I brush his hair with my fingers, lightly, to help him relax, and I hum a little lullaby—one that my mother used to sing to me when I was little. Lost in my own thoughts, I am a little taken aback when he begins to join in. His voice sounds a little shaky at first, and it is quiet, but it is there. Leo is humming. I try to remain calm, not getting too overly excited, not wanting to scare him and wanting to let him have this moment of relaxation. But I am nearly bursting out of my skin and wish that Dante was here to hear it. While he isn’t talking, he is using his voice box and that is another step forward.

Together we hum the remainder of the lullaby before I notice his eyes closing, and he begins breathing heavily. I stay close to him, my hand running through his hair, until his grip on mine begins to loosen.

Lying back on the bed next to him, I stare at the ceiling. I don’t dare move so as not to wake him. As I lie here in the darkness, his soft sheets like a pillow around my body, I am comforted by his presence and happy that he is now firmly asleep. I want to stay up to talk to Dante, but before long, I succumb to sleep as well.

22

Dante

Walking into the dark, quiet house, the pounding in my head starts to lessen after spending the past five hours with Carter at Allure. Weeks have gone by without a word from Dominic, and I know he has to be frothing at the mouth, wanting to kill me. He would take great delight in it. I am sure. The fact that he has been underground for so long now is unsettling. The longer he makes us wait, the more likely it is that he will take us by surprise. So, trying to draw him out, Carter and I sat at that stinking shithole all night, hoping that his need for revenge was strong enough to pull him from his hiding spot so we could finish this once and for all.

But it wasn’t.

Instead, I have a fucking headache due to my ex-wife screaming at me every time she took a break from the stripper pole, even though she couldn’t string two words together and her eyes were bloodshot and half closed. At one point, I thought she fell asleep on the pole, such was her lack of energy and ability. Totally incoherent from whatever drug was in her system.

In the end, Carter and security had to physically remove her from the bar, setting her up out the back with coffee. As the night wore on, my anger at her subsided and now all I feel is pity. It is fucking sad that her life has become what it is.

It has been a long fucking day.