Page 14 of Made in Love and Blood

“Are you okay?”

He all but spelled it out with the slow tone and a gaze locked on the wet grass from before.

Frankie swallowed hard knowing he saw her little secret. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

Nico sneered at the question. As silent and still as he’d been up there on the stone wall, it all changed in an instant. He jumped down without hesitation, landing solidly on two feet which brought him the few strides between them in a breath.

“What did you just say to me?”

Frankie made herself stay put, even though he was close enough for the slight breeze to bring his crisp, fresh scent right to her. “Why are you here? Maybe that’s a better question.”

Something burned in Nico that she didn’t recognize. The two didn’t get to be friends. She barely saw him in passing as he made his way through high school. Her father made it his personal mission to keep Frankie as separated from his boss’s family as he could whenever possible. Seeing him here without any warning was a big change of pace.

“Why am I here? Ask Salvatore.”

Her father?

“I’d get better answers from Stella.”

Nico almost grinned, but his face pulled with sarcasm and an edge that stung from two feet away. “I’m fucking great, thanks for asking. They took my phone, my cars, locked me into a house that isn’t my own, and told me I couldn’t leave. I can’t see my baby sister, my father refuses to speak to me, and I have no access to my accounts anymore. How’s life going for you, doll?”

He punctuated the question by gazing beyond her and swinging an arm wide at the large expanse of property stretching behind her.

Ouch.

“Then again,” Nico added, not even missing a beat, “you did just run yourself sick, so that says something, huh?”

She knew better than to ask what he meant. He already proven himself to be mean, and shit, it sounded like he had every reason to be. Just their history gave him enough of one. What came after sounded like an even bigger pile of garbage to deal with.

Frankie still asked, “And what does it say?”

Nico, a half-foot taller than her five and a half feet, stepped closer until she could see the flecks of gold in his green irises when he pointed with the two fingers still holding the cigarette, and said, “Something’s not right inside of you, either.”

“Hey! Get away from her right now! You know the rules!”

Frankie hadn’t heard the approach of security.

“We just went over this less than two hours ago,” Larkin kept shouting the closer he approached, his combat boots tearing up grass on the way. “You’re not gonna pull the type of crap on me that you’ve been trying with everyone else. You know the rules!”

Nico’s curious attention didn’t leave Frankie as he said, “Yeah, yeah. I know the rules.”

It didn’t sound like he cared about them, though. Not one bit.

3. — the prodigal problem...

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Staten Island, New York

Nico Russo, Gallo Estate

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“All right, princess, rise and shine,” rang a deep baritone that woke Nico straight out of a dead sleep. He opened his eyes and promptly squeezed them shut again. Maybe if he ignored the sudden pain in his ass, then it, like its noise, would go away. The clapping didn’t help. “Up and at ‘em. Let’s go.”

Nico groaned through the piercing headache. “The fuck did you just call me?”

“I didn’t stutter. Move.”