After My Heart Died, The Don Begged Crying at My Feet novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Dominic's POV

Dominic's POV

My father's study smelled of cigars he had stopped smoking before I was born.

Five men stood on the Persian rug when I came in, and none of them had sat down.

Four were my captains.

The fifth was the man who had raised his glass to Gia's camera on my birthday.

He stood at the back with his hat in his hand, looking at the floor.

"Sit," I said.

"We'll stand, Don Dominic," said the eldest. "It's short."

"Then say it."

The eldest didn't answer.

The youngest of the four stepped forward instead, a man of forty with a good suit and a bad temper.

"I swore on your mother's cross," he said. "I'll keep it. But I want you to hear what's said in the street."

"Say it."

"They say Dominic Ventresca knelt in front of twenty-one men and cried. They say he bled for a Nolan on a cannery floor. They say the Ventresca Don has become the Nolan girl's dog."

The eldest winced.

A week ago I would have crossed the room and put him through the desk.

My father would have.

I took the one step toward him that I needed, and I stopped, and I put my good hand in my pocket.

"Yes," I said.

He blinked.

"I knelt. I cried. I'd do it again today in front of the same men, and in front of more. I took a bullet that was meant for her, and I'm not sorry about it."

"Don Dominic..."

"I'm not finished. Does it bother you that they say it?"

"It bothers me that it's true."

"Good. Then hear this." I kept my voice level. "I don't need you to be afraid of me. I need you to be careful with her. If the day comes that a Ventresca man says a word about my wife in the street, I won't put him through a desk. I'll give him to her. And she will do something much worse than I would."

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