Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
John’s gaze narrowed. “That’s really un-fucking-fair.”
“Watch your mouth.”
“You don’t.”
“John, listen to me. I managed to graduate high school and then college with honors and all the while, I was still involved in the family. I still got my button. I worked my ass off. You’re not going to get this life handed to you, kid.”
“But—”
Lucian held a hand up, stopping his son. “But nothing. I don’t care what any of the ass kissers on the streets tell you when you’re hanging around with those cafones you seem to like so much. They don’t know a goddamn thing. You might carry the Marcello name, but you’re going to earn your right to have it, John. Mark my damned words, you will earn it.”
Liliana walked back into the kitchen with a scowl. “There is no money in your wallet, Daddy.”
Lucian turned away from the stove, facing his son. “John?”
John pulled out the missing five-dollar bill and handed it to his sister without another word.
Lucian wasn’t surprised.
*
“Okay, okay, bye, bye,” Jordyn muttered, turning around to give Liliana a kiss on the forehead before their youngest daughter climbed out of the SUV.
Cella was too quick for her mother. She got out without the kiss.
Once the doors were closed, Jordyn heaved a sigh. “Long morning, Lucian.”
With three kids?
Yes, it was.
“John gave me hell again,” Lucian informed.
Jordyn frowned. “Is it only going to get worse the older he gets?”
“Probably.”
And the kid reminded Lucian of Giovanni when his youngest brother was just a teen.
“I think he has a girlfriend,” Jordyn said, buckling her seat belt as Lucian pulled away from the drop off at the private school.
John went to another school with his cousin Andino. Giovanni usually picked John up in the morning and took his Godson over with Andino.
Lucian didn’t know what in the hell he was going to do when he had even less control over his son than he did right now. How would it be when John could drive, had his own vehicle, or God forbid, began getting access to the trust funds his dead biological grandfather had left for him that Lucian wasn’t allowed to have any say in?
“A girlfriend is the least of my worries,” Lucian admitted.
“What if Liliana had a little boyfriend?”
Lucian’s hands clenched so hard around the steering wheel that his knuckles turned white. “That’s not even funny.”
Jordyn snorted. “Kind of funny.”
“Stop it, bella donna.”
“Fine. Maybe a girlfriend will cool him down.”
“Or maybe he’s thirteen and needs to get his di—”
“Finish that sentence and I will bust your mouth, Lucian.”
Lucian shut up.
“Will you talk to him?” Jordyn asked.
“About what?”
“You know, condoms and things.”
Lucian glowered at the road ahead of him. “I already have.”
“And?”
“And he’s got a pack in his book bag and a smaller one in his dresser. Plus, he knows where to find mine.”
Jordyn did not look pleased about that fact. “Lucian, that’s essentially giving him permission to go out and have sex.”
“No, it’s not acting like a blind fool, Jordyn. It’s realizing my son is more likely to have sex because he’s been exposed to a different lifestyle. It’s knowing that when he does, he has more than enough access to stuff to keep him safe. I’m not going to lie down and play dumb, all right. Do that if you want, but I won’t.”
“He’s just a kid.”
“Gio was fourteen the first time he had sex,” Lucian blurted out.
Jordyn’s brow rose high. “Really?”
“Yes. I was fifteen, so was Dante.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Do you want to know how old the woman was that Gio messed around with?”
Jordyn’s brow furrowed. “Woman?”
“Yeah, woman, not a teenaged girl. A woman. Do you want to know?”
“Not really.”
“Well, I’ll tell you anyway. She was twenty-four. It might as well have been somebody using him for things he didn’t even really understand at the time. Some people would call it rape, but Gio won’t. He got sex—he knew that. But he was hanging around someone who didn’t look out for him and the woman thought he was an easy way in to the Capo who was looking out for Gio at the time. So yeah, Jordyn, I won’t play dumb just because it makes you uncomfortable.”
Jordyn made a noise under her breath. “Okay.”
Lucian sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “I’ll talk to John again.”
“Okay.”
Taking a turn-off into a drive thru for a Starbucks, Jordyn glanced over at Lucian.
“What?” he asked, seeing the question in her eyes.
“It wasn’t like that for you, right?”
“My first fuck, you mean?”
Jordyn scowled. “You’re so crass.”
“You asked.”
“Whatever. Was it?”
“No. It was messy and fast and full of fumbling and laughter. She was the same age as me, it happened in the dark, under the covers, and in a bed. Pretty normal, considering everything.”
“Considering everything?”
Lucian coughed, feeling more uncomfortable than ever. “Well, her father was a Capo and all. Probably wasn’t smart of me to be messing around with her.”