Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Nico took the ice cream, but he didn’t open it right away. “Do you want me to leave?”
“You’re not breaking the rules, are you?”
“No, but—”
“No is a full sentence, and it was all I needed,” Sal cut in, hoping Nico would leave it at that.
Thankfully, Nico did. As he peeled back the wrapper from the waffle cone, he eyed Salvatore studiously. He couldn’t miss it out of the corner of his eye even as he watched Frankie and Carmen laugh about something he didn’t hear.
“You did drugs with my daughter?” Salvatore asked quietly.
Nico didn’t flinch. “With, being the key word, there. Not made, or asked her, or—”
“I get the picture.”
Nico eyed the ice cream, and then beyond to Salvatore. “Let me guess, Carmine?”
“Big Mike.”
That earned him a noise of surprise.
“He was close enough the night of the graduation party to know a few things. Are you okay?”
Nico had just taken a bite of the treat, but his head snapped up fast at the question. Around the chill in his mouth, he asked back, “You’re asking me?”
“If I didn’t care, we wouldn’t be standing here. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. I stopped shaking a couple hours back, but I don’t know if that was from the molly or my dad.”
Well, he opened the conversation. Salvatore dived right in. “Yes, speaking of that. What did I tell you again about bringing him closer than needed to my daughter? She might not look like him, Carmen, but she’s terribly close to him, Nico.”
“Do you care to know why I did that, or do you just want to assume my reasons?”
“On this property, my rules are always in effect. Including respect.”
Folding his arms over his chest as Nico spilled the details of the dinner with his father. “Vanna had dinner made. She likes to cook on Sundays. When I showed up, Marco wasn’t there but he’d just left. I brought him cigars, but we ate roast before he expected me to go upstairs. In the office, he grilled me for an hour straight on Frankie, about the party, Marco, and you. Just like that. I stuck to the story from party night. It was new, and Marco tried to pull some sneaky shit that I didn’t appreciate given my history with him, and with Frankie.”
“Did he accept that?”
Nico shrugged. “Sort of, and no. Because he knew about prom. Or that I took her, anyway, so he didn’t feel it was really a new thing. I have a feeling Marco found out about that and took the information to him after the fact of the party because he and Anthony had been digging into what I was doing in my personal life before the whole shitshow went down. Marco made that clear to me. So, yeah. It didn’t matter how many times I tried to say prom was just a favor, Giorgio said plain as fucking day that smelled like bullshit to him.”
Salvatore wet his lips, considering the information. “So, he thinks me a liar.”
“The way he was careful about how he talked to me regarding you, no, he doesn’t trust you.”
Good. He shouldn’t.
“And so, you brought your sister here, why?”
“Because Vanna let me. Because she’s going to go home and get grilled by our father in a different way than he tried with me, but all he’s gonna get is that we played soccer, Frankie and I are friends, and you gave us ice cream. I really couldn’t say no; that’s the first time I’ve been allowed to take her anywhere since I was seventeen. Not to mention, I wanted to see Frankie tonight, I promised I’d be around. It just worked out.”
He nodded, seeing how Carmen’s word to her father could work in their favor.
“We done, then?” Nico asked.
Salvatore inhaled deeply and let it out in a slow breath. “One last thing—next time, you can use the net in the backyard. And the rest of the back property, if you find a need. I appreciate the honesty. A part of me still wants to kill you, though.”
“Yeah, she kind of did, too.”
He had a sneaking suspicion Nico meant the drug thing. The OD.
Well...
“Play stupid games,” Salvatore replied, “win stupid prizes, son.”
20. — the job...
Staten Island, New York
Frankie, Gallo Estate
“You might as well get a start on breakfast,” Sissy said as she placed a platter of choices in front of Frankie. “Your father and Carina are...” She trailed off, refusing to meet Frankie’s questioning stare. “Busy,” she settled on saying.
Frankie made a face. “Oh, yeah.”
“Better than screaming at one another, I suppose,” Sissy added, shrugging. “It would be nice if they’d close a damn door once in a while, but it’s not my house, so.”
“Did you just swear?”
Frankie couldn’t believe it. The same woman who had once threatened to wash her ward’s mouth out with soap after she learned how to appropriately use the word fuck just swore like it was nothing. Crazy.