Page 8 of Marcus

As she should, like their father would say.

“Chris mentioned something about a magazine—”

He made a noise under his breath. “It’s nothing, we’ll handle it.”

“Well, that tells me all I need to know.”

“Which was what?”

“That it bothered you.”

“Of course, it bothers me.”

“But why … because they speculate, or because they tell lies? Either way, it’s easy to ignore it, Marcus.”

Right.

If only shit was that simple.

“It bothers me because they don’t know my life, but they act as if they do. And that is what I don’t appreciate, Ma. Yes, I can ignore it … I often do, but then I see another one, or like today, someone jokingly shoves it under the wiper on my car, and it just pisses me off all over again.”

Cara reached up and patted his cheek with her warm palm. “I’m sorry.”

“We’ll handle it.”

“Right, well … they’re only trying to get readers and sales, so be easy.”

Mmhmm.

He’d try.

“No promises,” he murmured.

At the sight of his father slipping back into the dining room, Marcus was quick to give his mother a kiss on her cheek before he excused himself. He followed after Gian with the intent of finally getting the chance to speak to him about this meeting, which so far had been for nothing, and why his father seemed to be ignoring him.

But by the time he got back inside the dining room, his father was already at the front of the room, heading it like a proper boss should. Lowball glass in hand, he raised it just enough so that the ting of his knife hitting the side of it echoed throughout the space. The noise quieted all the chatting men. Just like that, every gaze in the room turned on the boss who was ready to speak.

They needed to listen.

Marcus stayed back near the entrance, knowing better than to move around when his father spoke to the rest of the men. He didn’t want to take attention away from the boss just because he felt the need to take a seat at the table with the others. Besides, he could stand just fine, and his legs worked perfectly.

He wasn’t paying attention to whatever his father said, instead scanning the faces of the men at the table because that’s what he usually did. It wasn’t that his father became unimportant to him, but quite the opposite. He would learn what his father said later, although he usually already knew exactly what would be said at these meetings. And so, that allowed him the chance to observe the men around them and look for any possible issues while he did so.

It was habit, nothing more.

And so maybe that was why when the gazes of the men at the table suddenly turned on him, like they all knew he was watching them, Marcus looked to his father for an explanation. Gian, still talking, finally had his words heard by Marcus, and his reason for this meeting came into sharp clarity all around the board.

“I will be taking a step back from being the active boss of this family, if only because it’s time, and I think it’s time for someone else to step up—Marcus, of course. I will still make the final decisions when I decide I need to step in until everything becomes final with a new boss taking over, but from here on out, Marcus heads this family.”

He wasn’t quite sure what happened after that or what the others had to say. He was still trying to catch up to speed, and what it all meant.

No. That was a lie.

Marcus understood perfectly well what it meant. So did his father.

Gian nodded his way, saying, “And this gives him time, oui? Time to figure out the details he needs to satisfy this family, and our expectations. There is not a deadline on this; we’re beginning the process, that’s all.”

Yeah, he heard him loud and clear.