Chapter Twenty-Two

Marius walked into the trailer after watching Blaine with the dogs for a few minutes when he'd arrived. Dante was waving to his husband as he threw the ball for Buster. "I'm going to be in a meeting, BB. Give us a little privacy, babe!"

"Sure, go ahead!"

The door closed them into Dante's simple trailer, and Marius wondered how Dante, who was used to finer things and big homes, was handling it. Not well, by the sound of it. "Sit there, or sit in the only other place to sit. I can't believe my home won't be started to be built until summer. This…could make me crazy."

"Dante, you're already crazy, but that's part of your charm," Marius said as he took a seat on the sofa, leaving the chair for Dante.

"That may be true, but I keep my real crazy contained most of the time. Bugs, wind, cold, and all this space? I don't know, I think I'm too used to cities and creature comforts."

"I will agree with you there, but…there are perks of this place."

Dante's grin told Marius that he knew how close the three of them had come. "It's going well with your men, then?"

After the previous night, he was swooning, it was so good. "It's good, yeah."

Rising from the chair, Dante said, "I wish it all was." He walked to the window to peer out at Blaine and the dogs. "I hate having him here. He was kidnapped before, you know?"

"You mentioned it, but I never knew the details."

"Long ago, Blaine and I met and fell in love while he was in a relationship with a man that was my enemy. Oh, he was part of our organization. My brother's oldest friend. He was gay, of course, and had taken another man before that, one that I also fell in love with. He was cruel to them both, Devin and Blaine." He sighed and walked back to the chair. "He fucked up a lot, and inadvertently got Blaine kidnapped and sent to the same dungeon as he'd sent Devin to years before. Devin had been released when Blaine was taken and he helped us to find Blaine, but…it took a toll. Blaine went to therapy for years after. The thought of someone taking him again enrages me to an extent that I won't be able to contain."

"We'll figure out who's doing this, Dante."

"Before it's too late? I'm not pointing fingers, Marius. You're a good man, the best your organization has to offer, and that's saying a lot. From a small family in one state, you held your own against aggression for almost a century. You ran Ohio with honor and with fairness. I always appreciated that and admired your family greatly."

"Having to ask for help was against everything for us, Dante, but I'm glad we did. Being brought into the Carrillo organization, it helped us secure our family for the duration. We're very grateful."

"I love your family, Marius. Dex is amazing, and I am so anxious for his arrival, though now I fully understand why it won't be until spring. I wish I'd convinced Blaine to wait. Though, he's very happy, even with the snow. He says the dogs love it."

"All that fur, I can guess they would. Dante, we'll get all this shit worked out. I've been…lax on my duties."

"No, you've been falling in love with two beautiful men. Believe me, if anyone can attest to how that affects a man, it's me."

"Now that is out of the way," he said, laughing, "I can get on to more of my duties."

"Find the one or those people doing this, Marius and you'll never have to worry about money or favors or anything."

Marius nodded slowly. "Dante, I'll do what I have to. I have two men to worry about."

Up again, pacing some, Dante mused, "This country here, this open, wild state we're residing in, it reminds me of the stories I've heard from my grandfather and his brothers. The beginnings of the mafia, the reasons it started, both in the old country and this new one. How the people had to come together, worked together, and for one another. The police hated Italians. The government did too. We were terribly discriminated against, like the Irish and then, of course the atrocities against anyone darker skinned than us. Like in the cities, we made our own neighborhoods to stand together and help one another. We became the law, the banks, the social services. We dealt with child abuse, with people getting thrown into the streets because they couldn't pay rent. Now, here, where people hate the government, where freedom is the war cry of the land, we're back where we started."

Marius knew Dante was intelligent, and thoughtful, but his mind went far beyond what Marius could guess. "We're on our own again."

"Yes. We will be the law. We will be the support and the family that Little Italy became in New York. This is our family home now. Not just the Carrillo family, but the Monarcos and other families. The Devil's Rebels motorcycle club and all of them, and the countless others that exist and thrive under our umbrella. I've called the biker clubs that work with us. They're ready to not only bring up a significant number of their members but also workers. A lot of the men in those clubs are already construction workers, but they'll all be armed as well. They'll double as extra security and labor as well. They were, surprisingly, happy to help."

"Why surprisingly?"

"Marius, please! We're crazy enough to want to move here, but most people these days like food delivered to their front doors too much."

That reminded him. "The stagecoach idea of Dallas's, have you thought much on it?"

"I gave that thought process to Jace, but he's so excited about it, he's planning four of them right now. He had Roland show him how to draw on his iPad and he's already designed the ones for horses to pull and others that will run without horses. It's brilliant."

"There's so much to work out, Dante. I can't imagine how overwhelmed you feel."

Blaine knocked on the door and Dante hurried to let him in. "Sorry, babe, we were just talking."

"I just need some water. They've been running me like crazy. I won't need to do my yoga today."

"Shame, I love watching you bend."

"Stop that," he said, blushing.

After he got his glass of water, he left the trailer again, and Dante sighed. "I love that man more every single day. That's how you know, Marius."

"I am just starting to realize that I love them at all. I'm not quite where you are."

"Yes," he said, reminiscing. "That new love. There's nothing like it, really, but then, after years of seeing the same face each morning, seeing eyes that are filled with love for you, that's unsurpassed. I was quite the slut in my youth, now other men can't even grab my attention." He lost his dreamy look and whispered, "Well, I look occasionally, but…"

"I get it, Dante. You're the best husband in the world and we will all look to you for that kind of advice too."

"Oh, don't do that! I'm only as good as I am at this because of my partner, and you've met him. There's not a purer soul in the world."

Blaine was the sweetest man he'd ever met. "I've heard stories of your youth, Dante. You're a legend, and not only for your collection of fine men."

"Ah. My temper, you mean."

"Yes. That."

Dante chuckled and confessed, "I was such an ass. Antonio, my God, what my brother had to do to cover for me. The man is a fucking saint."

"Is he happy to be back at the helm?"

"No. He's trying to convince his wife they need more kids. She said if he can give birth to them, they'll have all the kids he wants. He went back to the office."

They laughed at that. "He was a great don, Dante. I know you're nervous about not being with him right now. He's legendary too, though, no disrespect to him at all, and I'm not kissing up, but you were…the best."

"I wanted legitimacy like all the dons through history have wanted. I wanted our family to survive all of it, and that is the best I could want. We are eighty percent legitimate, but that's about as far as we can go without becoming more well known than we are. Besides, stepping into and resolving conflicts with a minimum of blood, that's always been my first goal. But this? If anyone wants to see my temper, the old one before Blaine tamed me? They'll keep fucking with me. I guarantee I won't call upon you and your people or the bike clubs, any of you. I'll take care of it myself."

Marius had no doubts about it. "Leave some for me too. I'm tired of seeing my partners and my employees afraid."

"Oh, if there's any left, it's all yours."

Marius left Dante's and met with the few men he had in Montana of the Monarco clan. They weren't related to him except one, Sam, who was a second cousin. The others were beefy men that were about to freeze to death. "I'll just be a minute, but we have to get a lot more serious around here. I'm going out with the manager of the ranch again today to check for signs of those men that are missing. You all get into cars, trucks, whatever, and take someone who knows the area to tell you where to drive. Watch out for everyone. That's all I can ask."

They all agreed with grunts and bobs of their heads. He got back into the truck and did his own grunting. "Fucking morons."

But they were dangerous morons. They each were crack shots, and one was an explosive expert.

He met Dallas at the office and sat in front of the desk as he smiled without looking over to him. "Hey, baby."

"Hey, baby."

"I'm almost done with these numbers. Did I mention I hate fucking math?"

"But you love fucking me, so that equals it out."

He hit enter and sat back in the desk chair. "There. I'll send these to Neil so he can pass them along to Dante and we can get out of here." He finally looked at him fully, scowling at his leather jacket. "Is that seriously what you're wearing again?"

"Well, yeah! Listen, you Montana boys aren't the only ones that deal with winter. I've worn this jacket and others like it every winter in Ohio for years. I'm just fine, thank you."

"Whatever. I'm not giving you my coat when you start freezing your balls off."

"You can warm them in your mouth in that case. Let's go."

Dallas got up chuckling, but he grabbed a scarf off the hook by the door and wrapped it around Marius's neck. "There. At least you'll be a little warmer."

Marius kissed him seductively. "I know a surefire way to warm up."

"Insatiable pig. We have scouting to do. Get your fine ass to the stable."

They walked by some ranch hands that were gathered around a barrel that had fire licking the rim of it. "You all don't have anything to do that would keep you warm?" Dallas asked as they passed.

"Yessir," Felix said, one of the hands that had recently been hired. Marius had seen a few new faces at the place, and that made him nervous. One of the new faces that he didn't even know the name of slunk off in the other direction. He was a big man, nearly bald with a simple ring around the sides and back of his head wearing a corduroy coat.

Marius walked down the line of stalls in the stable, talking to a few of the horses. One poked his head out of the stall to greet him, or so he thought. As he reached out to pet the beautiful blond stud, Dallas appeared as if by magic and slapped his hand away from the horse.

"What the…?"

"That horse is California King. He's vicious as fuck."

"Like the mattress size?" Marius asked, laughing.

"The name's funny. I'll grant you that, but he was named before Harrison bought him. He'd bite the fingers off you if given half a chance."

Marius stared at the horse, and in that big brown eye, he saw something kismet. The horse had that same wild look in his eye as Marius had seen in the mirror for so long. Ignoring Dallas, he moved slowly and set his hand on the horse"s nose.

The horse didn't move to bite him, Instead, he lowered his head and moved backward back into the stall.

"Well, I'll be."

"We, uh, understand each other," he whispered, watching the horse in the shadows watching him. "Viciousness is sometimes inherent, but mostly it's from seeing things we should never have seen, done things we should never have done."

He was gently turned, and Dallas touched his face. "We have pasts. They don't matter. What our futures are, that don't matter much either, I guess. It's now, and right now, you're a good man, Marius."

His voice was hoarse, it hurt to say it, but he had to. "You don't know me yet, Dallas."

"I think I do. Until that changes, I won't allow you to talk shit about the man…about…"

"I get it, Dallas. Don't hurt yourself."

Dallas showed him to a horse that he said was as gentle as could be. "Name's Gentleman Jack. He's a damn good horse."

"He's the one we rode the other day, right?"

"Good eye. Yes, he's the one. Daisy Mae is another good, gentle horse. I'll take them both and we'll figure out how to get your riding."

He was nervous about getting on a horse for a solo run, but he knew he'd have to eventually. They got the horses saddled and packed up with a few supplies they'd need for the day, Dallas walking him through all of it. "I'll show you how to care for the horse after."

"Aftercare. Got it."

"Not quite the same."

He was pulled onto the back of the horse Dallas sat and he held on again too tightly.

"Can I breathe this time?"

Marius smiled and loosened his grip. "Just didn't want to fall in a pile of snow."

"Better than cactus."

They took off east, in the same direction they'd previously headed, only they skipped the fun at the cliff. Marius started to freeze, but he'd never admit it. He'd always hated those big heavy coats people wore in the harsh Ohio winters. He was a big man, and they made him look like he weighed six hundred pounds. Still, he'd give his left nut for one of those coats right then.

Forcing himself not to shiver was the problem. If Dallas so much as guessed he was cold, Marius would never hear the end of it. The good thing was, however, he and Dallas were in a relationship of sorts. They had yet to actually define it, but it was a relationship, nonetheless. If he cuddled a little closely to him…it was simply heat between them, not Marius freezing to death.

Off to the north they rode, and freezing or not, being with Dallas was great. The guy never failed to point out some amazing sight or another, a hawk taking off, the wingspan so long, he looked more like a private plane ascending.

The ponds around the place, not to be confused with the lakes, were frozen over, so when they stopped to water the horses, Dallas had to break through the ice closest to shore, letting the horses drink their fill.

"This place is so pretty, but damn, it's big. I did the math. Sixty-four square miles."

"Yup. But there are a bunch more than us looking this time, right?"

"Dante sent out a bunch of our guys, you sent some out, so yeah, more than us."

Dallas moved closer to him and held him. "Your lips are blue."

Marius ducked his head as he said, "I'm fine."

"You're freezing."

"No, no, it's all good, baby. I'm good."

"You are insane. I have a hoodie you can wear under this. It would help."

Stubborn to a fault, his mom said a million times, he denied it again. "I'm good! Stop worrying and give me the canteen."

Dallas grabbed the canteen off the saddle and handed it over to him. "Here, pain in the ass."

"Not today so far, but I'm hopeful."

Chuckling darkly, Dallas purred, "Later. Today is work."

"You're a mean cowboy. I thought you all were so pleasant and carefree."

"Then you haven't met a lot of cowboys. Let's get back on the trail."

"God, you guys really say trail?"

Dallas snatched the canteen from him to replace on the saddle. "What would you call it?"

He was at a loss, but that never stopped him. "Dirt highway? Rocky road? Hey, maybe that's how they got the name for the ice cream!"

"Jesus. You're stubborn as fuck, you know that?"

"I've been told."

Dallas took his hand, and Marius thought he'd broken through to the man, and they'd have a little fun, but instead, Dallas led him to the mare. "We're gonna give it a shot. The trail…sorry, the dirt highway is straight and steady from here for about three miles. A good place to start you learning to ride."

He felt his heart jump into his throat, the pulse pounding there about to shake his brain loose. "There's…there's rocks."

Dallas stopped moving, stopped blinking even and simply stared at him.

"What?"

"Rocks. There are rocks."

Marius pointed to a particularly sharp one right off the trail. "Look! I fall on that, and I won't be sucking dick, I'll be sucking dinner through a straw at best!"

Dallas huffed, "Jesus, Mary and the seven dwarves. Here I thought you were a tough guy."

"Get me in the middle of a shootout and you'll see tough guy. Let me punch someone, you'll see. This horse is…big, and I'm on the back of it, not knowing what the fuck I'm doing there and say he hears a snake or something? I'm off that bitch quicker than you can say jump and I'm landing on that rock."

Dallas chuckled and waved him to follow. Marius did, cautiously. They walked around to the horse's head and Dallas set a hand on her nose, petting all the way up between her eyes. "Get her to know you a little. Say hello. She's a real sweet girl."

His hand shook and not in fear. He was freezing, but petting the horse helped. "Good…girl? Right?"

"Mare, yes, she's a girl."

"Okay, Mary. Good girl."

"Mary?"

Marius rolled his eyes. "You called her that."

"Mare. A female horse is a mare. Her name is Daisy Mae."

"Fuck, I did hear you say that. Sorry, Daisy. You're still a good girl."

Daisy seemed to take to him okay, so Dallas then had him mount the mare. He grabbed the horn and the horse herself and stepped into the foothold of the saddle. As he hefted himself up, he realized once again how high up he was from all those sharp rocks on the ground. "You'll tell me if you hear a snake or whatever, right?"

"Yes, dear. I won't let you get bucked off. I'm going to lead Daisy. You'll be behind me. Okay?"

"Okay, okay, and do me a favor and don't tell Ruben what a pussy I am."

"If he doesn't know by now, he won't find out from me," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Funny, Dallas. Real funny."

They took off, Marius holding on with both hands to the saddle horn. Dallas bitched at him to take the reins, but Dallas was leading him. He didn't need to. "You can make her go or stop, right?"

"You have to learn. Take the reins, and if you do start to fall, which is very unlikely, try to roll into a ball, protecting your head and face, which is mostly done on instinct anyway. Knees up to your chest. Roll away once you hit the ground so the horse doesn't stomp you."

"Stomp me? Are you fucking kidding?"

"Good God," he said, laughing.

They traveled along at least a mile, and the rocking of the horse as he walked, the sight of Dallas on the horse in front of him, looking through his binoculars, looking fine as fuck, well, he calmed a lot. His hands stopped shaking, eyes fixed on the terrain instead of the horse, he rode along like he wouldn't fall any second. In fact, when they reached where the trail forked, Dallas stopped them, staring off through the binoculars in all directions. "No buzzards anywhere. Good sign."

There was no trail, but through two thick stands of trees, he could see a field of chaste snow, blindingly bright in the sunlight. "Let's head that way. I gotta see that field."

"That leads to one of the lakes. We could stop over there and have some lunch. Ruben brought us some sandwiches Vic made us."

Marius's stomach growled at the sound of food. "I skipped breakfast. That sounds great."

"The ground is a little bumpier. You can handle it?"

"If not, believe me, I'll holler. Loudly."

"You got it," he said with a wink. Follow me."

"You have a rope attached to the horse. Do I have a choice?"

"Nope."

They rode up the little hill, Marius leaning forward possibly too much, but it made him more comfortable. When they got to the top, they started through the trees he'd seen and emerged to a beautiful field that was a perfect sheet of white. "No tracks?"

"It probably froze over and the animals that have come here weren't heavy enough to break it."

Marius nodded and reached into his jacket pocket for his sunglasses. The snow was blinding with the sun shining on it. Even the trees didn't cast much shade toward the center and western parts of it. The crunch of the frozen snow as the horses stepped through it was deafening, but somehow beautiful. The wind blowing over the field of ice made it colder than he'd been yet.

Dallas stopped and told Marius, "Pull her reins," when his horse didn't stop too. Marius asked him, "A snake? Some weird big cat?"

"Blood," he said ominously.