Smoke (The Carelli Family Saga #1) - Eden Butler Page 0,42
without a backward glance and I got up from my desk, moving to the window with Mateo in my arms as we watched the sidewalk outside get thick with afternoon foot traffic.
This chick, I swear.
Squirming in my arms, I adjusted the boy, shaking my head when I thought about the bullshit he’d be in for, as good looking as I knew he’d be.
“Kid, learn the lesson now,” I told him. “Women are so fucking—”
“I would not finish that sentence if I were you, Dimitri,” my mother said, walking into the office.
She watched me pace with the kid in my arms. Ma had done that so many times the past few months, I knew she was likely thinking thoughts that didn’t belong in her head.
That’s where all her nagging and harping she’d done on wanting me to make things official with Maggie had come from.
My parents loved the kid.
They loved Maggie.
They tolerated me.
Made sense they’d want me to step up and make them permanent fixtures in our lives.
My cell vibrated and I frowned, pushing Mateo to my other hip as I fished out my phone and took Ricky’s call. Ma came back to the window, watching Mrs. Jefferies and her son stretching out a banner that read “Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, August 4.” But I noticed how she moved her head toward me, how she moved her eyebrow up like she waited to hear whatever would come out of my mouth.
“Yeah, man?”
“Boss?” Ricky was winded, like he’d just run a half marathon. “That mother fucker is going for the north dock. We got Ronaldo and Joey with their crew and Sal and Vin are coming too.”
“Mother fucker,” I breathed, my glance landing on my ma, who set a small plate of apples and crackers along with the buttered noodles on the desk for the kid, when she cleared her throat, but I was too pissed to worry about my mouth. “Call Luca. It looks like beating the shit out them did no good. It’s time that asshole starts earning his way around here that doesn’t involve him mooning over my kid sister. He’s got a fucking crew. Get ‘em busy.”
Ma jerked her eyes at me, whispering a quick, “Dimitri, watch your mouth around the baby!” resting her hands on her hips as she gave me a look I knew was a clear warning.
My face warmed as I waved her off, my temper surging when I thought about Mickey inching in on another one of my shipments. “Who’s watching Dino?”
“Lanzo,” Ricky said between breaths.
“That fucker. I don’t like him. He blows shit left and right. He’s fucking…”
Ma took two steps toward me, looking like she was ready to smack me across the head. I exhaled, followed her gaze from the kid to me and back again, then lifted my free hand, giving her a one-finger surrender.
Her features relaxed as I walked to the closet where I kept my extra pistols and several vests. It was also where I housed shit I needed on the off chance that Ma or my pop would ever agree to go to the shooting range with me. They never had, but I always held out hope.
“Rick, hang on,” I said, moving my cell to the desk to dig into the closet. There were a few boxes of copy paper in front of the small black lock boxes that held the nine and the smaller container that had what I was looking for. I grabbed it, turning to sit Mateo onto my desk before I ripped open the container and pulled out a pair of muffs and slipped them over the kid’s ears.
He moved his head, testing the weight, then blinked up at me shooting back the smile I gave him before he reached up, wanting to be held. I shrugged, shooting a wink at my mother. “Happy?” Then I grabbed the phone. “Rick, you tell that mother fucker if he steps even a toe out of line…you know what? Fuck that…fuck that asshole…”
There wasn’t much that shook me anymore.
I’d seen grown men topple with a swift kick to the knee.
I’d seen my father’s entire face shake when a judge sent my kid brother to jail for something everyone in that courtroom knew he didn’t do.
I’d seen women offer me things I’d never give them and try to take from me things I’d never offer.
But nothing shook me, deep down like this kid who wasn’t mine but had planted himself right in my fucking heart.