Page 108 of Made in Love and Blood

She looked right back. Fuck.

“Okay, we’ve got to chat,” Salvatore interrupted, breaking up the cute moment. A moment that couldn’t happen again for the next few hours. “That right there,” he told them with a wagging finger at the two, “needs to chill out until people are out of this house and off my property. I want you seen, but not heard, Nico, and make sure you’re not seen with my daughter more than twice. Keep it below PG, like so fucking low, it’s not even rateable.”

“He doesn’t know, huh?” Nico asked.

Salvatore inhaled deeply, knowing exactly what he meant. Frankie stayed quiet, but her expression turned questioning as she looked between her father and Nico.

“I don’t tend to bring personal details about my family to the boss unless it’s required, or it can’t be helped, so no, I haven’t spoken to him about your relationship,” Salvatore replied. “Perhaps, when you have had to write check after check, ordered bullet after bullet, attended funeral after funeral, you will realize why being sworn a made man to your father isn’t entirely worth the price you have to pay for it. But that’s what you want, isn’t it? I was not the same.”

The silence in the room grew, almost coming alive. He hadn’t meant to be so frank. So open.

Nico nodded, then. “Seen, not heard. I got it.”

“Do you?”

“I’m telling you; I got it.”

Salvatore let it be, then, but he had one other thing for his daughter and her...whatever. “Are you two together now? I’m going to assume yes.”

The two shared a quick look.

“Yeah,” Nico answered, “we are.”

“Okay. Are you having sex?”

“Sal!” Carina shrieked, scandalized.

The two teenagers shared another look.

“No,” they both answered.

He didn’t quite believe that. “If you’re lying to me—”

“We’re not having sex,” Nico said, not missing a beat.

“We’re not,” Frankie confirmed after.

Why would they lie?

Neither had proven to lie about what happened, or how it did, between them before. He chose to believe them this time.

“New rules while you’re both on the estate, then,” Salvatore said, “barring tonight during the events, I mean.”

Nico folded his arms, displeased. “New rules?”

“Until you get the house safer, she doesn’t go there. It will be a cold day in hell before I trust Anthony Carcoli and your brother to make peace and mean it. The penthouse is fine. The guest house is fine. Hell, even this house is fine. There is no curfew for anyone.”

That quieted the peanut gallery.

Salvatore matched Nico’s vibe, crossing his own arms. “And there is no having sex on my property unless people are married. Are we clear?”

Nico’s expression stayed stony. He didn’t blink or twitch.

Frankie, though...

She grinned.

“So, no curfew, which means I can be down the hill all night until morning, or he can be up here—”