Chapter 12

Iwake to the sound of someone banging on the door. "Gabe, open up," Marcel yells from the hallway.

"Fuck off," I yell back, pulling Daisy tighter to me.

"You need to get out here," he adds, and I groan.

"Fuck me."

Daisy rolls over. Her eyes widen. "Shit," she hisses under her breath.

I smirk at her. "Go in the bathroom. I'll get rid of him," I tell her as Marcell continues to bang down the door.

"He can't see me here, Gabe," she stresses.

"You really think I'm going to let anyone get even a glimpse of your naked body?" I grunt at her as she pads over to the adjoining bathroom.

She shuts the door, and I chuckle when I hear the lock engage. She really is delusional if she thinks anyone could get past me to go in there and see her.

I grab a pair of shorts out of my bag. "Stop fucking hitting my door, Marcel, unless you want my fist to hit your face," I call out as his banging reaches obnoxious levels. Swinging it wide open a few seconds later, I land my glare on my younger brother. "Why the fuck are you banging my door down this early in the fucking morning?"

"Santo's losing it. I've been with him all night. It's your turn," he grinds out, the exhaustion evident on his face.

"What do you mean he's losing it? He was fine when I left last night."

Marcel peers over my shoulder into my room, and it's then that I see Daisy's dress scrunched up on the floor by my feet. "Well, if you weren't preoccupied," he says, raising a single eyebrow. "You'd have noticed that he started losing it about an hour after Gio and El went to their room for the night."

"Wait here." I slam the door in my brother's face. Walk over to my bag, pull out a shirt, and throw it on over my head. I then tap on the bathroom door and wait for Daisy to open it. "I gotta run out. Go back to sleep." I lean in and kiss her forehead.

"Where are you going?" she asks me.

I haven't told her much about Santo, or about how I seem to be the fixer of the family lately. I haven't wanted to tell her all the shit that's currently going on. It's not the kind of shit she needs to hear.

"Something came up," I tell her instead while slipping my feet into my shoes.

I open the door. Marcel is leaning up against the wall. He follows me down the path to Santo's room. "So Daisy, huh? Thought it was a onetime thing?" he asks me.

"Shut it. You didn't see anything. You don't know anything," I tell him.

"Oh, it's like that." He laughs. "Fine, I didn't see the exact same dress Daisy was wearing on your floor this morning."

"I mean it, Marcello. She doesn't want people to know."

"And you do? El is going to give you hell if she finds out. She was very vocal about us not fucking her friends."

"It's not like that," I say. At least it's not for me anyway. Daisy isn't there yet, but she will be.

"So, I can assume you'll be the next one exchanging vows."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," I grunt, then quickly redirect the conversation. "What's Santo been doing?"

"Besides drinking himself stupid? He's talking to Shelli. It's like he can see her or at the very least it's like he thinks he can. It's fucking creepy." Marcel shivers.

"What if he can?" I ask. "I mean, no one knows for sure, right?"

"Yeah, I'm not buying it. His head is messed up. He needs help, like professional help. Not the sort we can give him," Marcel says.

When we reach Santo's room, Vin is already standing there. He stomps out a joint as we approach. "Don't let Gio see you doing that," I tell him.

"Good thing he's too busy playing house then." Vin laughs, the stench of weed wafting off him. I should probably give him the talk. Tell him drugs are bad and all that, but knowing what I know now, I can't bring myself to do it. If a little bit of weed helps the kid deal with his shit, then so be it. There are so many worse habits he could take up. So many worse vices he could partake in.

I walk into Santo's room and find him staring at the wall. He's just sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the fucking wall. "Santo, you good?" I ask him.

His head whips around, and there's a huge smile on his face. "Shelli's here. Come and say hello, Gabe. She's back," he says, before returning his focus to the wall.

I glance over at Marcel and Vin, who both shrug at me in return. Okay, maybe this is worse than I originally thought. I lower myself down next to Santo. "Hi Shelli," I say.

"She's come back," Santo tells me again.

"Yeah? Did she say why she left?" I ask him.

His smile drops. "No. Why'd you leave, Shelli?" he asks the empty space.

I wonder if his seeing her could be a good thing. Maybe his subconscious can find a way to say goodbye. "What'd she say? I didn't hear her," I press him.

"She said she didn't want to, but it's okay because she's back now," he tells me with a nod.

He smells like a brewery. Maybe we need to get rid of the fucking alcohol, which is going to be hard, considering he's the one running our new whiskey line.

"Oh, good. Maybe you and Shelli should get some rest, mate. We've got a plane to catch in a few hours," I say before pushing up to my feet.

"Yeah, good idea." His words slur as he falls sideways on the bed, his eyes slowly closing when he adds, "Make sure Gio knows Shelli's coming home."

I walk out of the room, Marcel and Vin following close behind, and click the door closed. "What the fuck was that?" I ask them.

"That was our brother finally losing any sense of reality he had left," Vin says.

"We need to find a way to help him. We can't let him continue to spiral," Marcel says, folding his arms over his chest.

"We need to get him to pull back on the drinking. Let's start with that," I tell them. "When we get home, we need to find more shit for him to do. Give him shit to occupy his time."

"Might be a good start," Marcel agrees.

"What if it doesn't work? What if he's lost and we can't get him back?" Vin asks.

"We don't give up on each other. Ever. If he can't fight for himself, then we fight for him. We will find a way to get him back," I promise my youngest brother.

One thing our father was never successful in doing was pitting us against each other. Not from a lack of trying either. Our bond as brothers was always too strong. We made a promise to each other a long time ago that we'd always stick together. And I don't intend to ever break that promise.

"You two go. I'll stay and make sure he falls asleep," I tell Marcel and Vin. They both look like shit and likely haven't slept all night.

When I pop my head through the door an hour later, I can hear Santo snoring. He's finally passed out. I click it closed and head back to my own room. All I want to do is climb back into bed with Daisy.

She helps me forget about all the other shit happening in my life. I wonder if that's why I'm so pulled to her? Because she's the one thing that gives me a tiny moment of actual peace. When I'm with her, I'm not Gabe De Bellis, the mobster. I'm just Gabe. A guy. Me.

I open the door and find the bed empty. Walking into the bathroom, I find it empty too. Her dress is gone, so are her shoes. I scroll through my phone until I find her number. I try to call her, but after the third dial tone, it goes to voicemail. She declined my fucking call.

Me:

Where did you go? I checked my bed, where you should be, and it's empty.

Daisy:

Something came up.

Fuck, I knew she wasn't impressed with that response I gave her this morning. She's the one who insisted on keeping this casual, no serious talk, no getting to really know each other. Not that those boundaries have stopped me from falling.

Shit, have I fallen?

I don't know what it is I feel. All I know is that when I look at the bed and she's not in it, I don't fucking like it.

I throw my phone down and start packing up my shit. We're leaving this island in a few hours, and I plan to make sure she's stuck sitting right the fuck next to me on the flight back. I don't care if she stares daggers at me the whole time or ignores my attempts to make conversation. I need to be close to her and I'm tired of hiding it.