Page 79 of Sinful Mafia Prince

“Not really, but I’d like to think that the family the Fiores sent you off to treated you well.”

Luca frowned. “I’m in medicine. They hardly treated me bad.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know.” Luca shook his head and faced the window. “But I don’t want to think about that. Don’t you understand? This whole thing has been one fucked-up thing after another, but now I’m supposed to go home and wrap my head around the fact that everything I’ve ever known was a lie? That these people who said they were my parents were playing a part? That their kindness, their love, wasn’t real? I can’t… I don’t know what to do with that. Do they really love me? Or were theypaidto love me?”

Dom’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel as he stared at the road ahead. The sadness and confusion in Luca’s voice only added to the guilt he already felt for having uprooted the kid’s entire life.

When Luca remained silent, Dom reached across the console and took his hand. “Knowing you and who you are, I would say it’s a pretty safe bet that they love you very much.”

Luca raised those wide, soulful eyes to his, and Dom tightened his grip.

“You’re smart, inquisitive, brave—”

Luca snorted.

“What? You don’t think you’re brave?”

“I think I ask too many questions and have a knack for getting myself in trouble.”

Dom’s lips twitched. “Well, that’s true too. But you are incredibly well balanced, all things considered.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment coming from the reigning Mafia prince but…thanks?”

“It’s a compliment,” Dom said. “You see, that’s the one thing I have never been able to accomplish—balance. I function on one plane of existence, one set of emotions, and that’s to be powerful. In position and emotion. You can never look weak in my worldorhave a weakness.”

“Because someone might exploit it?”

“Right.”

Silence fell between them, but as the seconds passed by, Dom’s heart began to pound a little harder. He knew that if he was going to put himself out there,ifhe was going to give Luca the choice his father had talked of, he first needed to tell Luca how he felt.

“You’re my weakness. My weakness, my strength, the one fucking thing that makes no sense yet all the sense. You are the only one who has ever made mewantsome kind of balance in my life, and it pisses me off that I can’t have it.”

“So…this is the end,” Luca said. “I really won’t see you again after this?”

“I think that’s for the best, don’t you?” But before Luca could respond, Dom squeezed his hand. “You don’t want any part in this. And I’ll never force you to do something you don’t want to do ever again.”

He could hear the soft hitch in Luca’s breath, and it hit him harder than any bullet could’ve.

“But you’re doing it now,” Luca said. “You’re making the choice for me to go home.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve wanted all this time?”

“Well…yes, but…”

“But you’re confused.”

“Yes.”

Dom rubbed his thumb over Luca’s. “Makes sense. Ididkidnap you.”

Luca let out an unexpected burst of laughter. “And locked me in a basement.”

“And locked you in a basement.” Dom pulled off the highway and started to weave his way through the beautiful streets of New Haven.

“Let’s not forget the death threats.”

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