16. Sal

We makeit the whole way to Ireland before Gia deigns to talk to me again.

By that time, all of the anger is gone, faded from me like the setting sun on the ocean. In its place, however, is the overwhelming realization that I have to let this go.

Gia doesn't want me.

Or I guess she might want me. But she doesn't want me the same way I want her.

After seeing her interact with the French guy, it's clear to me that Gia wants people she can keep at a distance. She needs men who she can hang out with for a little while before moving on. People who don't have any sense of permanence in her life.

People she can leave.

That isn't me.

I thought that I'd accepted that between us, there really can't be a future. We can have something like this.

Sex on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Fucking each other while the sea tears at our skin.

We can do this.

But Gia will never want something more.

The thought is… heartbreaking. And surprising. I thought that maybe, we could make this work. Her reaction to my… proclivities really showed me that we could have it all.

The sex and the love.

However, her reaction earlier to me, and the more domestic moment we shared, makes it clear.

She doesn't want this.

Not one fucking bit.

The port is coming into view, and I know I need to grab Gia to get ready for entry.

We're gonna have to bribe the hell out of some customs officers, but my staff know the drill. They'll know exactly what to do.

All that's left is for me to find Marco.

Footsteps on the teak let me know that Gia's approaching. I smell her first, the expensive Gucci perfume and something uniquely Gia caressing me, singing to my very soul.

God.

I fucking want her.

It kills me to want her like this and know that I'll never be able to have her.

"I see why people wax poetic about these fucking cliffs," she says, announcing her presence.

I don't respond.

Gia trots over, leaning next to me on the rail. "Sorry," she says plainly.

My eyes slide over to her.

She doesn't look back at me. "I was a little rude earlier."

"A little?"

"Don't push it. I just…I'm not used to stuff like… that."

"Like what, Gia?"

"Like you being… when you… I don't want to get all the mushy stuff," she blurts.

I turn so I'm facing her. "The mushy stuff?"

"Yeah. Like the cuddles and sweetness and…" she trails off.

There's a note of longing in her voice that I mark.

"It's a lot," she whispers as the port comes fully into view.

I don't respond.

* * *

The bribes happen easily.Money greases palms here in Ireland the same as it does anywhere else.

Before long, we're bundled into a car that I rented, hurtling down a road that's too small toward the best guess we have to where Marco would be.

After going over the footage for the six hundredth time, Gia and I identified a logo. For a bar, in a town outside of Dublin.

The Drunk Pony.

It's ridiculous. It sounds like a parody, like something you'd see in a movie, but sure enough, the bar is there as we pull up to it. I park the car, tossing the keys to Gia, who smoothly puts them in her Chanel bag.

Our seamless movements tug at my heart.

Why can't she see this? Why can't she see how good we are together? It kills me that Gia keeps fighting me on this when it's something that most people don't see ever in their lifetimes.

Or maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe Gia has that type of response with everyone.

And I, as always, am no one special.

"What if he's not here?" she whispers.

I shrug. "Then we'll ask around. Surely one annoyingly smug Italian American has made some kind of impression on the locals."

She smirks. "Yeah. They do tend to do that."

I pretend she's not flirting with me.

The first hour rolls by, and we each have a pint. Another one comes and goes, and nothing. Gia's flitting around the room, chatting and schmoozing with the locals.

She gets up on stage once the karaoke kit comes out and belts out a surprisingly in-tune version of "Sweet Caroline," much to the joy of the crowd.

I can't help but smile too. She really is in her element in stuff like this.

She thrives on chaos. On people. On the thrill of the chase.

I could never take that from her.

We're both on pint number four, carefully administered with food and water so we aren't drunk, when Gia sucks in a breath.

"Look," she whispers.

Marco is in the doorway.

And the woman from the video is with him.

Gia and I hunker down, making ourselves small in the corner near the door. He can't see us from where we are, because of how the tables are positioned. I look at her.

"You ready?"

She nods. We're both ready to confront him, and whoever his mystery woman is. I'm still a little enraged that, for all intents and purposes, Marco is fine.

While we've been trying to handle hell without him, he's been here.

Sitting with a pretty woman.

Drinking beer.

Just fine. Marco comes in, walking by us so close that I can feel the heat radiating from him.

The woman goes to sit, and he walks up to the bar, ordering a drink. He's about to take it to their table.

Now's as good a time as any.

I stand up, ready to follow him, when I feel a hand at my wrist.

Not Gia's.

A big, far more masculine hand.

I turn, putting myself before Gia. I look at the man, and my eyes widen.

This man is familiar.

As familiar to me as my own face.

Behind me, I hear Gia suck in a gasp.

"Dino," Gia breathes.

I square up with my brother. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Dino shakes his head. "Not here," he says. His voice is hoarse. It has been for a while now, ever since Elio beat the hell out of him for betraying Luna to the Irish.

Instinctively, I tuck up in front of Gia. If we need to make a run for it because Dino is going to pull something on us…

Dino sighs. "Not here. It will compromise him."

"Compromise who?"

He jerks his head toward the table in the corner of the pub. "Marco," he whispers.

What the hell is this?

There's a strange, sinking feeling in my stomach. "What do you know about why Marco is in Ireland."

Dino sucks in a huge breath. His nostrils flare as he exhales, and I can see the shiny scars on his neck, and the one that crosses his eyebrows, in the moonlight.

"He's here because of me," Dino whispers.

* * *

To saythat I don't trust my brother right now is an understatement. The understatement of the year, actually. Because it's more than that.

I'm about ten seconds from ripping Dino to pieces.

Dino brings us back to the main town, where he points out a little shop. We go up the stairs to the left of the front door and follow him into an apartment.

Apparently, he's been sleeping here ever since he overheard Elio say that we were headed to Ireland.

I'm still pissed about this. "And how are you explaining your absence to Elio, exactly?" I say to my brother.

"He knows what I'm doing."

Gia's eyes narrow. "And he didn't feel the need to tell us?"

Dino's glare meets hers. "Well, he didn't exactly have the chance since you were floating across the ocean and all that. Cell signal sucks, especially when you're probably hitching a ride on something that has enough sea hours to count as a pirate vessel."

Ah. Of course. Neither one of them thought that we'd be on a luxury yacht that gets cell phone signal from space.

I'm happy to keep it this way. If Dino has his secrets, so do I.

I fold my arms and glare at him. "Okay. So you came the whole way from New York, abandoning whatever duties Elio assigned you to. You're here presumably so you can stop us from finding Marco. What I don't know, and what you need to start doing right now, is telling me why."

Dino sighs. He gets up and grabs a phone, then settles back at his place on the rickety dining room table. "You can't be mad."

"We're way past that," I growl. "I'm definitely mad."

"At Marco, not me," Dino clarifies.

Now that's interesting.

"I know what I've done. And I know what I asked Marco to do. And I know we didn't tell you shit about it, but we didn't tell Caterina either because you two are…" he glances at Gia. "You have more loyalties than just the family."

That hurts. "Gia and Elio are family, Dino."

"Not like you and Caterina are," he murmurs.

"So, what makes you think that you're going to spin a story that I believe now? You just told me that you don't trust Gia and Elio. You think I'm going to believe that what you have to say is the truth?"

He nods. "Yeah. Because I'm gonna tell you the truth."

"Get to going, then," I snap.

Dino sighs. "When I was graduating high school, I went on that senior trip to Pensacola. Remember?"

I barely remember. "Sure."

"When I was there, I met a girl."

Oh for the love. "You met a girl? What, Dino? You have some kind of wife that you didn't tell anyone about?"

Dino shakes his head. "No. The girl is… we aren't married. We never were. We can't be together," he says quietly. "But she…"

Instead of saying it, I watch him grab his wallet. He unfolds a picture and puts it down on the table.

Gia and I lean forward to see what it is. "Holy shit, Dino," she breathes. "What the hell is this?"

"These are my children," Dino says. His voice softens as he talks about the two babies in the picture in front of us. "They're older than Luna by about two years. Maia and Angie."

The two twin babies on the page grin up at us.

There's no doubt in my mind that they're Dino's kids. They have his same mischievous eyes and his nose.

"This is an old picture," I say slowly.

He nods. "Yeah. Like I said, they're a little older than Luna."

"And you've kept this secret for how long?"

Dino sits back. "She told me as soon as she knew."

I blink. "Dino. That was fucking years ago."

"I know that, Sal. But what were we going to do? I'm a De Luca. My whole life was already laid out for me, and it was laid out for me in the New York area. Hers… it's pretty much the same. She was just at Pensacola for a spring break trip. Her father…" he shakes his head.

"If her father knew that the kids were mine, we'd all be fucking dead."

Carefully, I look up at him. "Dino," I say quietly. "Who is her father."

"I'm not going to tell you. I'm sure between you and Gia, you'll figure it out eventually anyways."

I snort. "You hid twin girls from us for almost ten years, Dino. I think at this point we've earned the right to know."

Dino shook his head again, firmer this time. "I really can't tell you, man. He's too dangerous."

Gia snaps to attention. "Who in the world is so dangerous that you can't tell us? We're the Rossi family, Dino. There's no one out there more dangerous than we are."

"You don't understand, Gia. We're small potatoes compared to this guy. He's… he runs an organization so big, it would make your head spin."

I can see the wheels turning in Gia's mind. There's a pretty short list of people whose criminal activities have a greater span that Elio's so I'm curious as well.

But that's not the point. "Okay. You have secret twin girls, with someone whose father is going to burn down the world, and our family, if he knew. What makes you think he didn't find out? And he's not the one behind the deaths of our parents? Or any of this shit?"

"Because you wouldn't be dealing with an amateur bomb going off," Dino says shortly. "You'd be fucking dead. We would all be dead. Every last one of us."

I narrow my eyes. "So how does this lead us back to Marco?"

Dino sighs. "Last year, about the time that I… that I revealed Luna's location to the Irish, something happened. A guy at a bar came up to me with a picture of… her. And the girls. He said he knew where they were. He knew who they were. And if I didn't come forward to testify against the family, he would expose them, and us, to my girl's father."

I don't miss the way he says my girl. "So, what did you do?"

"At first? I hedged. I tried to set off a chain of events that would distract him. He was a cop, after all. Someone who had the power to put us all away."

"And it didn't work."

"No," he shakes his head. "It didn't."

Dino hadn't been behind the attack on Luna at the farm. It had been an act of violence that seemingly didn't have a root cause. A motorcycle gang war gone wrong.

But he'd told the Irish afterwards about her, and about Caterina.

That was why he did it. To start a fire to distract this cop from his family.

"So, what did you do next?"

"I went to the only person who could fix it," Dino says dully. "I went to Marco. I told him about the girls and… her," he whispers.

It's fascinating that he hasn't revealed her name yet.

"And he said that he would do it. He'd testify and make the deal. But in exchange, none of us were going to be touched. He would give them information on a different case. A different organization. And we would all stay free."

My eyes widened. "Marco offered to narc?"

This is bad.

I would rather that he would be dead.

Dino's face is angry, and I know he feels the same way.

"He did. For me. To keep my girls safe. To keep all of us from getting locked away. Marco offered to testify for one reason and one reason only, Sal. To keep all of us out of jail."

"So why is Marco in Ireland?" Gia interjects.

Dino glances at her. "Marco isn't doing anything here other than biding time until the trial."

"Trial?"

I realize what he's saying about two seconds before he says it.

"Marco's in witness protection."