AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, why?”
That’s all he needed. Indio would have endless things to say about needing to look out for the son of the don. “Nothing. It’s fine.”
Dex rose and grabbed Prince’s hand. “Come on, baby. Let’s leave them for the night.”
Prince whispered to Sel, “Dante has my number if you need to talk.”
“Thanks, Prince.”
After they were gone, Blaine went over to him and asked again if he was okay. “Honey, we’d never let anyone hurt you.”
“It’s not just me, Blaine. I’m really not even worried about me so much. Doesn’t he have, like, I don’t know, a grudge against you and Uncle Dante and Ruben and his guys?”
Blaine looked to his husband for help, and Dante came to the two of them. “Sel, I’ve had worse than him after me. I have Bruno, I have others, and they won’t let the man get near us. And believe me, Dallas and Marius will look after Ruben, and he’ll watch over them. We have a strict policy on this ranch right now that has been in place since practically we all arrived. Nobody goes out on the ranch alone.”
“He almost got Ruben in his house. He was in their house, Uncle Dante. I’ve heard what happened even before I came here. You protect me like I’m an uncooked egg, but what about everyone else?”
Blaine calmed him a lot. “To Dante…everyone is precious to him like you are.”
Looking into Blaine’s cool eyes, Sel knew it was true. Dante loved a lot of people, and anyone who’d ever helped him had become like family. “I’m sorry, Uncle Dante. I know that’s true.”
“Never apologize for worrying about people, Sel. It’s admirable. The problem with most people in power is they forget to care about others.”
“I’d sooner quit. I can’t not care about people, Uncle.”
Blaine hugged him around the neck. “That’s my nephew.”
“He’s mine too!”
“You can have Cesar,” Blaine teased. “At least until he’s through with the rotten teenage years.”
“Gee thanks.”
Nothing came across the border for the next few days. Sel went with Dante on his rounds to look after the construction, learning a lot more about how buildings were built than he ever wanted to know.
Binx, his partners, and friends were having a good time traveling around the ranch, fishing in one of the three lakes, camping, with bodyguards that Dante insisted they have.
Dante, Blaine, Sel, and their bodyguards joined them on one of the fishing trips. Dante regaled the group with tales of his first attempts at fishing.
“Of course, I’d gone deep sea fishing in California, Oregon, and overseas. Fishing in a lake was very different. But I stuck with it, because I was trying so hard to woo my new love, Blaine, and show him I could use a fishing pole instead of a gun. He didn’t buy it, but he fell for me, anyway.”
Blaine laughed at the memory. “What a mess he was. It was just him trying. That was all I needed to see; I think. He tried to give it all up for me.”
Patting his chest, Binx squealed, “That is so romantic!”
“It was. Then he swept in and rescued me from some terrible people. That cinched it.”
“It would,” Lonnie said. “We went through something similar. Travis’s father.”
Travis growled as he reeled in his line. “Ex-father. I disowned him.”
Sel watched Lonnie lean his head on Travis’s shoulder. “We have his mom still, and his sister, and they are worth a thousand of Travis’s dad.”
Dante nodded to Sel and said, “This is what I meant. The love of power and money makes people stop caring about others.”
“I could never have enough of each to stop loving my family, Uncle Dante. You know that.” After turning back to Lonnie and Travis, he asked, “I got the abridged version of the dynamite diner story. If it’s not too painful, can you elaborate?”
“That’s a story I’ve never heard completely either,” Dante said. “Rumors abound.”
