Raise Your Heart

Chapter 23

Dante sat in his father's study and worked on finding Gio. Apparently, a little after Gio arrived, Dante's father was one step ahead and placed a tracking device on Gio's car. But it was being temperamental. Dante glanced up at his pacing father.

There was no use in telling the man to sit down. It was how he did his best thinking. Despite there already being a plan put into place, he wasn't sure what was going through his father's mind. Was he reconsidering?

In an ideal world, Gio would be sent to a rehabilitation center. But, this wasn't the ideal world. It was the mafia. Not only that, Gio threatened his boss. That sort of thing was unacceptable and in line with traitorous behavior.

Geno was adamant Gio be dealt with, uncaring if it was his grandson or not. But Geno was a hard man, much like Dante. Geno trained him to be hard too. So why was he having second thoughts? Where was his spine? He knew why.

The idea that he would be holding his own child in just six months was why. It was easy to put himself in his sister and brother-in-law's shoes.

It was hard to have the earlier meeting with Peter there. He asked Peter not be included, but Geno wouldn't have it. He blamed Peter's non-Italian blood. Argued Anna made a poor choice in marrying a man not of their ethnicity. She went against the family's wishes and married an American who didn't even know his own lineage. Couldn't trace his ancestors. So, for that, he should be forced to listen to Gio's destiny.

Peter was a mongrel in Geno's eyes. Disgusting. Because of that, there was always a disconnect between Geno and his grandchildren. Dante knew his own child would be idolized simply because Trinity was a nice Italian girl. Clean. Geno would expect nothing less from Dante. He was taught to meet a nice, Italian girl who was a virgin. Untouched. Unblemished.

The fact that Trinity had been married would need to remain a secret. He mentally chastised himself for not warning Trinity to keep her prior marriage to herself. He prayed she had. Prayed she would. It was too late now, either way. Or was it? Could he excuse himself and pull Trinity aside while she was still mingling before she had to leave? No. His father would think it strange. He couldn't use the bathroom excuse either. He didn't want to risk Geno watching him on the security cameras.  

If Geno saw him, he would question as to what Dante would possibly have to say to Trinity after disappearing upstairs for so long. It was bad enough his father had reprimanded him for getting Trinity pregnant before the wedding. Couldn't he have kept it in his pants till then? Was he an animal for defiling her? What would her parents think? Dante really wished his mother would have kept the news to herself, but she was simply too excited. He saw his mother whisper to his father. He didn't blame her. 

However, things would be even worse when his father discovered Trinity's parents weren't in her life. Geno's value on family was very high. There was a good chance he would look down on Trinity for coming from weak stock, no matter if her parents were Italian or not. It was bad enough she had already fallen victim to Dante's advances, as his father put it.

Thankfully, to offset his father's true feelings about Trinity, he had his mother. She was more accepting of modern couples. She didn't mind deviating from tradition. She was over the moon about the pregnancy. So much joy to mask Gio's impending doom. She loved Anna's children. Helped raise them. And, now, her own son was to wipe Gio off the damn planet.

How was he supposed to go through with this? He didn't care if this made him look weak in Geno's eyes. How the hell was he supposed to point a gun at his nephew and pull the trigger? Even if his own life was in danger. He wasn't sure he could do it. It was too much.

Dante finally locked onto Gio's location. Surprisingly, he was at home. Odd. He was pretty certain Gio had an inkling as to what was going to go down tonight. When Gio took off, Dante would have bet he was skipping town.