The Italian Dom by N.J. Adel

CHAPTER 23

Domenico

 

All the way back to the mansion, Tino and I flanked Nicky, squeezing her between the two of us in the backseat of his car. I couldn’t trust her near any of the doors. She was crazy and desperate enough to run away from Tino. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to throw herself out of the car. If I’d had cuffs or rope I’d have tied her, too.

Tino had had a weird expression since he opened the duffle bag, haunted by demons of his own. He didn’t say anything, though, not to me or her. That face didn’t go away either when we returned, but what was even more morbid was his wife’s face when she saw her sister. It didn’t need a genius to know she wasn’t in the dark on Nicky’s escape plan.

This family was something, but who was I to judge? I’d seen worse in my own. At least, the sisters were two outsider little girls. They weren’t raised like us. No one taught them about honor, respect or loyalty, the blood we shed in the name of them. And they had their whole lives ahead of them to learn. In my family, the traitors were blood, born and raised della famiglia, made men and supposedly loyal wives, mothers, fathers…uncles…

Tino opened the duffle bag in his office and stared at his wife. “Did you know about this?” His voice came from a dark place I knew too well.

“No. She knew nothing,” Nicky answered for her, fear dripping from her tone. “If you’re looking for someone to punish, punish me. Leave my sister out of it.”

His eyes rolled toward Nicky in a menacing stare. “I wasn’t talking to you. Shut up until you get your turn to speak.” His stare returned on his wife. “Angel?”

Signora Bellomo stepped next to Nicky and held her hand. “Absolutely. Actually, it was all my idea.”

“Lina, no!” Nicky yelled.

“Why not? It’s the truth. I don’t lie to my husband.”

That sounded genuine. Looked like getting cuffed to a bed taught her something after all. She didn’t even sound scared, as if knowing if she told the truth, everything would be okay. It was like she trusted her husband despite what he really was. That was something to hold on to.

Could Nicky and I ever reach that level of trust? Could we be a real family that didn’t betray or use each other?

“Jesus fuck. Don’t believe her,” Nicky said. “She’s just trying to save my ass.”

“That’s not true. I prepared that duffle bag myself and gave it to Nicky, convincing her to…elope.”

Elope? What the fuck was Signora Bellomo talking about? I cocked a brow and then chuckled. For a second there, I was fooled by her brave honesty act, but she was just full of shit like her sister.

Tino’s eyes tightened, a wolf sizing up his prey. “Elope?”

“Yes,” his wife confirmed, and then she glanced at me. “You didn’t tell him?”

“Tell him what? This is the first time I’m hearing this.”

Nicky exchange a puzzled glance with her, as if she was saying the same thing. Signora Bellomo didn’t seem to be fazed by it. She kept her eyes steady on me. “What do you mean this is the first time you heard about this? Didn’t you get her text? She texted you right in front of me before she left.”

“Signora, per favore, don’t drag me—”

“Did you check your phone?” Nicky grumbled.

No. I was in the shower when Tino came to the room, and then we went straight to the chapel. However, I was certain if I checked my phone now, there would be no messages from her. Where were they going with this shit? When they were caught lying, no one would be pleased.

“Just do it.” she insisted.

I stared at her for a second. She was peering at me with all the hate in the world and challenging me with her eyes. I looked back at Tino. He nodded at me to go ahead.

With a sigh, I fished my phone out of my pocket and unlocked the screen. My brows hooked the moment I did see there was a new text from Nicky.

“Show me,” Tino said.

I cleared my throat and gave him the phone.

“I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done, but I’m willing to let you apologize and make it up to me.” Tino read the text. “I’m not gonna marry you. Not like that. It has to be my choice. I have to be in control. If you really want us to get hitched, I don’t want Tino involved.” He glanced up from the phone at her and back. “If you have the guts to elope, meet me in twenty minutes at Graceland cemetery. Not your little kitten.”

He tossed my phone on the desk. “Sent thirty minutes ago.”

“Right before I left,” Nicky mumbled.

Cazzo.

How did she even manage to send that text? While it did sound like her—a lot—there was no way in hell she’d intended to elope with me. Right?

Part of me wanted to believe her lie. It would have been…different…hot. Wrong but so hot. And some might even say sweet, but not me. I had no room for sweet in my life.

It wasn’t any of those, though, because it wasn’t real. If her plan was to elope, why did she try to run away again when she saw me? She didn’t see Tino with me when she entered the chapel to think I’d betrayed her. She ran away because she didn’t send that text and never expected me to be there. Fuck, she never expected to see me ever again.

The question was, should I blow the whistle or make it our little secret?

“You’re lucky you were with me the whole time or I’d have thought you were in on this scandal,” Tino told me, pinching the bridge of his nose, before he moved around the desk and went over to his wife. A deep scowl wrinkled his forehead as he stared at her. “Why, Angel?”

She started to cry. “Because I know you. You’d have arranged for a big wedding even with Leo on the loose. Because of what Dom told you this morning, you wouldn’t wait.”

“So?”

“So weddings are too dangerous or don’t you remember?” Her lips trembled as tears ran down her cheeks. “Anything could happen then. Leo could crash it and try to kill my sister to have his revenge. He could kill you.” She blubbered ugly, her legs wobbling. “The only way I can know my sister is safe is for this wedding to be a secret away from all the vendettas and blood. I can’t take another red wedding, Tino, I can’t lose my sister or you. I just can’t. I just can’t!”

She staggered in place, about to pass out. Tino’s arms folded around her, steadying her. “Shhhh. No one is gonna die, my beautiful Angel.”

Was he really buying this?

“I’m so scared, Tino. Terrified,” she sobbed. “What if he comes after Nicco? Our baby? I can’t lose our baby, Tino. Please.”

“Shhhh. Never when I’m here. I won’t let anybody come near you, Nicole or our son. You’re always safe with me.”

Apparently, he bought every word. Playing the violin didn’t seem to be Angelina Bellomo’s only talent. Acting, too, she was brilliant at.

“We can’t have that wedding. Promise me, Tino. You have to wait until it’s safe. Please. For me.”

“For you, I’d do anything, my sweet Angel.” He smiled at her, wiping away her tears. “Don’t worry. I have a solution that will please everyone.”

“Do you now?” Nicky snorted.

He broke his embrace but kept one arm around his wife’s waist. “Si, si. Especially you.”

“Highly doubt it. What could Don Bellomo possibly do that would ever please me?”

He took a deep breath, his smile intact. “You look like you don’t want a wedding, so there won’t be one.”

A sigh of relief escaped her. It contrasted with how I felt. “What do you mean there will be no wedding?” I objected.

“Just that. It’s too dangerous like my wife said.”

Che cazzo? “If it’s security you’re worried about, the Lanzas can provide enough protection.”

“I can protect my own, Domenico. Stai attento,” he warned. “But a wedding should be a happy day. If my wife feels uncomfortable for any reason at all, I can’t let it happen.”

“But that’s not our deal. I don’t want to wait, and for the sake of Nicky’s honor, which means everything to both of us, she has to be my wife as fast as possible.”

Nicky mouthed a fuck you at me.

As much as I wanted to keep Nicky’s little secret to myself, a little red ribbon to play with my kitten, if what I’d said wasn’t enough to change Tino’s mind, I’d have no choice but to spill the beans. No wedding wasn’t an answer I was willing to take.

“In that you’re absolutely correct,” he said. “That’s why, while there will be no wedding at the moment, you two can still get married…today.”

“What?!” Nicky snapped.

Blinking, I couldn’t stop the smile stretching on my face.

Tino, that crazy devious son of a bitch, smiled, too. I took it his little wife’s crocodile tears were too good for him to believe? “All we need is a City Hall clerk and an attorney to make it official. And before you say it’s the holidays, I can get the clerk from the Marriage Bureau right here along with my lawyer in a couple of hours. I’m sure Dom can do the same with his.

“We have a modest ceremony at the safety of our home to please my wife, you elope like you wanted, Nicole, but with dignity and honor, and Dom, you don’t have to wait any longer to get your bride.”

“But… You… This’s…” Nicky stuttered, her face red, her eyes blazing.

“Amazing, right? I bet you didn’t see that one coming. What did I tell you, Nicole? My solution does please everyone, especially you, figlia mia.”