Smoke (The Carelli Family Saga #1) - Eden Butler Page 0,22

bet you do.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know, but that guy out there worked with him. He knew that Alejandro, my ex-husband, was an addict. I’m…just worried if he sees me here…”

“You think he’ll tell your ex?”

I don’t know what happened to me or why I let myself get so worked up right then. Maybe it was the fear of someone from my past slipping into the present that broke apart something inside me. Maybe it was the worry that I was getting too comfortable here. I knew all this comfort me and my son lived in was temporary and seeing that asshole just reminded me of that fact.

For whatever reason, I stood in front of Antonia scared and shaking, unable to keep the tears from welling up behind my lashes. They brimmed over and spilled down my cheeks before I realized what was happening.

Antonia pulled me close, curling her arms around my shoulders. “It’s okay,” she said, shushing me when one of my cries got too loud. “It’s going to be okay. I promise you.”

“You…you can’t promise that,” I told her, because it was true.

“I can and you wanna know why?”

I shook my head, irritated that I was crying like a kid and grateful to my friend.

She grabbed a paper towel from the rack and patted my face dry. “Because, we have you. Not just my stupid big brother who’s a bully and an asshole but mainly really does care. But all of us. This family. This whole town. You and that little man of yours, you’re ours now and we take care of ours.”

I wanted to cry even harder.

Making people feel safe was a Carelli trait I discovered was written into their DNA.

I loved and feared that most about all of them.

“Listen, you take off.”

I opened my mouth, ready to argue, but the woman waved her hand, ignoring any excuse I had before I could make them.

“Don’t worry about anything…my ma or that bitchy little server… or anything. I’ll handle everything and I’ll distract the wannabe. You dip out to the back alley and head to see my brother.”

“I…can’t tell him about this. He’ll be over here threatening that asshole inside of two seconds.”

“Then distract him or do…” she waved her hand again, flaring her nostrils like whatever scenario she thought of involving me and her brother was the most disgusting visual she could ever imagine, “whatever it is you somehow think is in anyway pleasing with him…and by the time you’re finished, the wannabe will be gone and you can go home.”

She used the driest side of the paper towel to clean up my face, smoothing it under my eyes and over my mouth before she nodded.

I held her hand, stopping her before she could walk away. “Thank you. Really.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said, squeezing my fingers. “Just remember that we only want to help you.”

“Thanks again,” I told her, moving to the back entrance of the room and down toward the loading dock as Antonia left from the front.

The alleyway along the back of the building was dim and narrow but clear. I hurried around the dumpsters and several boxes and crates, not looking back as I headed forward toward the largest building on the block. Antonia would offer the distraction I needed to keep Reynolds and my past behind me, long enough for me to make it to Smoke.

There, I’d find the distraction I’d need for one more night, and this time, I wouldn’t pretend his bed was the last place I should be.

7

Smoke

“That’s not what I want to hear.”

Dario’s voice was strained. That much I could make out from the low moaning grunt I caught on the other end of the phone. “What do you want me to do? I looked. The woman’s a ghost.”

“No one’s a ghost. Not unless they’re in the ground and Benny told you last week the redhead was spotted in L.A.” When my kid brother didn’t respond, when I got nothing more from him but grunts and sighs, I leaned back in my chair, grip tight on the phone, silently reminding myself that I couldn’t scream at him. Screaming wouldn’t do shit to get what I needed from him.

But man was it tempting.

“You wanna yell.”

At least he hadn’t lost his instinct.

“I’m not gonna yell.” Stretching my neck, I held the phone away from my ear, dipping my head down before I spoke into the cell again. “Not yet anyway.”

“Dimitri, I’m trying.”

“Little brother, you’re here. In our hometown. You haven’t left