Page 40 of Ruthless Consequences

My gut told me he, or his father or grandfather, had been pressed about it before. But they refused to be taken.

Lilo…he had darkness in him. He was capable of things better left to the night. Michele knew it. But sometimes I wondered why Michele hadn’t tried to direct Lilo’s anger in a different direction. Lilo hadn’t started out in that life. He went to it because, I honestly thought, he refused to be rejected.

Carine tried to change his course with music. Which was why she always wanted to help “troubled” children with it. Lilo was a brilliant pianist, but it didn’t do anything for all the shit he bottled up inside. He needed a different kind of outlet. One that gave him a physical release.

That was never good enough for Michele, though. It was Valentino’s or nothing.

Maybe it could have been both for Lilo. But he felt shunned, and so he did something that was always expected of him.

He ran to the streets.

To someone who nurtured the beast in him instead of trying to keep it tamed behind bars. Paul Gallo.

Let it out occasionally, during controlled fights, and it could still live in the darkness. But deny it totally? It went wild with hunger. Gallo knew this and played on it.

Sometimes I resented Michele for not trying to go a different way with his son. I knew Carine did too. We’d talked about it. It was one way or no way for Michele. But again, Michele and Lilo were a lot alike.

Even though Michele’s eyes softened when he noticed me standing there, in the depth of those glistening dark eyes was defiance.

What was even more crazy, for me? I found the same safety in Michele’s eyes that I did in Lilo’s. Which made the situation so sad. They were the same country, made up of the same people, but separated by a battle line.

Michele swiped his arm across his sweaty brow. “Out of St. Joseph’s bread?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Mrs. Camerota wanted some for Sunday.”

“Always.” He grinned and went back to the fires.

He stopped me right before I walked out.

“You doin’ all right, kid?”

Maybe he asked because I was holding the bread in a vise-grip. Sesame seeds were stuck to my apron.

“I’m doing okay,” I said. “How about you?”

He shrugged. “She’s getting weaker.”

I could come up with a million things to say, but none of them would do. Michele was not a bullshitter. And that was exactly what my response would have been. Crap for the sake of something to say. We all knew Carine was getting weaker. She’d lived with the disease for years, but it had gotten worse. It was doing her body a lot of damage.

“Take that up,” he said, nodding to the bread. “Mrs. Camerota shouldn’t have to wait. She’s been a loyal customer for years. Her kids shop here now.”

I was tempted to respond with, “I know,” but I also know these Valentino men. No excuses, but he was using the truth to get me moving. Michele rarely brought up Carine and her disease, sometimes pretending like it wasn’t happening to save his own sanity, but occasionally he made blunt remarks that sent me stumbling back.

It was heart-wrenching to watch as both father and son learned how to let go.

It was beyond that to watch as Lilo stood on the outskirts of his family, struggling like Michele, but only growing closer to Carine. She was their shared link to the same world.

Once she was gone…it was hard to think about.

The outside air felt so sweet on my body as a light breeze swept past. I paused on the sidewalk and took a deep breath.

“What the fuc—” Something tried to lodge itself up my ass, and I whirled, ready to defend myself with a loaf of bread. I yanked it back before the dog could sniff it. “Pull him back, Ava!”

“I’m trying,” she said, through laughter. “But he wanted to say hello!”

“By putting his nose up my ass!”

She laughed even harder, jerking on the massive dog’s collar. “That’s what dogs do. That’s his way of sayinghello, beautiful. Just like his owner.”

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