Page 49 of Made in Love and Blood

“Okay, I am going to have a stroke here, Sal, I swear to God.”

Time ticked away, and he watched it go with the diamond-tipped bezel of his favorite Rolex. He didn’t have much left before he had no choice but to exit the SUV he’d asked to drive him today. This plan should have saved time. Right now, it wasn’t.

“Carina—”

“No, seriously. I thought with you here I could breathe through it. If she takes a ball to the face and that new scar starts bleeding, I swear. The stitches have barely dissolved!”

“You’ve got to look at your priorities here because they are not the same as Frankie’s. It’s hard for you to remember that sometimes because you’re used to being the literal center of the universe every time you walk into a room.”

“That’s not true,” she tried to deny with a dangerously rising tone. “Jesus, I totally saw those signs with us wrong, didn’t I? It’s always the same with you and me. That’s the meanest you’ve been in a while. Fuck y—”

Salvatore pulled the last card he had to deal with Carina, and he ate the bullet, knowing exactly where it would lead them. “Babe,” he murmured softly, “it is true. In your mind, there isn’t a moment of your day when you don’t wonder what the people around you or who know you are thinking about you. In one way or another, consider it, and tell me I’m wrong.”

She didn’t.

Salvatore nodded to himself. “It’s how you survived. Frankie just...isn’t like that. She had other things to worry about it. Her own kind of survival.”

Carina remained silent.

Sal continued, “I know you want her to have pictures that she will love but forget about it. She’s going to love that when she looks at them, she remembers the day and who was there. You might see a scar, but she sees a win. Respect. Us. Are you even hearing me?”

Her breathing had practically stopped.

Carina cleared her throat without warning. “Can’t believe I fucking called you today. And over this.”

Salvatore couldn’t check to be certain, but he’d safely bet his wealth on the fact that his wife hadn’t found a reason to dial his number in over a year. They talked around one another, using others as messengers while the two of them were warships passing in the night.

It was...easier.

“I’m gonna be there,” he promised.

“And if you aren’t? She’ll be—”

“She will be fine because today isn’t about me in the end. But it doesn’t matter, that’s irrelevant. I will be there.”

“Okay,” Carina whispered.

The call immediately ended. Salvatore dropped the device on the back passenger seat and glanced at the man behind the wheel.

“Keep the engine running.”

“Not a second wasted, boss man.”

That in mind, Salvatore exited the vehicle. Less than thirty seconds later, he’d bypassed a waitress who knew his face and not to ask and headed straight down a short hallway where Matty waited. The enforcer had the door open for the oncoming consigliere, and Salvatore didn’t apologize for walking straight past the guy without even a nod hello.

He didn’t have time.

Giorgio made Salvatore twitchier in the next moment by saying, “You waited quite a while after your man pulled up before coming in. We’re not interrupting something more important, are we?”

“Not at all,” Salvatore deadpanned.

A smirk formed on Giorgio’s smug face. “Are you going to sit?”

“I’m not sure I’m needed here to begin with. I assume this is about Nico’s dues to the Jersey Crew? Let’s not run through all the pleasantries in the meantime.”

Giorgio ran his tongue over his teeth, sucking. “I ordered for you.”

“Coffee only, I hope.”