Unshaken, page 5
part #9 of Guns n' Boys Series
Arturo opened his mouth again and uttered a partial phrase, but his vocalization was stifled when Dom pushed something into his open mouth and placed his hand over it.
“That was easy enough. Dino Villani has bad taste in employees even beyond the grave,” he said, accepting Seth’s help.
“It’s not funny,” Seth muttered, and as soon as Arturo was tied up, he dragged him toward the stairs, away from the street and the window.
Dom secured the makeshift gag with his silk tie, and joined Seth, helping him pull the struggling goon along as he kicked and thrashed, trying to wrestle out of their grip.
Not a chance.
Domenico exhaled and punched Arturo’s crotch in a way so vicious, Seth’s own balls ached in sympathy regardless of who Arturo was, but it did the trick.
The walls of the staircase showcased a huge graffiti of a naked woman, which was surprisingly tasteful for the interior of an abandoned building, but Seth knew those thoughts were only his brain trying to detach him from the violence to come. He needed to get to grips with the fact that brutality would be unavoidable tonight.
The top floor was an open plan of long gone office life. Broken desks, halogen lamps that were so unpleasant to the eyes, and parts of cubicles lay scattered around the huge flat space, but Dom had no doubt where he wanted to go.
One of the walls was made up of ceiling-to-floor windows, but some of the glass panes were missing, and while a thin sheet of plastic had been placed over it, wind, or an uninvited visitor, had partially torn it away, so it flapped in the breeze like a flag.
When they got close enough for Seth to sense the movement of air slipping through the opening, Domenico shoved Arturo toward it, and while their captive struggled to keep himself upright, he took notice of the edge where the floor was abruptly replaced by air.
The life Seth wanted was lazy mornings in bed with Domenico, cooking pancakes with his daughter, and the occasional bungee jump. Most of all, he wanted a life where his family was safe, so despite not looking forward to the torture Domenico would surely inflict on Arturo, Seth had no doubts about its necessity. He was glad it didn’t have to happen by his hands, but he would have done anything to protect his family, even if he was more used to gutting fish than people.
Arturo didn’t scream when Domenico pulled out the gag and chuckled instead, spitting some blood on Dom’s shirt in the process. “Never thought I’d have the honor of meeting Domenico Acerbi again.”
Domenico glared at the red stains at the front of his clothes in distaste. “Maybe God has guided you to me, so you can look at a real man for once, not someone’s lap dog.”
“A faggot can’t teach me how to be a man.” Arturo tried to head-butt Dom, but he wasn’t fast enough, and Domenico stepped out of reach.
Seth leaned against a nearby wall, nauseated by the memories of a life they’d left behind. In that life, hearing the word faggot had been a regular occurrence, and a man had to do anything in his power to not have it thrown at him.
“‘Faggots’ have captured you and incapacitated two of your friends. I think it would be stupid of you not to take note,” Domenico said. “But who knows, maybe my weak faggot heart will choose to let you leave here alive if you tell me what I want to know.”
His face harbored no grudges. It was focused. Calm. The image of Domenico in his element. But he also walked a perimeter that blocked Arturo from leaving the proximity of the broken window and the void that would take his life if he misbehaved.
Arturo wouldn’t be leaving here alive, Seth knew Domenico too well to have any doubts about that.
“Let’s start simple. Where does Tropico, or Mr. Dino Villani, live?” Domenico asked.
Arturo’s jaw twitched, and he looked to Seth. “I don’t know how you found him, but you should have stayed away. Even if you hide now, he won’t rest until he sees your corpses at his feet.”
“Why?” Seth groaned but bit his lip, realizing that deep down he still thought of Dino as the benevolent father who’d bought him expensive Christmas gifts, paid for his swimming lessons, and funded his life in America. What he needed to remember was that Dino was the same man who’d shot his uncle dead in front of him, who’d had men killed every day, and who’d humiliated Domenico in public.
Arturo laughed, and when he opened his mouth, the reddish film on his teeth took Seth right back to El Encanto and the brutality he’d witnessed there.
“Isn’t it obvious? No father wants a useless faggot for a son. You couldn’t shoot a goddamn gun and did beekeeping as a hobby. What the fuck was that shit?” Arturo asked, taking deep breaths to fuel his words.
Domenico remained calm. “Dino didn’t know. I never told him.”
Arturo shook his head. “I was there in New York long before you ever arrived. Do you really think the Don would let his softest son roam freely in another country without supervision? He wanted to see what Seth would do when he thought no one was watching, and I got him his answer. I assure you, he didn’t fucking like it.”
Seth’s body turned hot, cold, then shivering. His father had known all along? Was Seth’s life some game he didn’t even know he’d been playing?
Despite being happily married to the man of his life, old shame still hit him like a ghost of a past he thought he’d shed. In his father’s eyes he’d turned out to be the worst son Dino could have imagined. Even Vincenzo’s whoring, gambling, and senseless cruelty were minor flaws in comparison to Seth’s misconduct.
“You spied on me? What the fuck?”
Arturo rolled his eyes as if he had any safety net here. “Get over yourself. You’re lucky to be alive and stupid to reappear.”
“We didn’t reappear. We’ve been tracking Tropico all along, and now we’ll kill him. You have no idea that the fish Dino thinks he can fry not only has poison running through its veins but also spikes all over,” Domenico said, taking smooth, menacing strides forward.
“I… could deliver a message from you,” Arturo said, but Seth frowned at this change of tone.
Something wasn’t right, and he was sure Domenico could sense that too, but when Arturo’s hands, which had been bound seconds ago, grabbed Dom’s jacket, neither of them was prepared for the attack.
Seth screamed and dashed their way when Dom’s feet slid over the laminate floor. Arturo hauled Dom toward the open window, and wind forced the plastic sheet into the building as if inviting the two men outside.
Dom spun around in a flurry of black hair, his eyes wide with anger as he clutched at the bastard and wrestled him, intent on taking him down if they were to fall. When Arturo flew into the flapping sheet of plastic, Seth grabbed Dom’s wrist and pulled him away from the deathly cliff.
A fearful scowl was the last he saw of Arturo before the bastard fell to his death.
Chapter 5 - Domenico
Domenico’s stomach turned when he stumbled away from Seth and peeked down the facade as shrieks erupted below his feet. The sheet of plastic rustled as it flapped in front of Dom, protecting his identity from onlookers, but it had been torn at the bottom, offering a perfect view of Arturo’s body splayed on top of a car, which howled in alarm, as if calling for help.
He took a deep breath, then another before facing Seth’s wide-eyed features. “Why did you stop me?”
Seth swallowed and rubbed the top of his head. “What? He almost pulled you down with h—”
“Not now. With Dino. I almost had him!” Dom said as anger slowly replaced the physical manifestations of fear in his body.
Seth swallowed and opened his mouth, but nothing came out of it until they moved toward the staircase. “Let’s get out of here.”
Domenico licked his lips. It was only a matter of time before the police arrived, and he didn’t want any more problems. Not tonight. “I know for a fact you can speak and walk at the same time,” he said in the end, heading back to the staircase. The sooner they left through the broken window the better.
He didn’t look back at Dom, but his shoulders were rigid and he walked faster with every step. “I freaked out, okay? He’s… he’s still my father. There’s questions I want to ask, and I… I guess I acted on instinct. I have no idea what to do now, about him and all the possibilities this opens…”
“Your father wanted you dead. How is his miserable life worth saving?” Dom asked, hurrying down the steps, his back rigid with tension.
Seth spread his arms, making his way through the rubble like a bulldozer. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything right now. Why would he set me up as his successor, marry me off, knowing I was gay, and then try to kill me? I’m feeling sick right now.”
Domenico considered this for a couple of moments, but by the time they reached the first floor and walked through the messy space toward their exit, he had an idea what this was about. “You want to ask him?”
The way Seth looked at him before jumping out of the window and onto the trash container, told Dom everything. But they only spoke again after jogging down the empty street for a while, once the scene of their crime was sufficiently far away.
“Don’t you?” Seth asked, slowing down when they reached a wider artery of the city, where the nightlife was starting.
They were out of immediate danger, but Dom was still glad to leave the sound of a police siren behind as he and Seth followed the stream of people through the vast night market. His senses warned him that Dino might still be here, waiting for a false move on their part, but it didn’t make sense. There were reasons why the old bastard lived his life surrounded by bodyguards, and he surely reached someplace safe by this point.
“No. I just want him gone.”
Seth brushed his fingers against Dom’s, but holding hands might have drawn too much attention. “I don’t know how I’d live on without finding out. Maybe there’s something we’re missing, something that’s so crucial it might come back to bite us.”
Domenico exhaled and looked at the tall, modern buildings looming above. “I doubt we can find him tonight, anyway. What bugs me is why he’d waited for such a long time if he knew you were gay. He didn’t even confront you about it, right?” he asked, but his attention remained scattered. The crowds allowed them to disappear but might also have offered the enemy ample opportunity to creep up to them. The sense of vulnerability it instilled in Dom made getting away his priority.
Their dream vacation had unexpectedly turned into a life-changing threat, but Domenico was ready to face it. Hell, he’d been ready to tackle it head on and stick a knife in Dino Villani’s heart, but it seemed Seth wasn’t on the same page with him. They weren’t even holding the same book. But Dom had promised himself to be more understanding, to listen, and they’d been through too much to throw the hard-earned marital harmony away for the sake of a quick solution.
Seth shook his head, slouching. “Never. Maybe he was waiting to do it after my mom died, but changed his plans. If he spied on me, he knew damn well I wasn’t Don material.”
“No,” Dom agreed and gently rubbed Seth’s hand where no one could see it between their bodies. “Maybe it was the marriage and alliance? But it’s not like Vincenzo wasn’t a bachelor. It makes little sense.”
“I have to know why. It literally makes my stomach hurt to think about it. We’ve been puppets in his play, and we don’t even know what the plot is.”
As they walked down the busy street, Domenico couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that he hadn’t killed anyone in years. Since El Encanto, really. There had been no need to use violence for so long, yet when push came to shove, his old reflexes kicked in without fail. He was more than ready to deal with Tropico. All he needed was Seth on board. Which might prove difficult if Seth wasn’t motivated enough to return home.
“So we first talk and then kill him?” Dom asked, stopping at the sight of a familiar combination of colors reflecting off damp asphalt. His gaze followed the glow all the way to tall windows and a neon depicting the Italian flag. Beyond it, a handful of people sat over food at graceful, sleek tables while a waiter in a black and white uniform coursed through the room carrying plates of steaming food.
Everything inside him stilled, and he gravitated closer to Seth until their shoulders met. Brown eyes met his with such tenderness Domenico wished to crawl under Seth’s skin and stay there forever.
“No, first we eat,” Seth said.
Domenico’s stomach grumbled, as if on cue. “You know me so well,” he said and stepped closer to the large potted plants standing on either side of the door.
The homely scents inside, and the welcoming atmosphere of a contemporary restaurant soothed his worries, and by the time they sat in a comfortable booth at the back, his shoulders relaxed again. He and Seth hardly spoke as they chose and ordered their food, but when a board of antipasti rolled onto the table, Domenico’s tongue unwound at last.
“You were right to stop me. My face would have been everywhere by morning,” he said in the end, taking a whiff of the wine. A sense of peace burned in his heart, as if they’d come here straight from the opera recital.
Seth’s foot poked Dom’s under the table. “We can’t let it go, but we’ve got to be smart about it. I’m not losing you to prison just because you’re impulsive. Angelica needs her daddy.”
Dom chuckled and let his shoe drop. He slid his toes against Seth’s ankle and dug into the food without a word. The intense flavor of grass-reared beef filled his mouth with its juices, and the peppery aftertaste rounded it up. Perfection. Just what he needed after the mess their pleasant evening had devolved into.
He leaned back into the leather seat and spoke, “This was destiny. We were meant to eat this.”
“Stop changing the topic. Don’t you ever worry about the consequences if you were caught and gone to prison?” Seth cut into his fist-sized burrata cheese, which looked so divine Dom couldn’t even feel guilty about neglecting local food. This stuff was home on a plate, and it soothed not only his stomach but also his heart.
He harrumphed and slapped Seth’s calf with his foot. “I’m not going to prison.”
“What if you did though? What if we both did? You’d be such prime meat, but don’t worry, I’d protect you if you satisfied my needs.” Seth’s little smirk made Dom blink faster at him. Was the fucker flirting about prison rape? It was kinda hot, in a very distasteful and horrible way. Dom could dig that.
“Right, how else would you get a face like mine anywhere near your dick?”
Seth shoved a huge piece of soft cheese into his mouth and chewed, his gaze meeting Dom’s over the small table. The food was plated in a contemporary way, with swirls of sauce and three leaves of salad, but the ambience of the bar with its mint leather upholstery and mirrors on the walls, transported Domenico to lonely nights in Palermo. The old Domenico would have eaten on his own, and then venture into town to satisfy his other needs. The current Domenico didn’t have to. His favorite prey was right here, Seth’s tan skin, handsome features and the burgundy jacket the perfect wrapper for the sweet inside Domenico wanted to savor for the rest of his life.
“In prison, no one could even blame me for taking you as mine.”
Domenico’s mood soured somewhat, and he drank a sip of the wine between morsels of food. “As opposed to home?”
Seth gave a deep sigh and downed his own glass before pouring himself some more wine. “I know it’s stupid but I can’t stop thinking about what Arturo said. We live in our own bubble, and he smashed it with a hammer, reminding me exactly of what people in our old lives would have said about us.”
Domenico opened his mouth, wanting to contradict Seth, but the past grabbed his shoulders in a bruising grip. He was silent for several moments, gathering his thoughts as he chewed a piece of cold meat. “I want to tell you that we shouldn’t care what the fuck anyone thinks. But I’d have never said that in my past life. Not once. Almost as if the world beyond home wasn’t as real, as if my actions away from Family territory didn’t have real consequences. Maybe that’s the life I’m still living now,” he said softly.
“Just like I only dared to pursue guys in New York. I don’t know what it means to be gay in Sicily.”
Domenico slid his toes into the leg of Seth’s pants and rubbed bare skin. The physical contact made him feel more grounded, made everything more real as the onslaught of memories swirled around their table. “Oh no, I did pursue guys, but it was this secretive thing. Something to be ashamed of. Something dirty, something that excused using an imbalance of power sometimes,” he said, meeting Seth’s gaze. “It was all about getting off and, maybe, some camaraderie, because whenever I tried to have more, it ended badly. They were either married or couldn’t be trusted with the truth about my life. To be honest, I don’t think you missed out on much.”
Seth played with the food on his plate, but didn’t spare himself wine. It was hard to believe they’d been fighting to the death only half an hour ago. This moment was a metaphor for their lives—both clean and messy at the same time.
“I don’t know. At least you were gaining experience. I was such a frustrated teen. You couldn’t even imagine. And yet I was too afraid to step out of line because of Dad,” he whispered
“I bet. But trying to get that kind of frustration out of your system can land you in the wrong situation, get the attention of the wrong people. And then, you’re screwed. The world’s full of predators looking for exactly that—young people who don’t know their place in the world and can be easily molded.”
The wine tasted sour on Domenico’s tongue, so he put down the glass and stole some of Seth’s burrata. Most days, he diverted painful memories to the far depths of his mind, but now they overcame him like an avalanche, until he could swear he sensed Federico’s favorite cologne in the air. Even the soft piano music couldn’t soothe the ache spreading through his flesh.
Seth shrugged. “I’d just need to attract the attention of the right kind of predator. Isn’t that what I did? I was weak, yet I went out and found myself the biggest, baddest guy out there to take care of me.”
