Dom laughed and kissed Sergei lightly. “Big shock, I guess. Kind of hard to sleep after…”
“Yeah.” His conscience clawed at him. Finally, he reached for the bedside light and turned it on. They both winced, covering their eyes for a moment until they adjusted to the brightness. “There’s something you need to know.”
Dom chewed his lip. “I get the feeling there’s a lot I don’t know yet.”
“Probably a lot you don’t want to know, but…” Sergei propped himself up on his elbow. “Remember the night I had the bends?”
Dom shuddered. “How could I forget? Scared the hell out of me.” He inclined his head. “Wait. Why?”
Sergei took a breath. “I wasn’t just out fucking around in the water that day. I was on a job. On… your cousin’s yacht.”
Dom’s eyebrows rose slowly, as if the pieces were coming together. “You’re the one. You killed Privitera.”
Sergei nodded. “The thing is, I was under orders to kill the second highest ranking man on the boat.”
Dom paled.
“No one specified who that was, so I assumed someone was trying to send a message to Felice. But once I realized you were the mark…” He shivered. “I couldn’t do it. Not even then.”
Dom put a hand on his shoulder. “You could’ve been killed.”
“So could you. You were supposed to be killed.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I had the opportunity. I… I thought about taking it, but…” He shook his head. “Not a chance. I couldn’t do it. Can’t do it.”
Dom was quiet for a moment, as if absorbing it all and trying to make sense of it. “How did you—” He stopped, eyes losing focus. “How did you even get on and off the boat? We would’ve seen scuba gear just lying around.”
“It was under the boat. Against the hulls. I put it there the night before, then hid on the boat until everyone boarded. After I’d made my move, I went off the back, swam up in between, and got my gear.”
“That’s…” Dom laughed softly. “That’s actually pretty impressive.”
Sergei chuckled halfheartedly. “There’s a reason I stayed alive.”
Their eyes met, and they both sobered.
Dom touched his face. “Does it ever bother you?”
“Which part?”
“Killing. Does it ever bother you?”
“No.”
“Never?”
“Never. The only people I’ve ever killed have been directly involved with the Mafia, and after what the fucking Mafia did to my family…” He avoided Dom’s gaze. “The only time it’s bothered me has been when I knew I’d hurt you.”
Dom studied him for a long moment. “What happened to them? Your family?”
Sergei cringed.
“You don’t have to—”
“My father got caught between the Maisanos and the Cusimanos,” he said. “I was pretty young, so I don’t remember much of the details. Only that Papa was worried about it. That both families were making demands. Trying to play him against the other. He tried to make it work, but…” Sergei shuddered.
“You don’t have to tell me.” Dom kissed him softly. “If it hurts that much.”
“Can I tell you?”
Dom blinked. “Of course you can. If you want to.”
“I haven’t told anyone about it since it happened.” Sergei swallowed. He sat up a bit, and lounged back on the pillows, lacing his hands together behind his head. “I was eight when it happened, so I didn’t really know what was going on at the time, but I’ve figured it out over the years. I guess my father owned a couple of warehouses down near the south end of the Cape. The Cusimanos ran that part of town back then, but the…” He glanced at Dom. “Your uncle decided he wanted to get in on the south side. Raffaele Cusimano was already bleeding my family dry with protection money, not to mention helping themselves to shipments that came through the warehouses.”
“That sounds right, yeah,” Dom said quietly. “I… I was a kid back then too. But I remember.”
Sergei nodded. “Anyway, my father refused to play nice with either family, so they started harassing us. All of us. And then one night, Giacomo Maisano and some of his buddies attacked my brother and his girlfriend. They…” Sergei shuddered at the memory. He hadn’t seen what had happened, or understood at the time exactly what the words meant, but the aftermath had told him it was horrific. “They threatened to rape his girlfriend. Made him beg for her life. And when he did, they…”
Dom pulled him closer.
“They raped him instead. And made her watch.” Sergei swallowed the nausea trying to rise in his throat. “All of them. One after the other. I guess they figured that would send a message to my father. And in a way, it did. My father was ready to pack up the entire family and get the fuck out of town before anyone else got hurt, but my other brother took matters into his own hands. He hunted down Giacomo, and he shot him.”