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)
“Who will?”
“If you haven’t figured it out yet, you will soon enough. Learned helplessness and ignorance won’t be the two things that get you through our life, Francesca. It’ll only make you an easy target. It’s time to grow up. Trust me.”
Then, she pointed between herself and Frankie.
“That’s perspective, and you’re going to need to get yours in line. Soon. Before someone else shows you what they think your perspective should look like and don’t give you a choice but to accept it. Get some sleep. The bruising will be better for it. And don’t worry, I won’t be at the estate when you or your father gets back. No stress.”
Carina didn’t say goodbye before turning on her heel and exiting the room. An exchange outside quieted Frankie’s now racing thoughts in an instant.
“Jesus Christ, you again?”
“Believe me, I wish I didn’t have to see you either, sis.”
Carina made a gagging sound. “Ugh, move.”
Not five seconds later, a solemn Nico darkened the doorway. The shadows in the room kept her from finding his eyes while he stared down at the floor. A full-face helmet with a blacked-out visor hung from his two fingers, and his black jeans with the knees blown out melded into the leather jacket he’d recently started wearing despite the late May warmth. She noticed him coming and going with her father or Larkin sometimes but today had been the first time they spoke since her father’s office.
“Hey,” he said.
She nodded at the helmet. “What’s that?”
He lifted it high. “I guess your dad had my car and Ducati shipped in from Miami and kept them somewhere. He had a couple of guys go get my Mustang out of storage today, too. He let me take the Ducati for a rip. I was in the driveway wiping it down when the call came into the house about the accident. I’ve been hiding in a bathroom stall waiting for the crew to head out.”
“Why?”
Nico’s cheek moved with his grinding teeth. “I said I’d go straight back to the estate. Not somewhere else, you know?”
Frankie grinned a little. “I think they’d make an exception today if you didn’t follow all the rules, considering...”
“Maybe. You okay?”
“I will be,” she returned, “when I see my dad.”
“Larkin’s got two guys staying behind, so you’ll be okay.”
“Should I be scared?”
Nico cleared his throat, but his response came back fast. “No. I would wager a fortune that what happened today, will never happen again. Whatever it was.”
She didn’t ask why. The look in his eyes told her everything.
The same dark, distant stare had shaded her father’s expression when he’d first regained consciousness as EMTs loaded him into the back of a waiting ambulance. He’d looked for her first, and as if remembering it all the moment he laid eyes on her, Salvatore’s head fell back to the gurney. A silent, all-consuming rage was the last thing she saw before they closed the doors.
“Sleep tight, okay?” Nico said, his voice rougher.
She wet her lips, blinking away the sudden wetness in her eyeline. “Yeah, thanks.”
“You played great today at practice, by the way. I didn’t get a chance to say so before I headed out. The Ducati distracted me.”
“It’s a good distraction.”
He nodded in agreement. “Never seen a girl your size knock somebody ten feet back like that before. I’m impressed. I’d watch again.”
Her laugh shook the bed, and for the first time, she felt a twinge of pain in her eyebrow. “You should. I’ve got games coming up. To be fair, she tripped me first.”
He smirked wickedly. “You didn’t forget what I told you, right?”
She didn’t even have to think about it. Their two-minute conversation at the end of her practice had been the only thought in her mind on the drive home until the accident when something else took its place.
“I didn’t forget, Nico.”
“It’s true, even if you laughed. They’re all jealous.”
She rolled her eyes.
“No, I’m serious. You’re just caught up in how you feel like you’re constantly on the outside. You don’t realize you’re the bubble they’re all walking around, wishing they were inside.”
Picking at her nails, she asked, “You think?”
“I know. Every single one of them. I’m telling you. They don’t know what to make of you because they only hear things, and they make of it what they want. You’re not filling in the blanks. They feel better making you feel worse for a moment. You’re not an outsider to them in the way it makes you feel. You come from people that they know they will never be. No matter how much money they have. They still couldn’t be like us.”
“You mean because of the mafia. I don’t even understand all that.”
“You don’t understand? It doesn’t matter, Frankie. They know enough for it to matter to them. Don’t you get it? People like us, we weren’t meant to fit in with people like them. We have our own kind of people. It’s taking you a while to find yours, that’s all. And on top of it, you’re fucking beautiful, and they see it.”