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)
“And we better be still fucking like rabbits,” she added pointedly, “or you’ll be fighting me for a whole different reason every damn day.”
Jesus Christ, his side hurt.
“I love you,” he told her again, just because it didn’t ache as much as those initial times. “You don’t even know how much.”
“Yeah, I do. Truth is, I probably always did every time I caught you looking at me. It was just going to hurt a lot for you to say it.”
Something triggered in his mind, and his laughter faded away quickly.
Carina didn’t miss the change. “What is it?”
“You know tomorrow...who’s going to be here.”
The boss, he meant.
He didn’t spell it out.
Carina proved he didn’t need to. “I know, but I see you now, too, Sal.”
“I don’t feel safe in a room with him, either. I hope you know that.”
“Salvatore, you pay thirty million dollars a year for a security team that rivals the President’s. You think I don’t know what he’s done to you, too? I know the details, yes, but I know, too. I sleep in your bed, too. I hear your nightmares, too. I’ve been to their graves, too. Every dollar you spend on our well-being probably feels like another inch between your head and his bullet, doesn’t it?”
He couldn’t deny it.
He couldn’t even tell her that she didn’t know how it felt to live through what that man could do to a person one choice, or one funeral, at a time. Because she did know.
Just differently.
“I still wished you killed him that day,” she said, the words barely above a breath. They never spoke about that day. The day it all changed for the two of them a long time ago.
He didn’t want to talk about it now, either.
“I might still,” he admitted.
“How many more reasons do you need?” she asked him.
•••
The next day...
Sissy and Larkin strolled into the kitchen while a few of his guys straggled behind. Salvatore passed the group a nod as they came to stand at an attention of sorts while he finished affixing the cufflinks on his suit jacket.
Next to him, Carina adjusted the cape of Frankie’s dress where it connected at the shoulders. Frankie wore hers at her back, pink, that way while Carina opted to drape the cape of hers, in blue, across the front of her chest and back down her shoulders like a shawl.
“An hour to go-time,” he said to the quiet room.
“Everybody knows the plan, boss man,” Larkin replied.
“And the caterer is finishing up now setting the tables,” Sissy added.
The ones in the back stayed silent.
“There,” Carina stated, smiling brilliantly as she stepped back from Frankie. “You are not wearing it at the front. Why are you trying to hide that body, baby? Look at you.”
Salvatore cleared his throat and jerked his head toward the group. “Okay, get lost. Thank you, everybody. Regroup at the end, all right?”
Nods answered back.
Larkin lagged to say, “Nico’s a minute or so out, by the way.”
“Thank you.”
Another last-minute detail to handle.
“I’m not trying to hide it,” Frankie muttered after the kitchen emptied out, “but it hung a little looser when you first had me try it on.”
“Yeah, months ago. When you were ten or more pounds under weight and probably weren’t even getting your period given how hard you were exercising on top of soccer,” Carina replied, although not meanly.
“You don’t know that I wasn’t getting my period.”
“Were you?” Carina demanded.
Frankie didn’t answer.
“Are you now?” Carina questioned further.
At that one, Frankie admitted, “Not yet.”
Salvatore found Carina’s stare but said nothing. This had happened before, between the two of them dealing with their respective eating disorders. He’d been at the doctor appointments. It would come back, but their bodies kept the score. It took time.
Salvatore pretended like a button had come undone on his jacket, needing an out for this conversation as quickly as possible.
Where was Nico again?
“Well, it’ll be back soon enough,” Carina assured.
“Exactly, but not yet,” Frankie said. “And I already weigh—”
“You look beautiful,” Salvatore told his daughter.
On that, he would step in.
“Amazing, both of you.” Carina winked his way, but he kept his eyes on his daughter, adding, “And you’re to let me know if the cycle thing holds out for too long.”
“Please, don’t. Not today. I know, Daddy.”
He let it go because someone else came into the room.
In an all-black suit, including his shoes, vest, shirt, and tie, Nico strolled across the kitchen without as much as a hello to anyone. He beelined it for the only person who was already heading his way, too.
“Shit, look at you,” he told Sal’s daughter, arms outstretched to hold her. She let him, easily, like breathing. “You can wear anything, incredible.”
“I told you,” Carina said to no one in particular.
Again, Sal looked to Carina.
She looked right back. Fuck.
“Okay, we’ve got to chat,” Salvatore interrupted, breaking up the cute moment. A moment that couldn’t happen again for the next few hours. “That right there,” he told them with a wagging finger at the two, “needs to chill out until people are out of this house and off my property. I want you seen, but not heard, Nico, and make sure you’re not seen with my daughter more than twice. Keep it below PG, like so fucking low, it’s not even rateable.”