Page 58 of Dominance

Until he storms off, across the grass, his fists clenched at his sides.

One glance back shows me Vito’s family, frozen in shock, like a horrid, peaceful tableau painting.

This is reality. My reality.

So I chase after the only source of safety, security, that I have in this raging storm.

Adriano.

My hand thrusts out, reaching for him, needing to feel his presence. We make the side of the clubhouse before Adriano jerks his arm out of my hand.

“What is your problem?!” He rounds on me.

“My problem? You’re serious?” I’m backing up a step, clasping my hands at my chest.

“I am very serious. Andvery…done! With all of this!” Adriano stomps toward the nearest building, the pool shed out behind the hedges.

And like a fool, I follow.

“What are we doing, Gloria?”

“Trying to hold it together, mostly.”

“You’re doing a hell of a lot better a job than me. This…this wholething. Flirting with Senators, getting involved with bureaucratic power plays. Why? Why are you here?”

“Why areyouhere, Adriano? We’re all doing everything we can to navigate…him.”

“No. I am doing this to keep my brothers alive. To keep my family’s legacy, the members of my family as safe as I can. What the fuck are you doing here, Gloria? This isn’tyou.”

“And you know me so well?”

“I know who you really are. Who I met in Paris. But I’m having a really hard time reconciling the two people you show me!”

“Says the man who breaks knees for his brother’s killer? Who stays out all night and keeps secrets from everyone around him. Who talks in his sleep, says things that scare the shit out of me.”

Adriano’s eyes flash at that, a flinch of a snarl.

“Whatever I said, whatever you heard, I was drunk. Don’t put much stock in it.”

“They betrayed you. All of those people you call family. They threw you under the bus.” It’s a show of my hand, how much I’ve figured out, how much I’ve researched about the Diamantes.

I have to pray Adriano doesn’t use it against me.

“Yeah. They did. But my brother wants me to stay. Wants me to forgive. Because they are family.”

Wants? It almost shoots by me, the way he says it.

“And what, you just fall in line for him? A man who isn’t here fighting for them, or you?”

He clamps his jaw shut, his eyes widening at the slip.

“Please, Adriano. Talk to me.”

“I can’t. I can’t trust you. You’rehisfamily.”

“This is all an act. I thought my father was dead until just a few months ago.”

Adriano’s brow drops. Confused. Unsure.

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