Page 86 of Marcus

“I was hoping to drop this off, and just go. I have somewhere—”

“Marcus, you will sit, and we will chat.”

All right, then.

The fact that his father was already dressed in a three-piece suit when it wasn’t even eight in the morning should have been a clue that something was up, honestly. Gian preferred to stay in his sleep clothes until he was ready to leave his home.

Taking a seat at the table, Marcus handed the large envelope over and waited silently while his father opened it up and began pulling the stacks of cash out. Gian didn’t intend to make his son wait for long before he explained exactly why he was acting strange.

“When were you planning to tell me about the problems you’ve had with the bikers over the maple farms?”

Ah.

That explained a lot.

“Did you need to know?” Marcus asked back. “I’ve handled it again and again. And without much issues, seeing as how you’re only finding out now, right?”

Gian glanced up from a wad of bills in his hand, giving Marcus a look that practically screamed for him to check his fucking attitude. Everybody liked to talk about their mother having that look—a single glance that all kids recognized meant they were about to be in trouble. Well, here Marcus was as a grown man, and his father had one of those looks.

Came with the territory, he suspected.

“Explain to me,” Gian said quietly, his tone suggesting Marcus walk a very careful line the next time he opened his mouth to speak, “why you thought an issue that could very well hurt our business and bring us much unwanted and unneeded attention wasn’t important enough for you to … at the very least, Marcus, discuss with me. By all means, I apparently have time today to teach my son who should already know how this business works about what he needs to do, so go ahead. I will wait.”

With the understanding Marcus needed to give his father the respect he was due for being both who he was, and having the status he did, that didn’t stop him from getting irritated all over again.

“The issue is being handled,” Marcus said, “the very same way you would handle it, because I kept you in mind while dealing with it. It’s still being handled, and as the media has not yet gotten wind that the Guzzis have anything to do with the recent death of the gang’s president, or that we were even in talks with them, I think that proves everything was fine, no?”

“I’m concerned that you assumed you didn’t need to tell me, son. And what else you might not be telling me regarding business.”

Oh, was that it?

“Or is it something else?” Marcus asked.

Gian raised a brow at that question. “I beg your pardon?”

“You were quite clear that unless I needed to bring something to your attention because I couldn’t handle it otherwise, I was to deal with everything. Act as the boss, being that’s what you wanted the men to see me as. Because you can’t sit a new boss down while the old boss is still making the calls. Am I wrong?”

His father said nothing.

Marcus continued on with, “So do you really want to step back here, Papa, or do you just want to tell me how to do my job from the wings? I mean, if that’s what it is, at least let me know so that I understand what’s really happening here.”

“Marcus—”

“Right now, my duty is to this family first,” he interjected before his father could say anything else, “and everything else second. I’m doing my job, and I don’t need you to tell me how to do it, Gian. You spent my whole life doing that. I think I’m good to handle it alone now.”

The silence stretched on between the two of them.

Marcus didn’t mind.

Finally, his father said, “Keeping me updated on a situation doesn’t mean I would step in, or force you to make other choices. It concerned me, that’s all. I worry you have too many plates spinning in the air, Marcus, and one is about to fall. If you can’t, at the very least, keep me informed on the business side of things, then what else are you overlooking?”

“Nothing. I made a choice not to involve you in a situation I didn’t think needed your hand. Nothing more, and nothing less.”

“And when maple season comes up, what do you plan to do if you’re still having these issues with the bikers? Specifically for the farm in Quebec, since I hear that’s the one they’ve got a hard nut for and all.”

“We’re not at the season yet.”

“But you will be.”