I sat in a chair by the floor length windows, looking out at the slowly brightening sky in the distance. My gaze hooked on the glimmering lights of street lamps and cars which lined the edge of the bay as I waited for the sun to crest the distant waves. After our run-in with Clarissa, Frankie had decided it was best to lay low again for a while. I trusted that bitch about as much as I trusted a snake in the grass. She would no doubt be more than happy to slide a knife into my back given the opportunity, so I had to trust my brothers to deal with her and to track down Duke for me too.
I sighed as I stared at the view. I wasn’t even sure why a single text had woken me from my sleep, but I guessed even on a subconscious level I’d been waiting for it. The results of my DNA swabs. I’d sat and stared at the unread message for a long time before tapping on the little icon to open it. And the relief I’d felt at having real, undeniable proof of who I was had overwhelmed me. For a moment there, I’d feared the result, terrified that it would all turn out to be just some new lie designed to torture me. Because I couldn’t bear that, after weeks spent getting to know my brothers, my niece and being made to feel like a part of a real family for the first time in my life, I didn’t think I would have been able to cope with hearing that I wasn’t really their flesh and blood.
So when I’d finally opened it and found that confirmation of my identity staring back at me, I’d been overcome with relief to find that it was all true. I was born Angelo Romero. Giuseppe Calabresi stole my life from me when I was four years old and I’d never even known my real father.
Which was the thing that had drawn me out of bed, leading me away from Winter to sit in this chair and wait for the sun to rise. Today, I’d be meeting Martello Romero. The man who I should have known my entire life. My biological father. And even after how well I’d managed to start forming bonds with my lost brothers, I still felt undeniably anxious about this meeting.
His reputation preceded him. He ruled his family with an iron fist and his word was the difference between life and death for countless people. I’d heard so many awful things about him over the years that I wasn’t sure how I would be able to form a fresh opinion of him. Or if he even deserved any differing opinion than what I’d held before. He certainly hadn’t felt the need to come and see me in the weeks that I’d spent living here in Frankie’s apartment, though I knew my brothers were seeing him almost daily for work. He was in the city. Just a few blocks away apparently. And yet I hadn’t been worth the visit without that shiny little print out confirming we were a biological match. How touching.
Soft footsteps made the hairs raise along the back of my neck and I frowned to myself as I realised my absence had woken her up. I’d left the peace of our bed so that she could rest while sleep refused me, not have to follow me out here to find me sitting in the dark like some kind of wraith.
“When we were on the mountain, you’d have played your guitar when you felt like this,” Winter murmured as she came up behind me, wrapping her arms around my neck as she leaned over the back of my chair and held me close. “Do you want company out here, mountain man?”
“When that company is you? Always,” I replied in a low tone.
She pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek before drawing away from me so that she could circle my armchair and come to stand before me. She was wearing a white silk nightdress which clung to her breasts and hips, skimming her mid-thigh and catching the light in the dark room so that my gaze was instantly locked to it.
“I had the confirmation about my DNA,” I said in explanation for my late night wander and vacant mood.
“And you’re worrying about meeting your father?” she asked though it wasn’t really a question, more a statement of fact.