Page 76 of Waste of Worth

He’d take care of her.

Without asking.

Without being told.

Because he wanted to and it felt right.

Finally, Karen nodded. “Yeah, I know, Dino.”

“Perfetto,” he murmured.

Her brow raised slightly at his casual use of Italian. It wasn’t something he did often in her presence, and honestly, he didn’t do it a lot in business, either. Not unless he had to, anyway.

“Say something else,” Karen said. “If you can, I mean.”

Dino didn’t hesitate. “Sei la mia luce.”

“And what does that mean?”

Something incredibly important that he didn’t think he had the guts to say to her in English, so he didn’t. Shaking his head, Dino gave Karen a wink and stepped to the side, out of her embrace.

“Get down to the car and pop the trunk for me,” he told her.

“You’re seriously not going to tell me what it means?”

“Not today, sweetheart.”

Karen gave him a mock scowl, but it was only a half-hearted effort. “Fine, I’m going to the car.”

Dino grabbed the bags, balancing them carefully as he scooped up the apartment keys from the coffee table. He made sure to triple-check the locks before being satisfied the place was closed up tight. One couldn’t be too careful.

Outside in the complex parking lot, he found Karen waiting in the car. Once he had all the bags situated in the trunk, he too slid into the car, more than ready to get the hell away for the weekend.

Even though it was her car, Karen sat in the passenger seat.

“You can drive,” Dino said.

He would rather drive, but he’d let her take the wheel.

“I don’t know where we’re going, Dino. Remember?”

True enough.

“I could give you directions,” he offered, holding the keys out to her.

Karen smiled, and shook her head. “This is your surprise for me. You do it the way you want.”

How exactly was he supposed to argue with that?

It didn’t take long at all for them to get on the road, and then the highway leading out of the city. He couldn’t take her too far, certainly not out of country or even the state, if only because he had his phone turned on in case something happened over the weekend and he got called back. As much as he hoped that didn’t happen, and for as much effort as he had put into taking care of things and people so they didn’t question his absence for two or three days, it was still a very real possibility.

The drive was silent, and Dino focused on the cars ahead of him, weaving in and around other vehicles to get ahead of them as fast as possible.

He wanted to get out of the city.

He wanted to leave the Outfit behind.

At least for a short while.