Page 82 of Damiano De Luca (The Five Syndicates)
“Hey, I mean it in the best of ways. The book could be called, Her Lumberjack’s Moist Depths. I’m sure there are women into that sort of thing.” He looked around. “Though there doesn’t seem to be one here.” He arched a brow. “Trouble in paradise?”
“Worried your girl will be in jeopardy if I’m no longer cozy with the Vitali family?” I swung the axe into the halved tree trunk, picked up my shirt, and headed into the lake house without inviting Bastian. My phone rang, but I hit ignore and slid it back into my pocket.
He followed anyway. “No. She left the FBI. Turned in her badge. Everything’s been taken care of.” He loosened his tie and took in the house. “I’m here for a meeting with an alcohol supplier. Your consiglieri cleared it. You’d know this if you’d pick up your phone.”
I chugged a bottle from the fridge, tossed it into the recycle bin, and turned to face Bastian. “Cut the idle chit-chat. Why are you here, Bastian? In my house?”
“Ariana told me something interesting.”
Obviously, it had to do with me, because he was here. If he thought I’d let him hold it over my head or use it as leverage, he was more daft than I gave him credit for.
I beat him to it. “She’s my sister. I know.”
He seemed unfazed by my brute honesty—something new I’d been trying, though I didn’t exactly have an audience to lie to lately. “So, why the fuck haven’t you talked to her about it?”
I wanted to. I did. But spending time with Ren seemed more important, and now that she’d left, I’d been too preoccupied trying to figure out why the lies even mattered so much when I loved her more than I hated the lies. Lies I was starting to consider she hadn’t even had a part in. Stranger things have happened.
“If you haven’t noticed, I run an entire syndicate. I don’t have time to shit rainbows and make small talk over pumpkin spice lattes.”
“Trust me. Ariana is worth making time.”
I studied him. “I assume she wants to meet with me.”
“I told her you’re not your dad.”
“I’m not.” I ran a hand over my head and really took him in. There was something about him that had changed. He looked… peaceful. Maybe I was a miserable asshole, but that tempted me to fuck with him. “You know, if you guys marry, you’d be my brother.”
“Stop. I still have to digest my dinner.”
“Look around. The De Lucas aren’t that bad.”
His eyes took in the surroundings. A box of shit Ren had left laid at his feet. He eyed it from his spot at the edge of the island. “Look, here’s some unsolicited advice—”
“The worst kind. No, thanks.”
He ignored me. “—You’re not your dad. You don’t have to act like him. Maybe you should unlearn everything he’s taught you and embrace the best parts of being in a syndicate. And there are good parts. It’s taken me a while to figure this out, but these good things exist. Take time to discover them.
“You have a rising syndicate, earning potential in your business ventures and oil lands, and enough money that you could live like a Saudi prince for the next ten thousand years and not have to work a second.
“Your dad jeopardized these things when he ran the De Luca syndicate. Now that you’re in charge, you can do things differently. You can build, expand, and thrive. Blocking people out… Well, that’s your dad’s M.O. Don’t turn into your dad. No one liked him. No one even respected him.
“When you take the time to discover the best of this world, you’ll learn that it’s the relationships. The loyalty, trust, and honor. You may not be used to these things thanks to your upbringing—and I don’t mean this disrespectfully—but it doesn’t mean you can’t start embodying them today.
“If you think about it, there was no real reason t
o keep the fact that you knew Ariana is your sister from her. A lie of omission is still a lie. You lied for no good reason. Think about that. Own up to your lies. Only then can you own your truths, De Luca.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you don’t look happy, and my girl’s the type of girl that would want her brother happy.” He checked his watch and straightened up. “I have to go. I’ll show myself out.”
He left, but his words stayed with me.
Own your truths, De Luca.
Ren and I were both guilty of lying. To others. To each other. To ourselves. She was as guilty as I was, and I needed to own that. I needed to admit that we’d both been wrong, apologize for my part of the bad stuff, and get my girl back.
I had everything I’d thought I wanted—money, autonomy, control of the syndicate. Why wasn’t I happy?
