Roz could think of many reasons. The fact that she never wanted Bella to have anything over on her was the main one. Roz had two children by Mick. Bella only had one. Now he was telling her that Bella had two children by him too? A child Mick was willing to go to war with Monk Paletti over? It was petty, but it still hurt. “Go on,” said Roz.
“Ron recently had a real DNA test performed. Not that fake shit he showed to us when Dory was first born. It showed that he wasn’t the father. Bella declares the only other man she was bothering with at that time was me. Which would make me the father.”
“And you took her word for it?”
“Hell no.”
“So you did take a DNA test?”
“Yes, I took one after they ambushed him like I told you before. There’s no doubt about it. I’m his father.”
“But how would Frankie know for certain if I didn’t?”
Because Mick knew for certain long before that DNA test too. “Frankie has guys stationed in Rome. They knew the rumors, which they took as fact, long before Ron started tellingeverybody about his DNA results. He and Dory had apparently had a falling out and Dory took control of his gang.”
Roz was shocked. “Dory is a mob boss too?”
A look of regret filled Mick’s eyes. “He runs to most lethal gang in Rome, yes. Ron used to run it, and Dory was his underboss. But the guys grew dissatisfied with Ronnie’s leadership and they installed Dory as boss. Ron had already had the DNA test. He already knew Dory wasn’t his son. And then Dory allowed them to kick him out of his own gang? It was a hard fall for a proud man like Ron.”
It sounded like a soap opera to Roz.
“That’s what he and Danny Cerva got in a fight about initially. It wasn’t about some girl. That’s just the story going around. It was about the fact that Danny insisted I was Dory’s old man since Ron Toscano wasn’t. And he threw it in Dory’s face. Dory was already crushed. He thought for all his life that his old man was Ron. Ron had been there in his life. And he’d just took over Ron’s syndicate. It was too much for him to take. That was the real fight. That woman shit was the sideshow.”
Roz could hardly believe it. She stared into Mick’s green eyes. “How’s he doing?”
It was the question only a great woman like Roz would have bothered to ask, given how she felt about the boy’s mother. “He’s doing better. I spoke with his doctor this morning. He’s young and strong. They expect him to make a full recovery.”
“But Bella’s staying in Rome?”
“For the time being, yes. Along with the highest level of security possible.”
“How did she get there?” Roz was already certain of the answer.
Mick knew she was too. “She flew to Rome with me, yes,” he said. “Those particular rumors were accurate.”
Roz hated to hear it, but she understood it. But that didn’t stop tears from appearing in her eyes. “You stay away from Bella Caine,” she ordered him. “She’s always been nothing but trouble for us.”
Mick refused to commit to that. She was not just the mother of one of his children, but of two of them now. He pulled Roz into his arms. “You’re the only one I want,” he said to her.
But Roz felt trapped. Trapped by her love for Mick, even though her life would be peaches and cream if she got away from him.
One day she might have to. His behavior alone was inching her closer and closer to the exit. One of these old days, if nothing changed, she was leaving him.
But this day, as he held her so tenderly and as she sobbed softly in his arms, wasn’t going to be that old day.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
A week later and Sal Gabrini, along with his underboss Robby Yale, were walking through a construction site in Vegas where Sal was building an expansion wing of his office building. But there were problems. That was why Robby Yale was at the site.
“What kind of problems?” Sal asked. In his signature double-breasted suit and fancy leather loafers, he looked completely out of place. But he didn’t care. He just needed to make sure the project remained on schedule and especially on budget. “I don’t need any problems right now.”
“The council has to approve any further expansion before we can continue,” Robby said.
“And?”
“And that’s not looking very likely.”
Sal stopped walking and looked at him. “Why the hell not, Robby? If I put my stamp of approval on it, then they’ll put theirs. We paid their asses. They agreed to rubberstamp everything we do.”
