Page 196 of Made in Love and Blood

“Higher than a boss’s son, Giorgio?” Silence answered Salvatore’s question. He didn’t mind. He just posed another quieter. “Or does it just depend on the son?”

Giorgio’s head snapped as if on a swivel. “Excuse me?”

“If this were Marco, would we be having the conversation at all? Had he brought home a woman of his choosing, decent or one of ill repute, would we be having this conversation right now?”

“That one will be forced down the aisle, so the question is irrelevant.”

“No, it isn’t, you just don’t want to answer.”

“You are out of line, Salvatore. I feel like that’s been happening a lot lately with you.”

“Mmm, no. I think I’m right on the mark, actually.”

“I’m starting to believe you’ve forgotten your place.”

In fact, he couldn’t forget it and the barely hidden threats didn’t concern him. Salvatore decided right then to prove his point just because he could, and Giorgio needed a good kick off his high horse.

“Had the roles between those boys been reversed, and Marco got thrown on my doorstep as something to clean up for you, and months later he brought my daughter to your home to share the news of his engagement to her, you would have been ecstatic.”

Giorgio scowled.

Salvatore continued, “As if he might ever come close to deserving her. As if that, I would’ve given my blessing.” He scoffed. “Right.”

“And what, Nico does?”

Oh, he could hear the offense Giorgio took in his tone. God forbid someone put down the Golden Child of the family. One might think, from the outside looking in, said title belonged to Carmen. They would also be wrong.

“Here’s what Nico doesn’t do,” Salvatore countered, smirking a little. “Nico doesn’t purposely seek out things his brother likes and is proud of to ruin and destroy. Nico doesn’t intentionally hurt and humiliate his brother because he’s jealous, or because his father paid him more attention at any given time. Nico doesn’t, as often as he can manage, make it his personal mission to be seen as better, or above, his brother. He doesn’t have to. He just is.”

Salvatore chuckled, knowing good and well Giorgio wouldn’t like what came next in the slightest. “One of those boys went to college, whether he got expelled is neither here nor there, given the choice he made that got him kicked out in the first place. One of those boys tattooed his body top to bottom just because he knew you hated it, and it would get your attention. One can sit at a table with men who are his betters and learn from them, and the other needed six abortions arranged for various girls, younger than him, and caught two STIs by the time he hit sixteen. Shall I continue?”

Again, Giorgio said nothing through clenched teeth.

“One knows the rules; the other doesn’t care.”

“Sal.”

“One will make millions of dollars this year and next.”

“Sal.”

“The other keeps burning out the properties of a man—”

“Okay, the point is made,” Giorgio hissed, glowering.

“Boss,” Salvatore replied, as respectfully as he could manage, “If you want to ignore what’s right in front of your face, then suffer for it. Don’t expect everybody else to do the same. If Marco doesn’t like to be behind his brother, then he should stop trying to compete with him. He’s causing his own misery. Besides, he’ll never catch up because it’s not a race, and Nico isn’t trying to win. He’s just happy. Ask yourself why that alone bothers Marco enough to behave the way he does. Maybe then, we’ll get to the real root of the issue.”

“What is it about, then? Between them,” he said, gesturing at a couple that had disappeared deeper into the room.

That relieved Salvatore. Giorgio didn’t make a move to get up and adjust his seating as he had for the last three hours just to keep watching, either.

Giorgio acted like he didn’t hear anything else his consigliere said. Or maybe, he just didn’t care. Both could also be true.

“They want each other, Giorgio. They’re a good match.”

It was true, even if a baby hid between them. That’s how the baby got there, after all.

“And he is a good man,” Sal added about Nico, “even if you can’t see it.”