Leo, even though he had too kind of a soul, had looked up to his older brothers. It had been their footsteps that he wanted to follow, not his father’s. And while they all knew he wasn’t built for the job before, him losing his eye was what made him think he couldn’t join. Little did he know yet that was exactly why Leo was going to be made one day. He just didn’t know it yet. Leo still needed to learn that he was no less than he was before. In actuality, he was greater. That, though, was going to be a long road for him to find out. Dante, however, was going to start doing everything in his power, as a father, for him now.
“Understand?” Dante asked when Leo simply stood there in shock from his words.
Leo finally nodded.
Reaching out, Dante did something he should have done every day since his wife’s passing. He hugged his son. “I love you.”
The rain that had yet to let up finally seemed to ease.
Nineteen
The Old Ways
Nadia stood outside of Moonbeam’s doors, looking at the black-tinted Cadillac that royally sucked at concealing itself. She made the slow journey to the car and knocked on the blacked-out window.
“I can see you two in there!” she roared. It might’ve been tinted to hell and back, but it wasn’t impossible to see in with the sun out.
The window awkwardly dropped with the push of a button, and she couldn’t help but laugh at the pair.
“I take it Dante sent you?” she asked the big one.
Amo spoke unapologetically, “Yep.”
She looked to the blond one, who was still too young for this job. “Why are you here, then?”
Leo shrugged. “Thought I’d keep him company.”
“Well … at least make yourself useful.” Nadia turned to walk back inside, but when they didn’t begin following her, she looked back at them. “Come on, then.”
Both car doors quickly opened following the cutting of the engine.
She left them behind, making them catch up to her in the small building.
“So, this is it?” Amo asked, confused.
“We’re packing up.” She smiled, knowing where his confusion was coming from. “And moving into a huge facility.”
No thanks to Dante. She kept that part to herself. It was, however, Dante’s friend, unbeknownst to her, she could thank. Desmond Beck. And Haley, of course, because he had made an offer in their meeting that Haley couldn’t refuse. In return, he gave the plans to an abandoned mall here in Kansas City to be renovated into the next Moonbeam, becoming a self-sustainable community, with housing and jobs for all of her at-risk youth. It was a literal dream come true that only came at her friend’s cost … What that cost was, Nadia still hadn’t been told. Haley promised to tell her when the time would come. She just prayed she would fare better than Nadia had with Dante.
“Oh.” Amo looked around at all the teenagers helping to pack up. “Aren’t some a little too old to be here?”
“I help kids up to nineteen years old. Just because you’re eighteen and considered a legal adult doesn’t mean you should stop receiving help.” Those two years of being an adult were sometimes the hardest. You needed help to learn how to actually be an adult. By the time her kids reached twenty, they were set up for success in the real world.
She shook her head at seeing that Amo was pretty much uncomfortable here. The thought of a little work without receiving money clearly wasn’t something he was interested in.
“How about you go help”—Nadia took a look around for the person whom she had in mind—“her.”
“Her?” Amo asked, nodding to a girl who was struggling to hold up a huge box.
“Yep.” Nadia smiled evilly and, thankfully, Amo had just missed it.
Leo, however, had not.
“You’re doing something sneaky, aren’t you?” he asked, watching Amo’s back.
Nadia was caught by surprise. None of her evil plans were ever caught. Poor Haley had yet to even learn until it was too late. “How’d you know?”
“I don’t need two eyes to know when someone’s being a sneaky bastard.” Leo smiled, letting her know he wasn’t going to stop his friend from being ensnared in her trap. “Especially when you grew up with three of them.”
“Well, you know what they say …” She whistled, not even needing to say the last part, as both of them were well familiar with the saying.
Payback’s a bitch.
* * *
F-o-r-g-i-v-e-n-e-s-s was an eleven-letter word that he was asking for from each of his children, and Leo had only been the beginning.
He stared at his children in front of him. His oldest, Lucca, stood in the corner, flipping the Zippo he had gifted him when he had become his underboss. The two chairs in front of his desk were occupied by his other children. Maria, his second oldest, he arguably owed the biggest apology to. Then Nero had followed her, but he was the first child whom he’d wronged.