Page 85 of Now and Forever

“She is basically your daughter. She should have been there.” I shrugged. “I guess she was.” My nose scrunched. “But…Aléjandro?” And what was he doing in New York? He lives in Mexico.

“You don’t understand,” he said. “She’s part of Josie. My family, father in particular, detested Josie.” Dario stood and began to pace. “He was awful to her and to me about her. He refused to acknowledge her presence. Threatened that I’d never be capo if I didn’t get rid of her.” There was more anger in his tone than I’d ever heard. “He referred to her as a stray.” He turned to face me. “Jasmine wasn’t supposed to be at the wedding, not because I didn’t want her there, but because much like Herrera, she was unwelcomed by the famiglia.”

I pursed my lips and stood. “She’s a child. She’s Camila’s age.”

“Someone broke into her apartment yesterday.”

My eyes opened wide. “In New York?”

Dario nodded. “I didn’t find out until this morning when she and Piero, her bodyguard, showed up at Emerald Club. They drove all night to get here. Jasmine is pretty banged up. She didn’t want to fly.” He shook his head. “She’s scared, Catalina. She asked if she could stay at Emerald Club.”

“No.”

Dario agreed. “I’d never let her stay there. Her mother—Josie’s and hers—was a dancer and prostitute. The girls grew up living in the back of a club similar to Wanderlust, seeing more than children should see.”

“Is that why you don’t like the way Uncle Nick runs Wanderlust?”

“I believe in respecting workers, no matter what job it is they choose to do. Josie was a dancer at Minx,onlya dancer,” he emphasized. “But allowing Jasmine to spend even one night at Emerald Club would defeat all that Josie tried to overcome.”

“Is Jasmine why Armando stayed at the club?”

“Armando has been with Jasmine since she arrived here over eleven years ago. She trusts him, and I’m ill-equipped to handle a crying, scared teenager.”

Crying and scared—my heart broke for her.

“And Armando isn’t?” I asked. He never seemed the hugging type to me. More like the shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later type of guy.

Dario grinned. “They have a bond.” He inhaled. “I couldn’t let her stay at the club. And I couldn’t send her away. She’s upstairs with Contessa.”

“May I meet her?”

“This is your home. You have a say in who stays here.”

A smile came to my lips. “You’re capo. Final word rests with you.”

“Not yet, and my home isn’t my business. This isourhome.”

I laid my hand on Dario’s chest over his tie. Beneath my touch, the heart he claimed not to have hammered away. “I would never send someone you care about away.”

He took my hand in his. “The famiglia would, every fucking one of them. My mother and father would be first in line. You’re part of them now.”

“I can be a part of them, but in here” —I brought our hands to my chest— “I’m still me. I don’t feel fully accepted by the famiglia except by you and Dante. Jasmine and I will have something in common.”

Dario pulled me against him and exhaled. “Fuck, Catalina. I should have told you about her before. Maybe if I had, she wouldn’t be hurt.”

I looked into his eyes clouded with guilt. “That isn’t your fault.” I kissed his cheek and watched the lines of worry that had been prominent upon his forehead begin to fade. “I want to meet her.”

Dario kissed my forehead and tugged on my hand. “Come on.”

Together, we left the library. My gaze went to the closed door across the hallway. “The theater room—it was built for Jasmine, wasn’t it?”

Dario nodded. “It was another sitting room before that.”

With my hand in his, we walked through the living room and up the stairs. Instead of leading me down the hallway to where Camila stayed, Dario led me down the hallway to our room. We stopped at the door closest to our suite.

“Was this her room?” I asked.

Dario nodded.

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