Smoke (The Carelli Family Saga #1) - Eden Butler Page 0,63
a job.” He made a face, squeezing his eyes shut. “Then she said you’d landed the job by fucking the owner’s son. I didn’t want to believe…but seeing you with that…fucking…”
“Paris is a liar. And she’s been after Dimitri for years. She’d say anything to make me look bad.”
Alejandro released a sigh that kicked up a coughing fit.
“Wait,” I said, wondering why Paris would keep something like this to herself. She could have used this to her advantage. Told me some suit had asked questions. It was her M.O. to run off and lie and tell Dimitri I was messing around with some patron from the restaurant. “Paris never said anything to me. Why? And…what about August? How does he…”
“She got paid off. And August…”
But however August figured into the situation, I didn’t know. Dimitri chose that exact moment to come through the door, leaving the back room, his arms weighted down with a yawning Mateo.
“Mijo!” I met Dimitri in the middle of the room, handing him the gun while I took my baby from him, kissing his face, inhaling him, holding him close. “Oh, thank God. Thank you! My sweet boy.”
There had been tension squeezing my limbs, my joints and every square inch of my chest since the moment we walked into my apartment and found Vi on that floor and Mateo gone. Now it eased. Now there was warmth again and a feeling that I’d never been more relieved. It got warmer, that sensation wrapping around me when Smoke curled his arms on my shoulder and he kissed Mateo’s forehead.
“Good,” he said. “It’s good…”
“He isn’t yours!” Alejandro said, scrambling to his feet. “She isn’t either.”
Dimitri stepped in front of us, circling around my ex, the gun hanging loosely in his hand. When he spoke, his voice was lower, calmer, but there was still a warning sharpening his tone. “They are mine in a way they’ll never be yours.” He scratched his chin with the muzzle of the gun. “You don’t get that?” When Alejandro only glared at him, his attention moving to me, to the monitors behind us, all around the room, Dimitri sighed, sounding tired and exhausted. “Just tell me who you got as back up, so I can take care of my business.”
“They are my business!” There was a vein pulsing on the side of Alejandro’s neck when he yelled at Dimitri and his eyes had taken on a wet, red look. As he stood, he pulled at his collar, wiping the moisture from his lashes. “They are mine. Mine. They belong to me!”
“The hell they do,” Dimitri said, his fingers curving around the gun. “You don’t abandon your family, asshole. You don’t exchange your woman for smack. You don’t treat the people you love like they don’t fucking matter!”
Alejandro winced at Dimitri’s accusations, slipping his gaze to me, the expression on his face hurt, as though he didn’t want to believe I’d spilled his secrets.
“Yeah, she told me. She tells me everything. She trusts me. I trust her. That’s what you do when you…”
“Don’t say it!” Alejandro twisted his head, covering his face. “I don’t want to hear this bullshit.”
“Enough of this,” Dimitri said, his voice raising over Alejandro’s whining. “Tell me now. Who the hell is helping you?” He lifted the gun and I curled Mateo closer to my chest, shielding his eyes away from Dimitri as he grabbed Alejandro’s collar and pointed the nine in his face.
I turned away too, not wanting to see how my ex cowered from Dimitri, how he lifted his chin like his entire body wasn’t shaking.
“Last time, bastard. Who the hell—” But then, his voice went quiet and I heard the soft thump, something that reminded me of the moments when Mateo was learning to walk and would hit his head against the floor and instantly cry for me. Then, I turned, horrified when Dimitri hit the floor, the gun falling from his hand.
“I am, asshole,” Reynolds said, holding the butt of his gun in his hand. He turned, his smile stretching when I stared at him, then becoming a toothy, exaggerated expression when I backed away as he moved toward me. “Well, hello there, beautiful.”
18
Maggie
Toni had been right about the first Rolex. It had to have been a fake. Looking at the one John Reynolds wore now as he lowered the gun and held the butt in his palm, I got the impression that things had improved for him.