The next question was the most obvious one, and even Mick’s driver glanced through the rearview at him.If he’s notthe father, who iswas the obvious next question. But Mick didn’t ask the obvious question.
But he did frown. “Why did you tell me Ron took a DNA test when Dory was first born?”
“Because Ron told me he took one,” said Bella. “I was only going by what Ron said. He even showed me the results later on. How was I to know they were fake? You know how badly he wanted a relationship with me back then. And I was trying to be a good friend to him because he was really good to Dory. I should have questioned it, but I didn’t. Why would I?”
“Why would you? Because Tos has always been a slick sonofabitch, that’s why. Now Dory’s in his twenties and just finding out the man he thought was his father all these years wasn’t? You knew you were sleeping around, Bella. You knew Ron wasn’t the only possibility.”
“I wasn’t sleeping around. That’s a lie!” Bella said as if her feelings were hurt. “Ron was a the only piece on the side I had and you know it. You were the only man I was sleeping with on a regular. But when Dory was born, he didn’t look anything like you. And Ron said he and the baby took a DNA test. I eventually saw the results with my own two eyes. What was I supposed to do, Mick? I didn’t know you could rig that shit.”
It was just a mess, and Mick knew it. And Roz? Mick shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. When Roz found out that he’d kept even the possibility of it from her all these years, it just might be the straw to break it for her. And rightly so.
Hell, he didn’t know how much more of this shit even he could take.
“Ah man,” he said out loud, verbalizing his anguish.
But that only made Bella all the more pissed.
CHAPTER NINE
The convoy of SUVs arrived in the seaside village of Ostia, situated at the mouth of the Tiber River and roughly eighteen miles southwest of Rome. They made their way along the winding roads until they finally arrived at Dorian “Dory” Toscano’s residence.
Although security was tight with a small army of men posted outside of the gate, and even more inside when the gate opened, Mick immediately saw flaws that he knew had to be corrected.
“Get every man posted outside of this gate inside,” Mick ordered his security chief, who sat on the front passenger seat of the SUV. “The key is to stop them outside. I want only our men on the outside of this property. If they fail and Dory’s guys turn out to be a bunch of wussies, I can handle the inside.”
“I’m on it, Boss,” his chief said and immediately got on the phone to the security details riding in the front and back SUVs.
But Bella thought it was ballsy of Mick to take charge of Dory’s territory. And when they stopped at the main house, she told him so. “Dorian is a big man in Rome, Mick. He ain’t no punk. Don’t you think you should see how Dorian wants to handle his security first?”
Mick looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “No,” he said as his security chief hopped out and opened the door for Mick.
Mick got out and buttoned his suit coat as the driver opened Bella’s door. She got out too. And then Mick and Bella made their way to the front entrance.
Mick couldn’t believe he had the jitters as he walked toward that door. He hadn’t seen Dory since he was a little kid. But even back then Mick knew. He knew it with every fiber of his being. But Bella and Ron insisted he was Ron’s kid, and Ron supposedly had a DNA test to back him up. He was full of shit at the time and Mick knew it, but he didn’t care enough to argue with DNA.
Bella was disappointed since she would have loved to have more hooks in Mick beyond the daughter they had together, but Ron was elated because he was deeply in love with Bella. And back then, when Mick was still a young man himself, he wasn’t trying to claim any additional kid when he had too many already. And Ron desperately wanted to be the father of Bella’s child. Who was he to get in the way of that? He let it stand. But now, as he was no longer a young man and with his son in that very house he was walking toward fighting for his life, it was a decision he regretted.
The guards at the door were all Dory’s guys and they were thrilled to meet Mick. In Italian, they all spoke to him.
“The boss is here,” said one.
“So great to meet you, Mr. Sinatra,” said another one.
“Never thought I’d meet royalty,” said the third one. “How you doing, sir?”
They ignored Bella, which Mick didn’t like. In his eyes you didn’t disrespect your boss’s mother. He placed his hand on her lower back and pushed her forward. “You know Miss Caine, I take it?”
“Oh yes sir. How you doing, Miss Bella?”
“I’m fine,” Bella said with a smile as she and Mick went inside. “Bunch of wussies right,” she said bitterly as the door closed them in. But as soon as another guard, after gushing over Mick too, led them down a long hall to Dory’s room, Bella had the jitters too. She was told he was okay, and his wounds wouldheal and not pose any more risks to him, but she still had to see if for herself.
Not that she was this great mother to him. She’d be the first to admit that she and her son never truly got along. But she loved him just as much as she loved Gloria. The only reason she kept him and his sister separate was because she didn’t want Dory’s risky lifestyle to spill over onto Gloria. She didn’t mind Mick’s lifestyle spilling over because Mick knew how to protect his family. The only person Dory ever cared about protecting was Ron Toscano. He didn’t give a damn about Bella or those longstanding rumors about Mick, who he knew never wanted him even if those rumors proved true. All he cared about was Ron. And now Ron didn’t want him either. It had to be tough times for Dory.
When they entered his bedroom, they didn’t know what to expect. But when they saw the young man seated up in bed, their hearts finally relaxed. He had tubes in him and machines on both sides of his bed, but he wasn’t dying. He wasn’t in that kind of trouble any longer.
Seated at his bedside was a man Mick knew: Buddy the butcher. A particularly nasty man. But was, by all accounts, Dory’s most trusted confidant. That, to Mick, said a lot about Dory.
But all Bella saw was her son. She hurried to his bedside. “Dorian! You look so good, son! You look so much better than I was expecting. You look so good!”
