Hey everyone - Sorry that I haven't posted. My allergies have kicked my a$$. I'll make it up to you guys this week. Promise.
Dante’s POV “What do you mean the don of the Reina family is your father’s best friend?” You would think that with as much rage as I’m feeling, I would be screaming. But I’m not. My voice is quiet. Soft. Almost conciliatory. I think I’m in shock. Stefan gives me a pained look, his knuckles white as he grips the edge fo the marble counter we are sitting at. I can tell that he doesn’t want to say this, that he knows how dangerous his next few words could be. Taking a deep breath, he begins. “My father and Giuseppe Reina were in the Army together as young men just out of high school. My father didn’t come from a rich family, in fact his father was a coal miner in Pennsylvania and his mother worked in a local grocery store. If my father wanted an education, he had to go into the military to get it. “Giuseppe, as you probably know, was the second son of the Reina family. His brother was much older than him, ne
Dante’s POV I’ll say this for my father, when shit goes sideways, he handles it like a fucking pro. He had been beyond pissed when I told him everything that Stefan had said. He had been especially livid when I told him about Pablo stealing Quinn and how I was certain that it was the Reinas that were behind it. And then he’d been on top of it, having his men in the three states where Julian Rothschild had been seen over the past week: New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Luckily, there aren’t many casinos in any of these states and my father seems to have his fingers in all of them. Within an hour he gave me a call back. “The most recent place that he’s been was Plainridge Park Casino. The owner is some unimportant relation to your mother’s aunt’s cousin or some shit like that. He was more than happy to help us out and got video of the fucker. He’s willing to bring in the waitress and the dealer for the poker table he was sitting at.
Quinn’s POV I’ve been here a week now. So much has happened and yet I feel like I’m living the same day over and over again, like some fucked up version of the movie Groundhog’s Day.Within an hour after Pablo had been killed, his body was removed and a doctor was here to check on me. I was badly bruised from the fall, but not far enough along that it would hurt the baby. The confirmation of my pregnancy seemed to piss Gabriele off so much that he stormed out of the room. The door that he slammed behind him hit it so hard that the frame splintered and the door bounced, the knob hitting the wall hart enough to dent it.I was so scared that he would take it out on me and the baby that I hooked a chair under the doorknob of the bedroom so that it would be harder for him to get in and then slept in the locked bathroom with a heavy table pushed against the door.I heard the doorknob jiggle at one point during the night, the chair scrape against the floor slightly, but it he
Dante’s POV We knew that it was the Reinas from interrogating Julian. We knew from the GPS in the car that Julian was in that he had been staying at a hotel and had gone to several different places in a 100-mile area going all the way up into Vermont. We knew that Pablo was fucking shit up for us with the shipments and drugs. We knew everything that had been going on. Except for where Quinn is. “Get back here to the city,” my father demands of me on the phone. “No! We’re so close, Padre. We’ll track her down directly from the spots that Rothschild stopped. I can’t just leave her here. Who knows what the fuck Reina will do!” I’ve never gone against my father’s wishes. Never. I even married a woman that I didn’t know based on what he demanded of me. But I can’t do this. I can’t leave her. “I understand, son. But I’ve requested a meeting with Giuseppe, which he’s granted. If you turn ar
Quinn’s POV I’m woken up by a frantic Gabriele shaking my arm. He must have used a key to get into the room because I definitely locked the door before I went to sleep last night. “Quinn! Wake up! You have to get dressed. Now!” He’s nearly screaming and I can easily see the panic in his eyes. “W-what?” I ask prying my eyes open. “What’s going on?” “They know where we are. We only have a little while before they get here. And we need to be long gone before that,” he says, wrenching the blankets off of me and pulls my arm to get me out of bed. I nearly fall to the floor with the force of his pulling on me and my general lack of coordination since I just woke up. “Gabriele! Calm the fuck down! You’re going to hurt me. Who knows where we are? Who’s coming?” I ask. I try to temper my hope that he’s talking about Dante. It could be tons of different people. I don’t want to get my hopes up only for them to be dashed b
Dante’s POV The second that Giuseppe Reina told me where to find the spot where he would send Gabriele when his mental illness would overtake him, I started towards the car. I didn’t care about Julian. I didn’t care about the rival don standing next to me and knowing that Quinn is my biggest weakness. I just need to get my wife, my love, my everything back. “Dante! Wait!” the don calls to me. I turn towards him, energy fairly vibrating through my body. “I know that my son has people working for him in my organization. It won’t take long for him to be warned. Take my helicopter. It’ll get you there faster,” Giuseppe tells me. I stare into the older man’s eyes. There, I see two things: sadness and resolve. He knows exactly what’s going to happen to his son. He’s agreed to it. He doesn’t like it, but he agrees that it has to happen. Gabriele has been a problem for the family for years. This time, though, it isn’t something that they can send him to Italy f
Quinn’s POV The sound of the gate breaking down and the sight of Dante, Emilio, and Josiah jumping out of the car made my heart soar. That is until the shock wears off that they’re here and the pain of being thrown into the car catches up with me. I was thrown into the backseat with the arm rest down, my stomach landing flat on it. I scream in pain, though it isn’t heard over the gunfire. It isn’t just the pain from hitting the seat with force, but it’s also the soreness from when Pablo threw me against the end table. I can’t help but curl up into myself on the seat, keening in agony.It’s when the gun shots start to ping against the car and one of the windows breaks that I realize that I can’t just curl up in the pain. I’ve got to make sure I’m safe.I move to the floor as fast as I possibly can, though my movements seem cumbersome and slow. But I finally make it into the floor, my stomach heaves with the need to retch as the pain overwhelms me.The gunshots that r
“I – I – I had just found out. And then we had the break in and then the fight and I needed to do the gala and…” My words peter out, leaving me unsure of what else to say. I can’t tell him the truth. I can’t tell him that I was worried that he wouldn’t want me anymore after he found out that I was pregnant. Especially after he just saved me from Gabriele and brought me back. But it’s not like I think that he would have saved me if we weren’t in this married pact together. I still don’t feel like I can trust his love. As much as I want to, as much as I know that I love him even if I’m having trouble admitting it to myself, I can’t say I believe that he wants to be with me. That’s why I didn’t tell him. And why I can’t tell him the truth now. His eyebrows furrow and he opens his mouth as if to say something, but the door bursts open and everyone files back in. “What did the doctor say?” Emily immediately demands and I can’t help but see the expectant faces of everyone in t