mumbled.
I got into an argument with the hulks at the door. Apparently, the baby wouldn’t stop crying wasn’t enough excuse to leave the room.
“It’s okay. I’ll walk with them and bring them back myself.” Massimo’s doppelganger appeared out of nowhere.
“Don Bellomo said no one leaves the room,” one of the goons said through Nick’s loud crying.
Domenico stood tall in front of him, his broad shoulders as broad and bulky as the bodyguard’s, the look in his eyes terrifying. “What would Don Bellomo say if his baby’s nonstop crying was because he was sick, and you idiots locked him up in the room, not even letting his aunt check if he was?”
I smirked. Why didn’t I think of that?
The bodyguards mumbled a couple of curses in Italian as they made way. I glared at them as I pushed the stroller. “Language around the baby.” The three-month-old baby.
“Mi scusi, signorina,” one of them said.
Domenico gave me a shit-eating grin as we walked to the elevator.
“Don’t expect a thank you. I’d have made the same argument and won on my own if you hadn’t intervened,” I said.
“Is that so? Why don’t I just go and tell them Nicco is just fine, and it’s his aunt that’s bored, and she might even try to run away from—”
“Shut up. You’re such an asshole.”
“Thank me, Nicky.”
“Ugh. Fine. Thank you…stronzo.”
“Oh, she swears in Italian… Are you as fluent as you are in Bitch?”
The elevator opened, and I strolled in with Nick, who had magically stopped crying, the tall bastard joining. “I don’t think I’m more fluent in anything than Bitch.”
“I thought so. Now apologize.”
“For what?” I snorted.
“You still owe me an apology from last night, and now for calling me stronzo when I’m only trying to help you.”
“What about you? You don’t think you need to apologize for anything?”
He shrugged, pursing his lips. “No.”
“No?! You’re unbelievable. I’m not gonna start with your lack of propriety when dealing with a woman. I think you’re a lost cause in that department. But what about the crazy delusional declaration you shamelessly made in front of my whole family, huh?”
“It’s not crazy or delusional. It’s as real as it gets. And why would I be ashamed of liking you? I want to marry you.”
I blinked hard at him. That word wouldn’t even register in my brain. Why on earth would a man like him want to marry a girl like me? A girl who hated his lifestyle when there were a thousand others in their families who would have been more welcoming of such proposal, a girl who never cared about wealth to turn a blind eye and agree to have a murderer for a husband, a girl who didn’t need a man to take care of her, a girl who was strong and had a mind of her own.
A girl who…was defiled by another man.
The elevator dinged, and I flinched for a split-second, yet glad for the distraction from the memory. Domenico led the way through the swarming-with-guards hallway. Nick restarted his symphony, emphasizing our need for a walk to the rest of the goons. Was the little sucker crying on demand? That little sneaky thing was really Il Lupo’s son.
“You’re oddly silent. What happened to that sweet tongue of yours?” Domenico taunted.
“I have nothing to say to your crazy.”
“Crazy to like you?”
Most likely. “I’m not saying you should be ashamed of liking me or you’re crazy because of it, but marriage? Who gets married like that? You don’t even know me. And blurting it out like that when you haven’t even—”
“Haven’t even what? Told you I liked you and wanted to make you mine? I have.” He leaned in for a whisper. “Or was my cock too subtle for you when you were sitting—”
“When you forced me to sit on your lap.”
“But you remained seated on my…lap. You could’ve fought me. Your knee was an inch away from my groin, and I know you’re not shy of using it, but you didn’t.”
Nick cooed, his limbs twitching in the most adorable way as we passed by one of the lounges next to the pool.
“See? Even Nicco agrees.”
You little traitor. I squeezed the bar of the stroller handle and turned away from the pool area. I didn’t want to return in there with Domenico. “Fine. Still, that doesn’t mean you like me or I do, like you arrogantly said. It only means you wanna fuck, and that’s the only reason you want to marry me because of your ancient family traditions.”
“Honor doesn’t come with an expiration date, and I don’t just wanna fuck.” The sincerity in his voice took me by surprise again. “Again, I already told you that last night. I think that’s what scares you.”
I blinked once, stopping for a moment, but then I met his gaze, inching a brow. “Don’t patronize me, Domenico Lanza.”
“Don’t stereotype me, Nicole Baldi.”
I grunted. “So you’re not a dangerous gangster? A brutal murderer?”
“I am, but the people I’ve hurt aren’t saints either. You of all people know that some scumbags need guys like me to wipe out their filthy existence from this earth.”
My throat bobbed with a gulp.
“I’ve never hurt an innocent person, Nicky, and I’ll never hurt you.”
“I’d be an idiot if I believed that. Your definition of I’ll never hurt you could be as twisted as Tino’s, as Leo’s, as Enzio’s. For all I know, you could kidnap me, blackmail me, force me to marry you and say you never hurt me. You’d even say it was for my own good.”
He chuckled.
“What are you laughing at? I just want you to know that I’m not my sister. The dark, bad boy asshole that stops at nothing to make a girl his even by force doesn’t appeal to me.”
“Liar.”
“Am I now?”
“Yes. All girls fall for that shit or why else do you love that movie so much?”
“What damn movie?”
“The one with the actor that looks like me.”
“How do you even… Of course, Signora Bellomo.” Maybe I should give that girl a good old spanking. “Well, the guy is hot. That’s all.”
“Good to know.”
“Know what?”
“That you think I’m hot.”
“The actor is hot. Not you.”
He chuckled again. “Si, I’m way hotter.”
“Ugh! You’re such a conceited, ass—”
His palm landed on my mouth, shushing me, stifling a gasp. “You can’t spend ten minutes without insulting me, can you? And what was that when you lectured the guards about swearing around the baby? You’ve been cussing nonstop in front of him.”
I stopped to a halt, seriously thinking about biting him. If I did, though, I’d lose my temporary freedom, which, regretfully, I owed to him. I did slap his hand off me, though. “Give me a break. He’s three month old, and you really deserve what I throw at you.”
“Apologize,” he commanded, that naturally dominant tone of his intense.
I shook my head.
“You’re really asking for it, little kitten.”
“I’m not little, and I’m not a kitten. How old are you anyway?”
“Forty-four. That’s twenty-three years between you and me, and you’ll learn how to respect your man, little kitten.”
I gave a mocking laugh. “My man?”
“Yes.” His voice took a harsh turn all of a sudden. “Whether you like it or not.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means if you’re not gonna play nice, neither am I. My patience has its limits, and you’re pushing really hard. You have a very little time to come to me willingly, little kitten.”
I snorted. “And if I don’t?”
“You’ll see.”