Page 20 of Made in Love and Blood

“I’m trying to figure you out,” Sal replied.

“Let me know if you find the trick,” Nico said low. “I’d like to have it for future reference.”

That earned him another soft laugh from Salvatore. “You know, I think I could like you, Nico.”

“I’m still undecided,” he replied.

That was a lie.

He’d decided years ago that he liked Sal. The same night he hugged a broken, sad boy, told him it was okay, and tried to apologize. Something no other man in his life had done for him up until that moment. Walking into that same man’s office to see the photographs of his daughter proudly displayed only cemented Nico’s feelings.

Salvatore grinned. “I don’t need you to like me. What I need from you boils down to three things. If you care to hear them.”

Nico considered it. “I’m a taker, Sal. I rarely give, and if I do, I’m gonna take to make up for it.”

“A bargain, then?”

That piqued his interest. “What do you mean?”

Sal put his pointer finger up to his lips and then tipped it like a bullet coming in Nico’s direction. “Give me three reasonable things that you want, and I’ll tell you three equally reasonable things I expect in return for you to earn them.”

“Earn—”

“Are we bargaining or bitching?”

Nico drank the last gulp of coffee from his cup. “Any restrictions?”

It took Salvatore a moment to respond. “If your name doesn’t control access to it, then I’m shit out of luck. Or you are, whatever.”

“I want my vehicles. For obvious reasons. Also, I’d like to see my sister. That one might not be so easy, given my father won’t even speak to me, but I can work up to it.”

“All right. And your last thing?”

Nico didn’t even have to think about it. It was a pipe dream, and he knew it. A carrot that hadn’t even been dangled for him when the chaos of his life dominated what he could have been if things were different.

“The button.”

He wanted his in. He wanted to be made. A made man.

“In that order?” Salvatore asked.

Nico laughed. “Any order.”

A nod answered him back. “Okay, here are mine. These aren’t in any order because they’re all equally important, and there are no exceptions. Are we clear?”

“Like crystal.”

“One—respect.”

“Could have guessed it,” Nico said.

Sal didn’t even smile. “The way you behave reflects on me. Perhaps you don’t care that people see your father through a view of your making, and maybe he’s earned it, but I’m not him. I don’t care if you hate the person looking you straight in the face, you keep that shit to yourself. Understood?”

“Got it. Two?”

“Stop, drop, and roll, kiddo. If I say jump, you ask how high. No questions asked.”

Nico’s jaw clenched. “I’m not a child.”