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Chapter One
Dante Carrillo, the suave former head of the crime family of the same name, walked along the road in front of the cabins, listening intently to the forewoman of the construction crew as she told him how many more workers’ cabins could be added.
“There is great flat space at either end that would need minimal bulldozing before we could build,” Jody Mitchel said as she gave Dante another tour of the place.
Roland Brady, the architect, was looking over his tablet as he stood in the field off to the south of the cabins. “Dante,” he said as Dante sauntered over to him. “I think Jody is onto something. These cabins are great, but we can fit in a lot more. It would save the people working here a ton of money if they didn’t have to rent or buy homes nearby.”
“I love the idea. I’d like them to feel like the homes are theirs, however. It would serve two purposes. For one, they are more secure, happier, but it would also save on upkeep if they took care of it on their own. If they can, of course.”
“Lovely idea,” Roland agreed, sticking the tablet between his legs so he could get his long, curly hair into a ponytail as the wind was whipping it in his face. “We’re already building thirty guest cabins, so after those are finished, that same crew can come here and build a series of cabins for the workers. Some could be two-story, for those with kids, adding an extra bedroom or two.”
“Roland, how are you doing all this? I’m overwhelmed and I couldn’t draw a stick figure house.”
Roland preened at the compliment. “It was overwhelming, I’ll grant you, but the more I do it, the easier it gets. I just have about a hundred folders in all my computers and tablets.”
“I’m sure,” Dante gave him with a smooth chuckle. “Alright, then, you two put your heads together and build more. The families living here, working here, it’s what I’ve dreamed of for this place. The ranch hands are enjoying their private spaces.”
“The bunkhouse is completed, too. Adding to it and building the private rooms was a lot easier than we guessed,” Roland told him, and that made Dante happy.
“We’re rolling right along.”
“How’s your home?” Jody asked. She hadn’t been given that job as she was so busy with the rest of the place. Dante brought in other crews as soon as winter broke to build what had been one home, but had turned into a compound of homes and buildings.
“It’s near completion. Thank you for asking. It’s beautiful. Blaine’s pouring over samples the interior decorator keeps sending him,” Dante told them, proud of how his husband, Blaine, had kept on the construction of the compound so Dante could oversee the rest of the resort.
With more plans set in motion, Dante left the cabins and was taken by his driver and bodyguard, Bruno, a tall drink of water with daggers for eyes and the ability to crush a man’s throat in a single punch. He’d been trained from the time he was a young man in martial arts, then added more training in the military.
Dante missed his old bodyguard, who’d become like a brother to him. When Nick left him to start a family with his husband Peyton, Dante knew it was time to think about starting his own.
“Bruno, am I insane?” Dante asked from the passenger seat of the SUV. He’d grown tired of hollering from the backseat. The vehicles running over dirt roads made it nearly impossible to hear a conversation from that far.
“You’ve asked me that most every day, boss.”
As he chuckled, he realized Bruno was right. Bruno scratched through his trimmed beard, and Dante asked him, “Well, do you usually answer?”
“Sure, boss, let me tell you how crazy you are. You had a dream and you’re seeing it through. Blaine had a dream and you’re giving it to him, and they just so happen to be two dreams that could easily become one. So, the money, the time, and trouble you’ve gone through would make most men crazy. You? I’ve never seen you happier.”
It was true. Dante watched the land outside the window as they passed, the mountains standing all around them, the extensive fields of emerald-green. Serenity is what he’d found on this land. Sure, they’d had some road bumps that would have sent most people running as far and as fast as they could. They’d had a serial killer on the loose when they first began the tedious construction. Still, when the end of the day came, and he could hold his husband as they watched the sunset setting the sky on fire with brilliance…all he felt was serenity.
“Heard from your nephew, boss?”
From his reverie, he was harshly yanked, thinking of Selestino’s stubbornness. “He’s heading to Colorado as we speak. He’s not happy, accusing me of giving him busy work.”
Bruno had an amazing laugh, deep and sexy as all hell. Just thinking that, however, made him feel as if he were cheating on his husband. And Blaine would likely feel the same. Smiling, thinking of his jealous husband, he almost missed it when Bruno asked, “Aren’t you?”
Bruno was just turning thirty, a mostly quiet man, but deadly. He was speaking more now that he and Dante had been almost constant companions for over a year. “Bruno, don’t piss on my parade today.”
“Whatever you say, boss.”
Dante gazed distractedly at his nails, noticing he needed a manicure. “Bruno, do you think it’s over? We have had no one come up missing in months.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. Once a person starts down a path like that, they don’t give up easily.”
They were talking about the man, Alex Brooks, who’d kidnapped several people from the area and kept them in a secret panic room in the farmhouse's basement that was formerly occupied by his father, Josiah Harrison.
Since their discovery of it during the winter, they’d freed the captive men and upped their security on the ranch. Still, Dante worried about it almost constantly. “If it wasn’t for that, I’d let my nephew come here.”
“I get that, boss. I know that’s why you won’t let him come here. Still, you’re treating him like a child, in his estimation. And he feels like a man now.”
