CHAPTER THIRTEEN

brAXTON

“Son.”

“Hey Dad,” I say, answering his call.

Guilt floods me.

I want to tell him about the wedding today and have both my parents there, but it’s too dangerous.

Gianna has been upset, even though she understands almost more than anyone why she can’t tell her mother she’s getting married and have her mother there. And with her father dead, he’s not around to give her away.

It’s a lot and I’m trying to be understanding, while feeling guilty about my own family not being in the know.

Not that we’re having an actual wedding.

Today we are going to city hall.

When Gianna learned what her family had been involved with—namely the human trafficking—it had made her sick. Literally. She ran into the bathroom and threw up.

Planning today has been a curse but a good distraction for her. Plus, Connor said it was in my best interest to do it quickly, as the women in the crime families are treated as a commodity.

“Put a ring on it. Both of them,” he said.

Today is a very heavily guarded event, because of who she is. Then after, friends and my parents have been invited to what they think is a casual dinner.

There, we will announce we got married and apologize.

Not that I’m genuinely sorry for not putting anyone at risk. Not for a fucking second.

“Brax, we had a visitor earlier,” Dad tells me.

I slide on my jacket and force myself to stay interested. If this is another one of his squirrel stories, honest to god, it’s going to take at least thirty minutes.

“Oh, yeah? Hey I have to—”

“The mafia.”

What? WHAT?

What the fuck?

I freeze, my entire body going into defense mode.

“Are you alive?” I ask, then press my eyes closed at the stupid question. “I mean Mom. Is she...is she okay?”

“Yes. She’s okay. Shaken. We both are,” Dad tells me as I curse over and over.

“Fuck, okay. Shit. Stay right there. I’ll be there in a minute...”

Crap. I can’t go.

I have to be at city hall in thirty minutes.

But...

“They’re gone,” Dad says firmly. “I don’t think you need to come over, but son, they terrified your mother. And me if I’m being completely honest.”

Of course they did.

They would terrify anyone.

Especially an everyday middle-aged couple.

I start typing a text to Connor and he replies immediately.

Sending a team over there now. What’s the address?

I reply with their address.

“A security team is headed over now, Dad. They will announce they’re there and then remain outside. Just ignore them unless you need them.”

“Can we leave the house?” he asks, and I can hear the worry in his voice.

I blink, trying to think, my heart pounding.

“Yeah, of course,” I reply, not wanting to scare him anymore. Or make them feel like prisoners in their home.

But the truth is, I don’t know.

I need more information.

“Okay. Mom wants to come for dinner still,” Dad says.

That motherfucker.

I know who it was. Dante Baldassare.

Gianna’s brother.

“We want you here, too. The security team will shadow you on the way over, but it’s just a precaution,” I tell him.

Then, as I calm down, I ask for more details. “Did they say anything? What happened? Tell me from the start.”

Dad is quiet for a moment as my chest rises and falls rapidly.

Stay calm. They’re alive.

What the hell is Dante up to? First, he didn’t kill me. Then he visits my parents to fuck with me.

Perhaps he likes the game.

No one knows who this man really is. As the son of the mobster, Frank “The Fire” Baldassare and now the new boss, he has yet to show who he is as head gangster.

The man I met seemed intelligent, controlled, and, if my instincts were right, hiding his true feelings about a few things.

What those feelings are, I don’t know.

But he didn’t shoot me that night when shit began to go down, and I’ve lain awake night after night asking why.

“When a man does that—a gangster—you know he’s going to expect a big fucking favor,” Decker said a few nights ago.

“Word has it, Dante’s back at the house, but I can’t get confirmation of that. It’s a rumor, no sighting,” Nathan added.

So he’s come out of hiding.

He’s figured out the feds can’t touch him.

One thing is for certain, I need to marry Gianna fast. So it’s lucky I’m doing just that in an hour.

“He was looking for you. Wanted to know where you lived. Said you had his sister,” Dad replies.

Shit.

“What did you say?”

“I told him we didn’t have your address. Shit, Brax, the guys around him were armed with big fucking guns.” I cringe when Dad curses, as he very rarely does. “I nearly told him.”

I don’t blame him. And wouldn’t have if he did.

“Did they hurt you?” I grind my teeth, waiting for his answer.

“They pushed inside the house and looked for you both. Mom was crying, but I pulled her behind me. I wasn’t going to let them hurt her.”

Dad would give his life to protect my mother.

“You did good, Dad. I’m sorry this happened.” I wipe my hand over my face.

“He said he’s the head of the mafia. Is that true?”

Goddamn you Dante.

“Yeah, Dad. Gianna is his sister.”

More silence.

“What have you got yourself into, son?” Dad asks, and I hate hearing the judgment in his voice. He knows I went undercover to find my cousin Amy and free her from the human trafficking ring keeping her. The one run by the Baldassare’s.

And that the FBI helped us.

That’s all.

He doesn’t know that Gianna was promised to Leo Baldoni and that by taking her, I’ve upset the balance of things within these families.

Too bad.

I’m not giving her back. She’s not a fucking piece of luggage.

She’s my almost wife.

But these are my parents, and Dante has gone a step too far.

I need to get the Dark Kings together.