All I Believe (20 page)

I was going to flunk out of law school. I decided that on my fourth day of the new semester. What little concentration I’d ever had was totally shot to hell. I’d sit in class and really try to pay attention, but in a matter of minutes, my thoughts would be consumed with Luca. I’d daydream about his green eyes, and the way they sparkled like sea glass when he was happy. I’d remember his touch, the taste of his lips, the warmth of his body when it was pressed to mine, and suddenly I was miles away from the classroom, curled up on a couch in Malta, reliving the best days of my life.

I was still hurt and angry, but as time wore on, those emotions were overshadowed by the fact that I missed him desperately. I still hadn’t responded to his ten-times-a-day text messages, but my resolve was wearing down. The only thing preventing me from answering at that point was that I had no idea what to say to him. I wasn’t ready to forgive and forget, and until I could do so, I didn’t know where that left us.

On an overcast Thursday afternoon, I sat in the commons area in one of the main buildings on the Hastings campus, staring at my phone. Luca’s messages had become more frequent. I’d been hearing from him at least once an hour. They were still the same, asking me to contact him, saying he was sorry.

A new message popped up, and I ran my thumb across the screen to read it. The text said:
I can’t stand this. I can’t stand the fact that you’re mad at me and won’t let me apologize. I need to see you. I need to make you understand what you mean to me. That’s why I’m coming to San Francisco. I’m in New York right now waiting for my connecting flight, so I’ll be there in a few hours. Have dinner with me. Hear me out. Please, Nico.

I drew in my breath and sat up, quickly fumbling with my phone. I dialed Luca’s number and he answered on the first ring with, “Nico!”

“You can’t come here,” I blurted.

“I have to. I know you’re still mad, but we need to sit down face to face and talk about this. I can’t live without you, Nico. I just can’t.”

“Luca—”

“I was an asshole for not telling you the truth from the outset, but don’t you see? I’ve always been so ashamed of my family legacy. How could I tell you I was the son of a monster? I would have eventually, but I wanted you to have a chance to know me first.
Me
, not Sal Natori’s son, not your enemy. I barely knew my father. I saw him maybe ten times over the course of my life. But I knew what he’d done to your family, and like I said, I was ashamed to be associated with him. That’s what kept me from telling you right away.”

My voice rose as I said, “Luca, you’re not listening. You can’t come here. Your brother will go ballistic. He tracks your financial transactions. Did you know that? He started tracking mine, too, that’s how he found us in Malta.”

“That son of a bitch! I asked him how he found me, but he wouldn’t answer. I thought maybe he’d hacked the GPS on my phone.”

“He made it clear that he and the rest of your family won’t stand for you seeing a Dombruso.”

Luca’s voice got low and dead serious as he asked, “Did he threaten you?”

“It wasn’t so much a threat as a statement of fact. He told me some members of your family would put a bullet in my brain out of spite, just because I’m a Dombruso. I think he’s the biggest threat of all, though. He’s absolutely single-minded in his quest to keep you safe, and he considers my family and me a danger to you.”

“I’m an adult. I’m almost thirty, for God’s sake! He doesn’t get to make these decisions for me!”

“If you used a credit card to buy that plane ticket, then he already knows you’re coming to me and I’m sure he’s going to follow you here.”

“I’m so stupid. I put you and your family in danger. I should have known he was watching my accounts, but I guess I always wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

“Can you call your brother and try to reason with him?”

“I’ll try. In the meantime though, you need to get yourself somewhere safe. I’m so sorry Nicky. I really didn’t mean to bring all of this shit into your life.”

“I can’t just run. My family’s here. I live with my eighty-year-old grandmother. What if Andreo comes to the house?”

“I don’t think he’d harm your grandmother.”

I said, “It’s the other way around. If the son of Sal Natori showed up on Nana’s doorstep, she might blow his brains out.”

“I’m his son too, remember?” he said quietly.

“Yeah, but you’re not a threat. He is, and if Nana sees that, she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her family safe. My grandmother always liked you, she wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

“Only because she didn’t know who I was, any more than you did.”

“Call your brother, Luca. Try to reason with him,” I said. “Then call me back and let me know what’s happening, okay?”

“I will. I’m sorry about all of this, Nico.”

“I know, but it’s not your fault that your brother’s a loose cannon.”

I was pacing around the campus when he called back a few minutes later. “I couldn’t reach my brother. I left a message for him, and then I talked to a friend of the family named Theo,” he said. “Apparently Andreo’s already on a direct flight to San Francisco. He’s going to get there before me and he’s bringing some muscle, a couple thugs the family employs to do their dirty work. That’s a bad sign. My brother’s flight is landing about half an hour before mine does. I’m guessing he’s going to come directly to my gate to intercept me, since he never lets an opportunity to yell at me pass him by. But he might send the men he’s traveling with straight to your house.”

I swore under my breath before asking, “How the hell am I supposed to deal with that?”

“Don’t deal with it, run. Get out of the city and take your grandmother with you until I can talk to Andreo and try to calm him down.”

“What about the rest of my family? Is your brother likely to stir up this feud, or is he just going to focus on me?”

Luca said, “I really don’t know. Unlike me, he was raised by Sal Natori and taught that violence solves problems. I’ve heard stories of things he’s done, I don’t know how much is fact or fiction, but some of it would make your flesh crawl. If he rolls into town looking for trouble, it’s likely there will be bloodshed.”

“I have to warn my family he’s coming,” I said.

Luca was quiet for a moment before saying, “Yeah, okay. I know you need to keep them safe. But please don’t let them hurt my brother, Nico. If they come out guns blazing, this is going to end badly.”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

“My flight’s boarding, I have to go. I’ll be landing at SFO in just under six hours. Again, I’m so fucking sorry.”

“I know. Call me as soon as you land.”

“I will. Please take care of yourself, Nicky.”

“Count on it.”

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed toward the street so I could hail a cab, the afternoon’s classes completely forgotten. As I strode across campus, I tried to decide who in my family to reach out to. The official head of the clan for the last couple years had been my cousin Jerry, but for some reason, I’d never really felt I could trust him.

For years before that, the family had been run by my cousin Dante. I had a lot of respect for him. I’d practically grown up with him and his three brothers after my parents got divorced.

But there was a problem with going to him. He’d been obsessed with hunting down Sal Natori, ever since his parents and sister were murdered when Dante was seven. He’d been the one to track Natori down in Rome, and the one to end his life two years ago. While all of our family bore the scars of what Sal Natori had done to us, Dante’s scars ran the deepest, no doubt about it.

Even so, I realized he was the one I had to go to. There was no better choice. I trusted Dante to do the right thing.

*****

I took a cab to the Marina district. My cousin and his husband owned a restaurant which was closed this time of day, so I let myself in the service entrance at the back of the building. I found Dante and his husband Charlie seated around a table near the brick pizza oven. They were going over that night’s menu with Trevor, a chef’s apprentice who also happened to be married to Dante’s brother Vincent. They all greeted me warmly, and Charlie called, “Hey, Nico. How’s it going?”

“It’s been better,” I said as I came up to them and put my backpack on the dark wood tabletop. “I need to talk to you, Dante. You guys should hear this, too,” I told Charlie and Trevor.

“Have a seat and tell me what’s wrong,” Dante said, his expression instantly all business.

I perched on the edge of the fourth chair at the round table and said, “There’s trouble headed this way. Sal Natori’s son, a man named Andreo, is on a flight to San Francisco as we speak. He’s coming for me, and I’m worried Nana or someone else might get caught in the crossfire. Maybe literally. He’ll be landing at SFO in about five hours.”

Dante pushed his chair back and stood up abruptly, his dark eyes blazing. “I’ve heard stories about Andreo Natori, none of them good. Shit, I thought this fucking feud died with Sal Natori. What the hell stirred them up again?”

“I did,” I admitted.

Dante turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “How?”

“When I was in Viladembursa, I started seeing a man named Luca Caruso. I found out later, much later, that his father was Sal Natori, though he was raised by his mother and his parents never married. Andreo didn’t want me to reveal that Sal Natori had another son, because he felt he was keeping Luca safe by hiding him from our family. But I know you, Dante. I know you’re not going to go after Luca just because of something totally beyond his control.”

“Go on,” he said, his voice low.

“Andreo is determined to keep his brother and me apart. He thinks it’s dangerous for Luca to be anywhere near our family. That was no problem at first, because I was so angry when I found out Luca had been keeping that huge secret from me that I left immediately and came home to San Francisco. Over the last several days, Luca’s been texting me and begging my forgiveness, but I haven’t been replying. Finally, Luca told me he was going to come here and speak to me in person. He’s on a flight to SFO right now. Andreo found out his brother is coming here and hopped on a more direct flight. I really don’t know what he’s planning to do when he gets here, but since he’s bringing along a couple thugs, I doubt he’s coming to chat.” I exhaled slowly and said, “I think that’s all of it.”

“You need to get out of town,” Dante said, pulling his phone from the pocket of his black suit jacket and looking at the time, “and someone needs to head to Nana’s and try to think of some excuse to get her out of her house until we can deal with Andreo. If she finds out what’s going on, she’s going to try to get right in the heart of the action.” He turned to Trevor and said, “I don’t want to bring Jerry in, or else this whole thing’s going to spiral out of control. I’d like Vincent to back me up, though. Are you going to be okay with that?”

The slender brunet said, “Of course. My husband wouldn’t have it any other way. Do you want to tell him what’s going on or should I?”

“You should talk to him,” Dante said. “After you call Vincent, take your son to a friend’s house to spend the night. It’s a long shot that Andreo Natori will look for Nico at your house, but I want to give him a wide berth. Make sure you call my brother Mikey, too. He and his boys probably should stay in a hotel tonight. Better safe than sorry.”

“On it,” Trevor said, pulling out his phone as he headed for the back door.

“What can I do?” Charlie wanted to know.

“Can you get Nana and Jessie out of her house this afternoon? I need her somewhere safe overnight, and like I said, I want to make sure she has no idea what’s going on. I don’t know when Andreo might show up at her place, but when he does, she needs to be anywhere but there.”

“Not a problem.” Charlie got up and asked, “Should Nico come with us?”

“I think it’s best if I go off on my own,” I said. “The last thing I want is to draw Andreo to Nana.”

“Alright. I’ll go make some plans.” Charlie headed for the stairs at the back of the building, which led to his and Dante’s apartment.

I turned to my cousin and said, “Andreo might be able to find me pretty easily, since he was monitoring my credit cards. That’s how he kept tabs on Luca and me. I got a different card when I returned to San Francisco, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have found that out and hacked the new account, too.”

“I’ve got you covered.”

“Thanks.”

“What are you going to do about Luca? If he’s a Natori, then he—”

“But he isn’t, not really. Sal Natori was little more than a sperm donor from the sound of it. Luca said he saw his father less than a dozen times in his life.”

“He’s also a liar, though. That’s why you left him, right?”

“I left him because I felt like he betrayed my trust. I kind of have a hair trigger after my last relationship, as you can probably imagine, and I bolted the moment I learned he’d kept that from me. But I can see why he didn’t tell me who his father was. Just look at the mess it’s stirring up.”

Dante considered that for a moment, then said, “If you decide to give Luca another chance, I need to meet him. I have to know he’s not a threat to this family.”