Page 6 of Deathless & Divided

“No.”

“Funny, Ben thinks you’re up to taking on the role, Damian. I wonder what gave him that impression.”

“Not me.”

“He doesn’t like it at all,” Dino added like it was an afterthought.

Well, that really caught Damian’s attention.

“Ben?” Damian asked.

Dino nodded once. “That’s what I said. Seems my uncle thinks you’re too independent for the job—you’ve got your own mind, you know.”

“A man with his own mind is a problem for him?”

“It is when he can’t manipulate the boss,” Dino said, chuckling. “God knows he’s tried for years to manipulate Terrance to his bidding and sometimes, he has succeeded. Most times, Terrance already has his decisions cemented before Ben DeLuca even gets thought about. Ben could be a boss if given the chance, but he prefers to sit on the sidelines and have others do the work, not actually be front and center doing it himself. That’s a problem.”

“Good bosses do their own work.”

“Ben just likes to manipulate,” Dino said, sighing. “Getting it, yet?”

Damian wished he wasn’t, but reality was starting to sink in, and fast. When a man was headed to somewhere another man didn’t want him to be in the mafia hierarchy, the best way to fix that situation was by ending the problem.

“Ben is going to come after me,” Damian said.

Dino’s quiet, cold stare didn’t waver as he replied, “It’s a good possibility. He only needs a reason to explain the hit away to Terrance. Something that would justify it in Terrance’s mind. Ben did it to my parents; you’re not even family to him.”

Damian wasn’t hearing Dino, not really.

“Because Terrance likes me.”

“Shitty world we live in when being liked gets you killed, huh?” Dino asked, humor coloring his tone.

Damian found nothing about this funny. Mostly, it bothered the fuck out of him. He wasn’t frightened of Ben, as far as that went, but it was something he’d have to deal with in one way or another. That wouldn’t be particularly easy considering Terrance held a fondness for old DeLuca.

There was also the little matter of Dino. The guy was Ben’s nephew, but he was giving Damian a major heads-up about his uncle’s possible plans. Dino had no reason to be doing that unless he was looking for something, or rather, wanting something from Damian.

Somebody always fucking wanted something.

“But what Ben wants with you isn’t important. He’s not on that path quite yet.” Dino sucked in a deep breath, glancing up at the cloudy sky. “I’ve had enough fresh air for the day. Let’s go inside and get some coffee.”

“We’re done talking about it? Just like that?”

“Oh, no. There’s a lot more left to discuss yet, Damian.”

Yeah, Damian figured that.

“Drink,” Dino ordered.

Damian tossed back the remainder of his coffee, still as silent and stoic as he’d been an hour ago when he entered Dino’s home. Dino sat across from Damian behind his large desk, drinking his own coffee. By the smell wafting from the drink, Dino had doused it with a good shot or two of whiskey.

“Why tell me?” Damian asked.

“About my uncle?”

What else was there?

“Yes.”