Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 126580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
I gave him a look, but he just laughed. “It’s why I called you, or part of the reason. My health.”
“Ah. I see.”
Uncle Steph was a big man, but not how his men were. He was tall, six three, and kept himself in shape. If something was going on with his health, it wasn’t good.
He motioned to the prunes. “Have some. They’re good. I actually enjoy healthy crap now. I can’t believe it. Eating so many fruits that that’s all I’m shitting out of me nowadays.” His eyes grew serious, and I felt the mood shift.
I leaned back. “What’s going on, Uncle Steph?”
He leaned back, mirroring my posture, but he put an arm up on the back of the chair next to him and glanced away. “I need your help, and you know I don’t like to call on you if I don’t have to, but in this case . . .” He looked my way, and he swallowed before going on. “I need you to do some things for me, and you’re not going to like them. Any of them.”
I knew. I hadn’t wanted to know, but I knew being called here today, it was serious.
“What is it?”
His eyes flickered before growing firm again. “If Nico wasn’t all the way in Hawaii and wanting nothing to do with this family, I’d call on him, but . . .”
I leaned forward, my hands folding together. I rested my elbows on the table. “Nico wants nothing to do with us. You’ve lost a son, and I’ve lost a cousin. That’s his decision. I’m here, Uncle Steph. Tell me what you need.”
He’d been watching me intently as I spoke, and when I was done, he drew in a deep breath. “Thank you. I—I was worried, but thank you. I’ve always considered you like a son, especially when Dom passed.”
I nodded.
Dom was the opposite in so many ways of Nico. Nico was law abiding, rigid; everything was black and white, and we were firmly on the wrong side to him. Dom was the opposite, and sometimes I wondered if some of my father’s ways had slipped through his name, since my cousin was named after my father. Both Dominic. Nico wasn’t short for any other name. He was only Nico, and Dom was only Dom. But Dom had liked being a criminal from early on. That led to drugs, alcohol, and his stints in rehab never took. The last rehab had been his eighth time. He’d gotten high the very night they’d released him, and it had been too much for his body.
It’d been three years since Uncle Steph had found his body. He didn’t talk about it, but I knew it affected him. Had and still did.
“I’m guessing that part of the reason I’m here is because of my father?”
He nodded, his face shuddering closed. “I got a call from Benny Walden.”
I tensed because this was going from bad to really bad. That was Ashton’s grandfather.
“Your father was at one of their hotels last night, up north, and he made a mess.”
I was not liking the grave look he was giving.
“What kind of a mess?”
“One that I need you to go and clean up. You’ll see when you get there.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He kept on, picking up a prune. “It will help if you have Ashton go with you. Your father’s been taking advantage of our family relationship with the Waldens and especially of your relationship with Ashton. Benny adores you, and he’s agreed that nothing will happen to your father if you yourself go up to handle it.”
That got a sharp look from me. “My father’s still there?”
He gave a nod. “I’m going to send Bobby—”
“No. I have a driver, and I’ll have Ashton. No offense against your men, but I want my own around me.”
He barely blinked at that, looking more aged for some reason. “Understood, and I do get that, but I’m not sending them up for you. I’m sending them to retrieve your father for me. You go up. Handle the situation. Smooth things over, how you see fit. You have freedom to deal with your father how you’d like, whatever way you’d like, but then I want him sent here with my boys.”
My father had really messed up.
“They can follow in their own car.”
“That’s fine. But there is another matter . . .” He hesitated. “You deal with this situation first, and the rest can be talked about after. How about that?”
I frowned. That’s not what he had been planning. I could tell. “You sure?”
He nodded, looking relieved but also worried at the same time. “Yeah. I’m sure.” He motioned to the mug in front of me. “You haven’t tried your tea. Try your tea, boy.”
I tried my tea.
I didn’t care for it, but I drank it. I ate some bread, some prunes, and when Uncle Steph asked if I wanted a second cup, I agreed because he wanted me to stay a little longer.