Page 70 of Made in Love and Blood

Salvatore shook his head. “No, it doesn’t. And you have twenty seconds to prove to me that you understand the word, or you don’t leave with my daughter.”

Nico swallowed the lump in throat, and his thoughts raced. “Uh—”

“Time’s ticking.”

“It means she calls the shots. Every time.”

Briefly, the other man’s gaze softened as it passed between his daughter in the background and Nico right in front of him. “That’s right, just like her speaking ill your way will be the shot that goes straight from my gun into your brain. And I promise, she won’t cry over it. She won’t even remember you existed when I’m done. Do you understand me?”

He did.

Nico still wondered... “So, are you saying something, doing something, or letting it be nothing?”

Salvatore sighed. “All three, I guess. Until one of you forces my hand.”

“How could we do that?”

“Do you think you won’t fall in love with my daughter?” Salvatore asked, laughing almost snidely. He stepped forward, passing Nico with a closing word on the subject. “Young man, I’d like to see you try. Please. You’re already halfway there but you’ve still got a lot of catching up to do, too.”

Nico turned slightly as Sal passed him, asking, “What do you mean?”

Salvatore paused, his head tilting toward Nico as he spoke even quieter than before. “Okay, here it is. You’re looking at the first and only man she knew loved her for her whole life. Still does. Always will. These are big fucking shoes to fill.”

“It’s just prom,” Nico muttered, trying to convince Sal just as much as himself. “I don’t even know if this counts as a date.”

Salvatore scoffed. “Unreal. Say it like you believe it next time, okay? And you still get to go through the hard parts yet. When she knows who you really are, where you’ve been and what you’ve done, who you want to be someday. After, when that’s all out in a messy pile between you, and she stays because she wants to, because she wants you...

“Every single time you look at my daughter, just know I am the standard, Nico. The way she has been my entire life from her first breath, she will expect the same from you. As she should. So, from here on out where she’s concerned, I’m going to need you to behave accordingly. Your next steps with my daughter are going to determine a lot for you. Before you take one, consider them carefully. Consider her. Consider you. Consider me.”

“Sal, I—”

“Smile, kid. She’s watching. You make sure that’s all she ever sees between you and me. A fucking smile.”

•••

Frankie twirled a circle beneath Nico’s extended arm to the track pumping out of the speakers. The same song she had been dancing to the day he found her cleaning the Supra. Her smile beamed even while her teeth found her bottom lip as she found herself close to him once again. Eyes locked, the two moved in sync in a small circle.

“I love that you dance,” she told him.

He chuckled, his hands finding her neck so he could pull her in for a quick kiss to her forehead. “What kind of guy doesn’t dance?”

“Boring ones.”

He could barely make out the people around them in the strobing lights flickering beneath the sheer and silk tapestries billowing overhead. Somehow, he could also tell that same crowd gave the two of them their own berth of space.

Partly to watch, he thought.

Partly because Frankie and him...weren’t there with them. The two of them found something far better with each other. The rest of the room didn’t even have to exist. It barely played a part.

“So, what are we doing after this?” she asked him.

Nico hadn’t thought about it. “We’ll figure it out. Don’t your feet hurt?”

“Lidocaine spray,” she informed, winking. “Carina’s trick.”

“Carina is a bad influence. Pain tells you when to back off.”

“Beauty is pain, Nico.”