Page 98 of Where Quiet Hearts Scream
I stop a couple yards away from him. “You’re dead,” I say, simply.
The old man smiles, revealing brown, nicotine-stained teeth. “Not quite.”
I give a small shake of my head, a silent ‘no’ throbbing inside my throat. “You were buried after a bust went wrong in the Bronx.”
He laughs—a low bitter cackle. “That’s what we wanted everyone to believe. It was Aldo’s idea. A genius one if you ask me.”
A lead weight settles in the pit of my stomach. My inner child is begging me to step back, to run, to find shelter. I gently push him to one side and let the adult grit in my voice surface. “So, where have you been?”
“Around. Here of course, New York, Philly…Washington.”
My heart thumps angrily. “So, it was you at the Cosmos?”
“Yes, son. I had to see for myself the man you’ve become. The man who had no issues killing the uncle who helped raise you.”
“Aldo didn’t raise me and neither did you. I am not your son.”
“It’s right there on your birth certificate, Leo Junior.”
I resist the urge to throw up. “That isn’t my name. How did you find me?”
“Through Benito of course. You are not the only one who kept an eye on him all these years. I knew who he was working with. I was the one who gave him to the Di Santo’s. And now look at him—practically running their outfit. When he formed an alliance with some Corioni kid, that got my attention. It didn’t take much digging to find out who you were. Then when photos appeared of you and Grayson in theGlobe, you could have heard my cheers in Florida.”
“My success is no reflection on you,” I say with a barely concealed snarl. “I owe you nothing. Everything I learned, I learned in spite of you, not because of.”
“Look…” The man takes a step toward me and I stand my ground, not moving an inch, just glaring down at him like he’s a piece of shit that rolled onto my property in the wind. “I didn’t come here to fight with you. Look at me. I’m getting old.”
I hear the car door close softly behind me and gentle footsteps on the gravel. Sera reaches my side and slips her warm hand into mine.
Leo Senior’s gaze slides to her and his lips curl. “You have a wife now. A beautiful Castellano girl.”
The fuck?How much digging did he actually do? His knowledge of who my wife is makes my blood run cold.
“Believe or not, I want a family.”
I tip my head a fraction. I did not hear that correctly.
“Not more kids of my own of course,” he says, revealing more stained teeth with his dark chuckle. “But I’ve realized these last few years what’s important. It isn’t money, it isn’t power or notoriety.”
Not that you’ve managed to gain any of those things, I think.
“It’s family. It’s seeing the fruits of your labor—wives, husbands, grandkids. I’ve missed out all these years and I know it’s my own fault. I’ve come here for forgiveness. I want you to forgive me, Andreas, and allow me back into your life.”
Sera stands beside me like a comforting support, not saying a word but holding my hand firmly. She trusts whatever I’m about to do.
“If you realized this in the last few years and you always knew where Benito was, why didn’t you make your approach sooner?”
He shrugs. “I thought you were dead. If you’d died after running away from home, Benito would have killed me at first sight. It was only when I discovered your new identity I felt able to come here.”
“And why here? Why not visit Benito first?”
His shoulders drop and I see the energy drain from his person. “Because you’re my first-born. Benito always idolized you. I knew if I could win you over, Benito would bend more willingly.”
“And if I refuse to be ‘won over?’”
He inhales a scratchy breath. “I’ll make him awareof my existence, but I won’t expect him to go against his older brother.”
“Benito is an intelligent man,” I say, frowning, “He has a mind of his own. That’s not the reason you came to me first. You came here because I got rid of your outfit—I disbanded the gangs. You came here because I now rule Boston.”
