Page 49 of Dirty Deeds

“Maybe that’s true, but now we know he’s unhinged.” He takes another swig of his beer. “He’s not going to let her walk away, Enzo. He needs her too much. He’s got one scandal after another ready to come out and when that happens his campaign is going to be shot to shit. He’s also not going to let you have her. She did a good job trying to cover things up, and maybe she planted a seed of doubt, but when he finds out she made that statement, he’s going to know you two are involved.”

“By the time the case goes to court all his crimes will have already been exposed.”

“The case doesn’t have to go to court for him to learn she went against him. His lawyer is going to get the discovery way before that.”

I narrow my eyes, unsure where he’s going with this.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I see the way you look at her and son, you ain’t never looked at another woman like that before.”

I sigh. “I like her.” Lifting my chin, I stare him straight in the eye. “A lot. The first time I met her, I got this crazy feeling in my gut. Then I saw her wedding ring and I pushed her to the back of my head. Six months later, I’m Christmas shopping and she’s in the middle of Macy’s picking up underwear from the floor, arguing with a security guard because he thought she robbed a bunch of panties. She tells me she’s divorced, and my brother sees the way I look at her, just the way you are now, and he invites her to dinner. She doesn’t show or at least I think she doesn’t. I go to leave, and I find her in the parking lot. I bring her inside and I have the best fucking night of my life. The conversation, the connection, the ease I felt just sitting across from her watching her eat leftover calamari—it was like nothing I ever experienced before. Then I wake up the next morning and she’s gone. The only evidence of that being real and not a dream was the scent of her perfume on the pillow.”

“Why didn’t you go after her then?”

“Because I don’t chase women. I look at you and see a man who has lived a lot of life, someone who has made mistakes with his club and his family, but you always tried to right them. You divorced Patty and felt like a failure, so you moved on. You married my mother, had me and tried to create the perfect family. But you never figured how to balance the club and your family, so you got divorced again. You met Sophie and she was nothing like Patty or my mother, and you thought maybe that was the trick, so you married her and tried the family thing again, giving us Frankie.”

“I’m aware of my failures, son, I don’t need a reminder.”

“I’m not trying to throw them in your face either, I’m trying to make you understand me better. Dad, in all that time, I don’t remember you ever being happy.”

“I wasn’t,” he admits.

“Until you started with Maria. It took you what forty-eight, forty-nine years to find peace, but it didn’t take you that long to realize you had it once you did, did it?”

“No, I don’t suppose it did. But, son, Maria wasn’t tied down. She didn’t come with the kind of baggage your woman has. That girl is a flight risk if I ever saw one.”

That may be true, but that’s only because she’s scared for her brother and for me. Once the dust settles, I think Danica will prove she’s a woman who puts in the work. She put in the work with a man who didn’t deserve her and stuck by his side through thick and thin. Imagine what she’ll do for a man who worships her.

I stare at my father.

“No, Dad, Maria came with a cancer diagnosis, and you stepped the fuck up. You didn’t run and not because you were tired of running, but because you were finally at peace, and she was worth the work. You needed to carry her for a while, but you knew once the storm cleared, she’d be all in and you’d carry each other.”

That effectively shuts him up for a minute and I take another gulp of my beer.

“When you know, you know,” he says, pausing to study me for a moment. “And you know.”

I pull the beer bottle away from my lips and nod.

“I know.”

“Then I’ve got my answer.”

My brows pinch together in confusion.

“I don’t remember there being a question.”

He drains the rest of his beer, setting the empty bottle on the counter.

“There wasn’t. I came here questioning my next move, and now I know what I have to do. A Knight from another charter is in the same prison as Derrick and is under protection. I’m going to sit down with the president of his club and ask that same protection be extended to Derrick. I think Matthews is full of shit, that his threats are garbage, but if it gives your girl peace of mind to know he ain’t getting anywhere near her brother, then we’ll do it.”

I keep telling myself I don’t want to wind up like my old man, but he ain’t all that bad. Maybe we’re meant to follow in our parents’ footsteps and learn from their mistakes. Maybe I don’t get married four times like he did, but I hope I have a big heart and the sense to use it just like him.

“Thank you.”

He nods. “Don’t thank me, thank your brother. Nico told me Danica isn’t going away and I should stop pushing for that. So that’s what I’m going to do. But be smart. Don’t get caught. You can’t have her if you’re behind bars.”

I laugh at that. He turns to see himself out of my kitchen but pauses at the doorway, turning to glance at me over his shoulder. “And get yourself some real beer. That shit was flat.”

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