Elio didn’t seem as convinced, though, as he hovered by the stove watching them warily.
“I wouldn’t have almost stepped on the damn thing if you had replaced the batteries in the flashlight before we left,” Dale shot back before taking a swig of his beer and grimacing. “Don’t you guys have any Budweiser? This IPA bullshit tastes like I’m licking a field.”
“No, drink what you were given,” I said without missing a beat.
Dale just rolled his eyes. “Have a son, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. But no one ever said I’d get such a bossy little asshole.”
I had to keep myself from grinning at his usual good-natured complaining about about me. Despite their words, I knew and had always known that the three men liked me.
From the moment Cini’s father had dropped me in front of them and instructed them to create the next generation of butchers, they had treated me like I was one of them.
Ironically enough, I was pretty sure my dads—the literal torture experts—were better parents than any of my other pack mate’s parents. Which was sad as hell.
“My, Luscinia, you look absolutely ravishing,” Travis gushed, ignoring his pack brother’s complaining. He got up and rounded the table in order to take Cini’s hands on his own. “Who told you that you could grow up so fast and marry these assholes? I remember when your mama had you. You looked just like a little Cabbage Patch doll…”
His words were said so quickly that Cini blinked in confusion before shooting me a glance to help her.
“Speak slower, old man, or else she isn’t going to be able to understand you,” I said before untangling her hands from his.
Travis at least had the decency to apologize, rubbing his fist to his chest which was one of the few signs he knew.
“Why are you three here?” Ranieri said from his place at the table, trying to steer the conversation back on topic.
They hadn’t said much about their reason for hiking three miles through the forest in order to find us other than they weren’t here to hurt us.
The fact that they were able to find the cabin in the first place didn’t sit right with me. It meant that others could find it too and that it wasn’t as secure as we originally thought it was.
“We’re here to fulfill a promise to you youngsters, well, at least a promise we made to one of you,” Travis explained, digging around in his leather vest until he found an envelope yellowed with age. He held it out to me and I took it, opening it up to find a letter inside.
“It’s from Alesso,” I realized with a jolt as I recognized the familiar handwriting.
Cini yanked the letter of my hands and started to read it on her own and Elio came to hover behind her so he could read it out loud.
“To Travis, Dale, and Howard, if you are reading this, then I have died and my attorney has, in accordance with my wishes, mailed this letter to you. I would ask you to help do what I couldnot: move the Amante toward the future that my grandfather envisioned before my father’s attempts to ruin it.
To do that you will need to, at some point, assist my former pack in taking over and ousting my father from his place.
However, try as I might, I cannot see the future. I do not know when this coup will take place or if my pack will ever manage to position themselves in the way they need to in order to be successful. I simply have faith that they will heed my wishes because it means protecting our treasure.
And if you could promise me one more thing?
If the time for my pack never comes, could you get my little sister, Luscinia out of that house? Help her be free and to find a way to stand on her own two feet.
Yours Truly,
Alessandro Amante Jr.”
Hearing Alesso’s words was subduing and we all sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to process what we’d just heard.
“So, what’s in it for you guys? I know Dante likes you, but you can’t be doing this out of the kindness of your own heart,” Nico asked, finally breaking through the tension.
“A whole lotta money—” Dale began, his whiskery beard twitching as he grinned.
“Dale, knock it off,” Howard warned from his seat at the table, his blue eyes meeting mine. “You’re involved in this, Danny, and if you’re involved, then so are we. Money or not.”
The use of my childhood nickname made a lump rise in my throat.
‘Wait,’Cini signed, lifting her hands up high enough so everyone could see them. She was probably trying to keep the fact that we could communicate with our minds a secret.‘What future was Alesso talking about? The one my grandfather wanted?’
