Page 34 of Always: A Legacy Novel

Wolf pushed on Cross’s shoulder, moving them both toward the restaurant. “He likes messing with you because it bothers you, Cross. Haven’t you figured that out yet? There are men in this business who will poke at every raw nerve you have just because they can; because you’ve been stupid enough to show them you have a weakness to exploit. Don’t blame Rick for your shortcomings. It is not his duty to curb his nature to suit your mood, principe, not unless you’re the boss.”

He really hated it when Wolf made sense.

“Get your dick wet for the first time in your life,” Rick said as he held the door open for Wolf and Cross to enter the business, “and I’ll stop calling you a kid, principe.”

Cross glared at the asshole on his way by. “I already—”

“Getting your dick sucked isn’t the same thing,” Rick interrupted.

Little did the guy know, Cross had already done all that shit and more. It took every ounce of willpower Cross had not to drive his thumbs into Rick’s eye sockets and pull out the man’s eyes in that second, though.

“Well, you would know all about sucking cock, wouldn’t you?” Cross asked. “Don’t your knees get sore from that?”

Rick’s face reddened.

Cross smirked.

Point to me, asshole.

“Okay, that’s quite enough entertainment for the day,” Wolf said. He pushed Cross ahead of him and sent Rick a look to keep him quiet at the same time. “Cross, wipe that smug smile off your face. Rick, draw your line at talking about that shit, and stay right where you are for the rest of this meeting.”

Rick stayed behind like he was told.

Wolf flicked Cross on the tip of his ear, ignoring the shout and dirty look he earned. Once they were around the corner and entering the restaurant’s main floor, he said, “Cross, you’re working my last nerve; clean up the attitude quick, fast, and in a hurry, or you will stay behind the next time.”

Cross fixed his attitude.

For now.

A man Cross recognized stood from his table when he saw them approaching. Adriano Conti was his name—a Capo for the Chicago Outfit. Wolf hadn’t explained much about the business they would be doing in Chicago, just that Cross was to come, sit down, and shut his mouth so he could learn. He’d seen Adriano at another meeting, although his father had been the one to bring him along at that time.

“Wolf,” Adriano greeted, holding out his hand.

Wolf took the handshake. “Adriano.”

The man nodded to Cross. “I wondered if you would bring the principe.”

“I’m starting to regret the decision.”

Cross opened his mouth to respond, but wisely chose to shut up when Wolf looked down at him with a cocked brow.

Adriano’s gaze lit up with amusement as he looked over Cross. “Oh?”

“It’s like sitting between two teenage girls barking at one another in the car between him and the other man I brought along,” Wolf said. “Although to be frank, it seems I have a man who forgets that Cross will not always be fifteen, a head shorter than him, and fifty pounds lighter. Soon, he won’t be any of those things at all, and I’m not sure the man is ready for what happens when that day comes. He’s poking at a sleeping bear with a very short stick.”

“I will have to tell my nephew he is not the only principe to be ribbed on a regular basis,” Adriano said, smiling, “although if you asked Tommaso, he certainly thinks he’s the only one. It’s a rite of passage for young men like you, Cross. Who else will thicken your skin if not the men you grow up under? That’s how you learn not to kill everyone who pisses you off.”

Cross scowled. “Killing them seems like the easier way to deal with it.”

Wolf lifted a hand in Cross’s direction, as if to ask, See?

Adriano laughed. “You’ll learn, Cross. We all did.”

“Sit,” Wolf said, pointing at an open chair at the table.

Cross slid into the seat and shrugged his jacket off to hang over the back. Once the other two men were also seated, he noticed the enforcer Adriano had brought along, as the man came to hand over a file for his Capo to take.

“Thank you,” Adriano said, waving the enforcer off.