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)
“Frankie.”
“Yeah, yeah. I heard you, hand in mine or on me. That’s the deal.”
“I call the shots tonight.”
“I mean...”
“At the party,” he clarified. “You get all the rest you want later.”
“Mmhmm, sounds about right.”
He rolled his eyes, smirking. Her hands kept touching.
“They’re watching you,” he said of the men in the cars.
She didn’t look like she cared.
“If we can leave early,” she said then, biting at the edge of her lip as she met his knowing gaze, “I’m just saying—we should.”
He only needed a glance at Frankie to agree to that statement. He had plans for her and that dress once he got her alone and safe again. A plan he fully intended to see through as long as the night went ahead as it should.
“You know it,” he murmured before kissing her again.
The beep of the door between the house and the garage sounded, making Nico pull away just in time for Salvatore to enter the space.
No one followed him. Also, part of the plan.
Only one of them could hide their pregnancy at the moment. Carina neared the final weeks of her pregnancy, and she decided the month before to step out of public life entirely. As far as others knew, including Nico’s father, Carina had headed to Milan for the holidays as she always did.
“Carina wishes us luck,” Salvatore said as he crossed the glossy floor. “And she said to let the dress—”
“Do all the work for me,” Frankie interjected, nodding. “I know, Daddy. I got this.”
Nico kissed the spot beneath Frankie’s ear, combing the waves of hair back behind her shoulder. “The dress is a distraction, but you do the rest.”
Every bit of it. “So beautiful; all mine,” he added.
Frankie’s cheeks pinked sweetly when he pulled away. “Don’t do that too much tonight, okay?”
“Do what?”
“You know what.”
“Oh, I think he will,” Salvatore said, coming to stand in front of the Suburban. “You get to be entirely his for the night. No lying needed.” His gaze dropped to her midsection. “Mostly.”
Nico looked forward to it.
The best thing he’d ever done would stand at his side for everyone to see, and he dared anybody to try and take it away from him now. He had one word for someone in the mood to try him and learn it: homicide.
“Okay,” Salvatore said, clapping his hands, “let’s hit the road. Frankie, get in the vehicle and turn that racket off. I need to speak with Nico.”
“Did you just call my music a racket?”
“Well—”
She served him a deadly side-eye as she headed past him for the SUV. “Whatever you say, old man.”
Nico pressed his lips together.
Salvatore just cleared his throat, waiting for the slam of the Suburban’s rear passenger door. A second later, the music quieted as well.
“Well, there’s that,” Salvatore muttered unhappily, “that finally happened.”
“She didn’t mean it, she’s preg—”
“Oh, she meant it. And it is a fucking racket. A lot of the crap you two blast day in and day out gives me a headache on a regular basis.”
“On the regular,” Nico corrected. “If you say it that way, she won’t call you that thing you don’t like.”
Salvatore scowled.
Nico tapped his temple and pointed at Sal. “When you know, you know.”
“Behave tonight, kid.”
Serious at once, Nico nodded. “Of course.”
“And don’t let Marco bait you.”
“He hasn’t been able to in months.”
“Good, because he’ll test you a lot tonight. He’ll have plenty of reasons.”
“I know, and I’ve got a whole list of my own to let it slide right off. Don’t worry.”
The man dragged in a heavy breath, glancing over his shoulder to eye the two waiting vehicles. As his attention came back to Nico, his voice lowered significantly. Not that it mattered, but the people inside probably couldn’t hear them anyway and cameras didn’t exist inside the many buildings on the estate. Only the outside property.
“I have to tell you something now, Nico.”
He just waited Sal out. Whatever it was.
Salvator swallowed hard, lifting his gaze from the floor to meet Nico’s. “It’s been in the works for months. This plan of mine. It’ll happen after Christmas. The only reason I’m telling you this is because you’ve played an important part in getting us to this point considering you’ve done everything I asked when I asked you to do it. You brought me information without being asked; you’ve done everything that was asked. I know who I can trust, and exactly why I can trust them. History taught me well. I’m going to kill your father.”
•••
Unlike when the Gallos threw a party, Giorgio did not stand for the first couple of hours at the entry of his home welcoming guests. No, he rested at the head of an ostentatiously large table in the dining hall just beyond the entry to the grand foyer. That way, the guests walked through the decorated entry and hallway leading to the boss and his waiting family where he wanted to be greeted.