Page 149 of Made in Love and Blood

“The first thing I’m gonna do if you get pregnant before we’re married is fly you to Vegas. No questions asked. If your father doesn’t hate me now, he sure fucking will when I walk you down some tacky aisle and make you my wife.”

“Should go do that now,” she joked.

Nico shook his head. “You don’t mean that, and even if you do a little, that’s not what you really want.”

“Will you text me later?” she asked as he silently started the car and put it in drive.

“I’ll be around tonight, if you want me there.”

“You’re not too freaked out about the dinner, are you?”

“I’ve got the upper hand,” he muttered regarding Giorgio. “He wanted me for dinner on Monday, and I’m gonna show up a day early with his favorite cigars to ease the pain. Plus, I’m hoping Marco won’t be there in the meantime if he doesn’t know I will.”

“Are you going to talk about me and you?”

“As little as possible,” he admitted, navigating the car through the streets. “It’s better that way, trust me. The less he’s involved in a person’s private life, the less ammo he has to make you pay when you don’t act the way he wants or do what he tells you to do.”

She frowned. “What if your brother does end up being there?”

“A little girl sitting at the table will keep him in line. She usually does.”

“Your voice changes when you speak about him.”

Nico’s throat scratched with his next words. “Does it?”

“More than when you talk about your dad, even. Why?”

“He did awful fucking things to me, Frankie.”

“Like—”

“The kinds of things I haven’t even told God.”

That quieted her, and Nico was grateful. Soon enough, the gates of the Gallo estate came into view. At the gate’s speaker, Nico gave his name and Frankie’s before they informed him that he couldn’t drive beyond the main house.

After parking the Mustang, it didn’t take long for Salvatore to exit the main house from the front door as Frankie leaned across the middle to steal a burning kiss from Nico. She only pulled away when her father came to stand twenty feet in front of Nico’s car.

“Hey,” he said, before she closed the door.

Frankie leaned back in. “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Her smile killed him in the best way.

“I love you, too, Nico.”

Nico went to reverse after Frankie slammed the door closed, but Salvatore gestured to him with one finger before he could.

He rolled down his window in just enough time to hear the sharp words passed between father and daughter. Salvatore, scared and angry, felt he was owed an explanation from his daughter. Frankie, defiant, repeating that she could make her own choices as an adult to go and do what she wanted to do, didn’t budge an inch in the conversation.

It ended a lot like the way it began.

Sal demanded she behave like an adult, if she wanted to actually be one. Take responsibility for the choices she made which affected other people. Frankie also told him that she would be returning to her penthouse.

Probably for the best. Those were Salvatore’s words. At least, Nico didn’t make her cry this time. That was all her dad.

Stomping up the steps, Frankie never looked back.