Repaying the Mafia’s Dept

Tristan I had her for the rest of the day, and night. The only break we had was dinner where I slipped back downstairs to touch base with Dominic and Candace.

As soon as I was satisfied I’d spent enough time away from Isabella, I left them with the excuse I was going to do some company accounts with Alfonse, and they probably wouldn’t see me again until morning.

Lies.

I lied and instead of making my way to my room I headed straight back to the princess’s room where I took her all night, over and over again. Fucking and losing myself, always wanting more and never being satisfied.

Now it’s morning and I’m greedy again. But I can’t take any more from her.

A new day has dawned and with it, reality.

I slip off the bed and pull on my clothes as I watch her sleep. The woman in the bed looks spent, completely wiped out from a wild night of equally wild sex with me.

Her platinum hair is tussled out of its perfection and the rain caused it to go into loose sexy waves.

The sheet has moved down her body exposing her massive globes with the nipples still erect, still begging me to suck them.

I want to. Fuck do I ever want to, but I have to bridle my passions and get back on track.

A fucking day has passed, and the situation is just hanging in the air, waiting. I’ve taken the devils daughter and I have to be ready for what happens next.

I haven’t spoken to Dominic properly since the incident with Sacha. We haven’t talked over what we’re going to do. It’s a difficult conversation because it’s talk of luring the devil into our homes to put all the people we know in danger.

I look at Isabella and I think about everything. I think about what I did with her and I know we can’t do this again for so many reasons.

The thought widens the hole in my heart. Being with Isabella started to fill it.

I can’t feel like that about her though. She can’t be my redemption, because of who she is.

One last look and I leave her, hoping that no one else saw me come in here or suspects I spent the night. There’s no reason for anyone to check or suspect it. At least not that I can think.

I’m the one with the camera linked up to her room. I’m the only one who can see all that happens in the house. But if Dominic were to suspect something, he could have a look too if he wanted to.

After all it was him who set everything up.

I leave and head down to Dominic’s room. The door is ajar, and he doesn’t hear me approach.

I look in just in time to see him sniffing something from the palms of his hands.Content held by NôvelDrama.Org.

My lungs tighten as I watch him, and I make myself stay there long enough to confirm what I’m seeing.

It’s not until he lifts his head and takes a deep breath that he sees my reflection in the mirror watching him. With that he whirls around and faces me.

V ery few things pull on my heart but fuck the sight of my little brother’s eyes is enough to confirm what I worried about. His pupils are wide, so wide I can barely see the bright blue that’s supposed to mirror my own.

“What are you doing Dom?” I ask, referring to him with the nick name Ma used to call him. We stopped calling him that after she died.

It felt like too much. It’s too much now as I look at him and he straightens but looks uneasy.

“Nothing,” he answers, but the disgruntled tone in his voice at having been caught doing something he shouldn’t gives him away. “I’m not doing anything.”

“No, so you just naturally sniff your hands?” I growl.

I think of all the drugs you can take that come in powder form and I find I actually can’t think. I’ve had many friends who use. A whole ton of them. Some have OD’d and died. I tried crack once back in college and when I woke up on the edge of the roof of the Bellagio not even remembering how I got to V egas, I vowed never to try shit like that again.

I nearly died and the experience was enough to deter me, and here is Dominic in front of me with all the signs he’s taking drugs.

“Tristan, why don’t you go back to your new plaything. Or something. I’m sure there is much you can busy yourself with.”

With that I lose it. I rush him and land a fist right in his face.

He goes crashing into the chest of drawers but he’s ready for me whether he’s high or not. He comes at me with a fist that connects with my jaw, but like him I’m a dirty motherfucker when it comes to fighting with my bare hands.

When we fight we don’t care that we’re brothers. I don’t care now because I’m fucking freaked out and panicked he’s taking shit. That fear and panic gives me strength and soon we’re on the ground giving blow for blow, but I manage to get on top of him and pin him to the ground.

“What the fuck are you doing, Dominic? You’re taking drugs,” I blurt.

“Man, fuck you. Get the fuck off me,” he roars, and I know what’s coming next.

We fought like this one time only. Just once and it was over foolishness. It was over my car. Back in high school he stole it, crashed it, and I gave him the beating of his life, but the man fought back, giving as much as he got.

He does that now as he drives his knee into my stomach and sends me flying over his head.

I tuck and roll right back on to my knees and in the corner of my eyes I see him pull something from his back pocket. I know what it is, that’s why I reach for my gun at the same time he gets his.

Suddenly we’re on our knees in a standoff holding guns at each other and that’s a testament of what the last eighteen months have done to us.

We don’t trust each other anymore.

If we can do this, that’s the only answer I can reason with for this situation.

Dominic doesn’t trust me, and I don’t trust him.

I look at him and I see the kid who used to follow me blindly. He’s only a year younger than me, but because he was the youngest, we always just saw him as the kid.

He’s not that now, hasn’t been for a while, and he’s no longer the glue that keeps us together.

“Kid…” I rasp, glaring at him. “Dom,” I try seeing if I can reach him the way Ma used to.

It doesn’t work. What works is me lowering my gun.

Candace runs up to the door and gasps when she sees Dominic pointing his gun at me.

“Dominic no,” she cries, and she runs to him.

It’s only then he lowers his arm and takes hold of her when she throws her arms around him.

I stand up and look at him kneeling there holding Candace and I wonder what would have happened if she didn’t come in.

“Dominic-” I say but he cuts me off.

“Get away from me,” he orders.

Now I’m looking at him properly and I can see the redness in his nose. But I do as he says and leave him because it’s best.

I walk out to the beach, my refuge, and gaze out to the sea. The rain never stopped falling yesterday, and it’s falling again today. A reminder we haven’t made it through the storm life has cast our way.

This has happened to us because of Andreas’ betrayal. Our brother set out to kill Massimo and he would have killed us all too, to get what he wanted.

Now I don’t know what to do.

Candace finds me a few hours later. She brings me a plate of cookies in her habitual way of trying to help.

I’m still sitting on the beach. She sits opposite me and puts the plate out to me to take.

I’m not hungry but I take a cookie to humor her. It’s funny I see her as a kid too.

I remember her doing the same after my mother’s funeral, except it was her mother that made them and sent them over to us; the D’Agostino boys.

I remember the little girl with the braid in her hair and her dresses which made her look like a doll. She still looks like that now with the same hairstyle.

“You and those cookies principessa,” I say.

“My mother always told me they helped,” she answers with a little smile. “People can’t say no to sugar. It’s a way of testing sadness. Cookies are supposed to make you feel better no matter what happens to you. But…if a person were to refuse then I’d know the heart is truly broken. As long as they accept there is hope.”

“Thank you for being in our lives. I swear to God you keep us from slipping into the dark.”

I take a bite of the cookie and she gives me a grateful smile.

“And you all help me too.”

I look her over and think long and hard about what’s been happening over the last few months.

She’s never gone far from Massimo. In her mind he was the one who saved her from death, so she’s always stayed close to him. Even when she went to college.

Just after he married Emelia, she got a job at a school and I thought maybe she was getting better.

Then all the death happened, and it put her right back at square one. She stuck with Massimo, working for him in his home, then at the company.

That was our idea to give her some kind of career because she’s qualified for something more than cleaning our homes.

She’s here now, far, far, away from Massimo. The only reason she would have dared to come this far was Dominic.

“You knew it was serious, didn’t you?” I ask and she nods.

“Yeah, I did. I just didn’t know how serious it was or what was happening to him.”

I recall how she looked when we were about to board the jet to take us here. She was worried about him and as much as I knew her request to be here for Isabella was genuine, I knew she had to have been over worried about Dominic to offer to come with us.

“How long has it been happening?”

“I think since the end of last year, so eight months. I hate saying this but it’s true… he only notices me when he wants something. He comes back to me when he realizes I specifically can do something for him. I keep the secrets in our group, so he knew when he was stuck one night in a club downtown, high off his face, I was the person to call.” She pulls her knees to her chest and continues. “At first, I thought he was drunk, but then I suspected it couldn’t have been that, even though he was drinking. He was drinking heavily so it was a good mask. But you know when you just have a bad feeling about something?”

Jesus… I can’t believe what she’s saying to me. I nod, knowing exactly what she means.

“What happened after that?”

“I took him home and watched him all night. His behavior was just completely outlandish. I didn’t know what people behaved like when they’re on drugs until I saw him and it was then I knew he couldn’t have just been drunk. It happened again a few months later, that time he got robbed. Maybe I was stupid to finally have his attention that I never wanted to believe what was wrong with him. I didn’t want to see the obvious when he asked me not to say anything to anyone.” She wipes away a tear with the heel of her hand. “He only asked me to help him because he knew I wouldn’t say anything. There wasn’t any other reason.”

“Candace, I know you mean more to him than that.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think so, but it doesn’t matter. That doesn’t matter. What matters is I think he needs help. I should have said something well before now.”

“Candace why didn’t you come to me?”

“I didn’t know Tristan, and realistically I still don’t really know. I have seen him sniffing once but it wasn’t long enough for me to establish anything. Just now though? The truth was in his eyes and he had a nosebleed after you left.”

Fuck… I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do here and not when Dominic is telling you he’s doing nothing and telling me to get away from him.

“We’ll figure it out,” I say, but I don’t know where to start so I pull her into my arms.