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)
“He doesn’t know, huh?” Nico asked.
Salvatore inhaled deeply, knowing exactly what he meant. Frankie stayed quiet, but her expression turned questioning as she looked between her father and Nico.
“I don’t tend to bring personal details about my family to the boss unless it’s required, or it can’t be helped, so no, I haven’t spoken to him about your relationship,” Salvatore replied. “Perhaps, when you have had to write check after check, ordered bullet after bullet, attended funeral after funeral, you will realize why being sworn a made man to your father isn’t entirely worth the price you have to pay for it. But that’s what you want, isn’t it? I was not the same.”
The silence in the room grew, almost coming alive. He hadn’t meant to be so frank. So open.
Nico nodded, then. “Seen, not heard. I got it.”
“Do you?”
“I’m telling you; I got it.”
Salvatore let it be, then, but he had one other thing for his daughter and her...whatever. “Are you two together now? I’m going to assume yes.”
The two shared a quick look.
“Yeah,” Nico answered, “we are.”
“Okay. Are you having sex?”
“Sal!” Carina shrieked, scandalized.
The two teenagers shared another look.
“No,” they both answered.
He didn’t quite believe that. “If you’re lying to me—”
“We’re not having sex,” Nico said, not missing a beat.
“We’re not,” Frankie confirmed after.
Why would they lie?
Neither had proven to lie about what happened, or how it did, between them before. He chose to believe them this time.
“New rules while you’re both on the estate, then,” Salvatore said, “barring tonight during the events, I mean.”
Nico folded his arms, displeased. “New rules?”
“Until you get the house safer, she doesn’t go there. It will be a cold day in hell before I trust Anthony Carcoli and your brother to make peace and mean it. The penthouse is fine. The guest house is fine. Hell, even this house is fine. There is no curfew for anyone.”
That quieted the peanut gallery.
Salvatore matched Nico’s vibe, crossing his own arms. “And there is no having sex on my property unless people are married. Are we clear?”
Nico’s expression stayed stony. He didn’t blink or twitch.
Frankie, though...
She grinned.
“So, no curfew, which means I can be down the hill all night until morning, or he can be up here—”
“We don’t need to spell it all out,” Salvatore muttered, cutting her off.
Nico rocked on his heels. “Oh, but I do like things clear.”
Salvatore gave the two of them a look that he hoped screamed he was over the entire conversation. It was becoming harder to ignore Carina’s soft giggling at his back. “Stop fucking around. It is clear. No sex unless married on my property. It’s called respect. It’s the least you can do, do you understand me?”
Nico nodded. “Got it.”
“Yep,” Frankie joined. “We understand.”
He didn’t know why...but they looked suspicious.
“Get out of my face and be seen together only when required so that’s one less thing I have to handle tonight, please.”
The two did not be need to be told again. He watched Nico’s hand find Frankie’s lower back as they exited the kitchen. He realized when his daughter pushed back into that hand how his instruction could be interpreted, and how much more there was to physical intimacy besides actual sex.
“Oh, wow, you really played yourself there,” Carina murmured, clapping softly behind him. “Good job.”
“Just...just not now,” he uttered.
His beautiful wife kept laughing.
14. — rain...
Staten Island, New York
Frankie, Gallo Estate
“Just so you know,” Carina said beside Frankie where they stood side by side on the front steps, “your father will adjust those rules he mentioned earlier. He’s distracted right now and knows today isn’t the best time for that entire conversation.”
Frankie, eyeing where Nico leaned against the hood of his Mustang while smoking a cigarette, tried not to grin. And failed so miserably that her stepmother outright laughed.
“Thanks for the heads up.”
She did look at Carina to find her stepmother stared back, unflinching and unashamed with a conspiratorial glint in her eye. Only then did Frankie truly correlate the world-renowned beauty Carina really was with the sacrifices she had paid to become it.
It ached a little. Somewhere deep.
“Women need to look out for one another, we’re the only other people in the world who really gets it—who knows what it means to be one,” Carina said softly. “And I swear, it’s even worse when you’re born a beautiful woman.”
“Three minutes out now,” Salvatore said, nodding at a retreating Larkin as he announced the first visitor’s arrival to the community gates. Only a handful of people would be allowed to park on the estate’s property; the rest would be delegated to the road by a paid valet and a neighbor’s equally large garage for another handful of people that specifically requested such a thing. “Let’s get this shitshow over with.”
“Sal, you know I worked so freaking hard here—”