Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“I wasn’t doing anything anyway. Besides, it’s your birthday. Go enjoy your night off.”
Taking a long look at Amo, Sal realized the man who was sitting in the chair was no longer a kid. He couldn’t pinpoint when it had happened, but Sal could see a maturity in Amo, and he could no longer see an adolesecent trying to navigate his way into the adult world.
“Thanks, Amo,” he said before leaving his office and heading to his penthouse.
Valerie was coming down the steps right when he came in the door.
“You’re here!” As he walked toward her, Valerie launched herself into his arms. “I thought I was going to have go back to your office and drag you out of there.”
“Amo took over for me.” Giving her a quick kiss, he set her back down and looked her over appreciatively. Valerie had changed out of her comfortable pants and T-shirt to a pink, pleated plaid mini skirt, black tights, and boots, with a matching black blouse that had a pink frilly lace around the neckline that matched her skirt. “You look hot. You sure you want to go out.” Sal’s hand itched to pull that skirt up and play with what was underneath.
Darting away from him when he was about to put action behind the thought, she placed herself protectively behind a chair. “You’ll have the rest of night when we come home for the birthday boy to get his gift.”
“I’ll be right back then.” Laughing, Sal went upstairs to freshen up. Taking off his suit jacket and tie, he unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt, before running a comb through his hair before he went back downstairs where Valerie was waiting impatiently by the door.
“Finally!”
Sal shook his head at her. “I only took five minutes.”
“Let’s go,” Grabbing him by the hand, Sal found himself having to speed up to keep up with her.
Eyeing her suspiciously in the elevator on the way down, he belatedly got the feeling that Valerie was up to something.
“You’re not throwing me a birthday party, are you?”
Valerie shook her head. “No way. It’s just going to be us tonight.”
Satisfied with her answer, he allowed her to tug him out of the elevator.
Sal caught the happy smiles everyone gave him as they walked through the casino. When they came to the front door, they walked outside. Seeing them, one of the valets immediately walked over to them.
“Sal, I’ll get your car for you.”
“It’s all right, Marco, I can get my own car. It’s not that far of a walk.”
“No need. It’s slow right now. Vincent gets mad if he sees us standing around just talking.”
After the incident with Valerie, Sal understood. The last valet driver hadn’t noticed that she was being held at gun point while she had been walked across the street to the Horseshoe. Not wanting to let another of Nadia’s protégés get in trouble, he gave Marco his keys.
“Thanks, Sal. I’ll be right back.” The kid took off at a run.
Sal watched him go with a frown. He was going to have to have a talk with Lucca about Vincent.
All thoughts of Vincent were washed away as a car was pulled in front of Valerie and him. He had to blink twice at the car to make sure he wasn’t imagining it. It looked like his car, but he instinctively knew it also wasn’t. The car in front of him brought him eerily back to his tenth birthday.
When Marco jumped out, grinning, and tossed him the keys, Sal clumsily caught them, still awestruck.
“You’ve got a cool ride, Sal.” Marco stood next to him, admiring the classic car.
“What do you think?” Valerie’s quiet words had him turning to her.
“This isn’t my car.” It was, but it wasn’t anymore.
“Yes, it is. Happy birthday, Sal!”
His mind still couldn’t wrap around the fact of what he was staring at. There were so few happy memories he had of his mom, and the car had been a big part of them.
Walking forward to touch the hood of the car, he confirmed it was real and not a figment of his imagination.
“It’s my mom’s old car,” he said, still in disbelief. There was no denying it, not even his replica brought him this much joy.
Valerie couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. “I saw the picture with you and your mom in front of the car, so I tracked it down.”
Sal turned from his car in astonishment. “I did, too. I tracked it down to a salvage yard. The worker I spoke to told me it had been crushed.”
“You call or go there?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
He swallowed. “I called.”
“I went there and showed the picture to the owner. Most of the parts had been parted out, but the owner couldn’t bring himself to crush it. The car had been sitting in his garage for years. He had been planning on restoring it for his grandson. He didn’t want to sell it to me …”