Page 12 of Morally Gray Daddies

“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “It’s not like you’re ever getting married, right?” Both Jack and I laughed. Tomas had quite the reputation when it came to the ladies—he fucked like a bull but always at their places. He never brought one home or around the Familias. A family man he was not—he’d likely be a loner all his days.

“Even my mother has given up on him,” Jack said, shaking his head. “The last girl she introduced him to, he just stared at her for five minutes before she finally gave up and walked away.”

“She should find him a woman who won’t notice that he never talks.” Now we were both laughing.

Tomas shook his head, which was as much of a reaction as anyone ever got out of him, and went back to watching the floor below us. Unfortunately, it was another long, fruitless night.

Chapter Five

Clara

It hadn’t taken me long to find out which warehouse Gio was guarding. Chatting up the DiNardo men was easy—well, other than Hailey’s guard, Tomas, but I knew better than to try to get a word out of him. It only took me a day to find out what Gio had been up to the past few nights and that he was going to be in trouble if he didn’t catch the thief who had occasionally been plaguing the family.

I was still trying to decide if I cared if he got into trouble.

On one hand, I was still peeved he hadn’t contacted me at all after that night… on the other hand, I was even more on the fence about whether or not I’d dreamed it. Plus, even if it had happened, it sounded like he’d been busy, so I had some sympathy for that. He was doing what he was supposed to for his family, and it wasn’t his fault that they needed him right now. Technically, it was mine.

But logic didn’t always rule emotion, and I was pretty annoyed with him.

Eventually, I decided to split the middle.

One last—small—haul from the DiNardo family, and I would drop a note that I was done and wouldn’t be back. A good compromise. Whether or not anyone believed the note… well, that wasn’t my problem, and time would prove me truthful. Hailey said she was happy with Jack, which meant I should stop harassing them, anyway. There were far more interesting targets…

Like Hailey’s cousin, Leonardo. The hotel room he was staying in was my first stop this evening. It was remarkably easy to break into—he hadn’t even set an extra guard. Of course, that likely meant anything of value was with him, but I wasn’t looking for money or jewelry—I wanted to know why he was there.

Humming under my breath, I did a quick sweep of the room and found nothing—so I started to look deeper. People always hid things in obvious places when they were traveling—under the sink in the bathroom, in the back of the closet, under the mattress. Granted, he could always use the hotel’s safe, but I was hoping I wouldn’t have to break into that. I would need more than tonight if that was the case, with no guarantee of finding anything.

I found it under the mattress, of course—an entire file of correspondence from Don Bianco, Hailey’s grandfather. Even his handwriting somehow managed to look creepy, thin and spidery. Or maybe I only thought that because I knew it was him.

Starting at the top, I perused through the letters.

Lots of nonsense about keeping an eye on Hailey because she was a treacherous bitch—pretty rich coming from a man who’d dragged her back into the mob life and married her off for his own gain. What had he expected, a thank you? For her to spy on her new family for him?

Actually, I might not be too far off the mark with that one. There were several complaints in the letters about how Leonardo needed to push Jack to let him talk to Hailey alone. I wasn’t sure what Leonardo had been writing back to his grandfather, but it was clear he was having trouble getting any kind of private meeting with Hailey. He must have mentioned that she always had a guard at one point because the most recent letter instructed Leonardo to eliminate the guard if necessary.

Which made absolutely no sense. Hailey’s guard was Tomas, and I knew he was high in the ranks among Don DiNardo’s men, even if I wasn’t sure how high. If Leonardo killed him just to speak privately to Hailey, that could amount to a declaration of war between the Families. Considering they had just made the truce…

Maybe Hailey’s grandfather was losing his faculties, which was an even scarier thought than a don who was fully in control of himself. I’d already thought that marrying her into another Family to seal an alliance when she had separated herself from the Bianco name for years was a little mad. Perhaps I’d been closer to the mark than I’d thought. It was not a comforting thought.

It wasn’t until I got to the last letter—which was really little more than a short note—that I realized it wasn’t that Don Bianco was mad… it was that he well and truly did not care. I stared at the short note, reading it over and over again, trying to convince myself that I was somehow misinterpreting it. That I was reading it incorrectly. That it didn’t mean what I thought it meant.

Take care of Francesco. Without him, Diana and Hailey will fall in line.

Do this for me, and I will make you my heir.

I didn’t know the names of Hailey’s parents, but I had a sinking feeling that they were Francesco and Diana. Bile rose up in the back of my throat. Had Hailey’s cousin really killed her parents? Had the hit been ordered by her grandfather?

For the first time, I understood why she might not want me in the Familias' life, though I was pretty sure she didn’t know this.

Oh God, how was I going to tell her?

I wasn’t sure I could.

Especially without proof, but I couldn’t take this with me. If I did, Leonardo would know someone had been in here. He probably carried this around for insurance that his grandfather couldn’t forget that he’d named Leonardo his heir.

Closing my eyes, I forced myself to take several deep, long breaths, trying to slow my rapidly beating heart. I didn’t have to decide what I was going to do right now. Hailey wasn’t here. I could take the time to think about it and plan my next move. But I had other things to get done tonight, and I’d found what I was looking for…

Leonardo was here to talk to Hailey. It was interesting but not surprising that Jack hadn’t told her that Leonardo wanted to talk with her. As Hailey had told me yesterday, the men tried to keep the women out of what they considered to be their business. Unfortunately, none of the letters from her grandfather said what Leonardo was supposed to talk to her about. The only person who would be able to answer that question was Leonardo.

---