“Hi, Nonno.” She walks over, pushes up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Is Nonna in the kitchen?”
“She is.”
“Enjoy your secret meeting.”
The little imp skips off.
When she’s out of earshot, Dad asks, “Why is my office packed with teenage boys?”
“I needed help with a serious problem.”
“Willow Street?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. But if one of War’s boys breaks something, you’re replacing it.”
Those boys are menaces. Which is exactly what I’m counting on.
***
“Why don’t we just set an example and beat one of them up for speaking to our women.” Rath pipes in from the back.
Women? We’re talking about teenage girls. Barely girls, children. But then again Rath just turned fourteen himself.
Those boys are barely civilized. They speak four or five different languages, but they rarely remember to wear shoes and are always sporting bruises that they gave each other.
“Or two.” Rift climbs up onto the back of the couch.
Definitely not wearing shoes.
“They will kick you off of Willow Street if you do that.” Maddox is irritating like that. Though I can see his point of view.
“They can’t kick us off Willow Street.” Ruin doesn’t always use his brain, it seems.
I step forward. “They can, and they will if you just start picking fights with the kids there. Now, if you’re protecting one of your sisters or cousins, that’s another story. You use whatever force is necessary, and I will step in and take care of any blowback. Vincenti women are never disrespected.”
The kids start whispering. “They’d better not try anything.” “We’ll show them.” “They probably don’t even know how to fight.”
And now it seems like I’ve created more of a problem.
Sasha steps forward. “We need to take this seriously. These are our sisters we’re talking about. If we get kicked off of Willow Street, they will be without protection.”
Impressive kid.
“We need to make a schedule so that there is always protection around. Just like our families do. And no one goes in alone.”
That’s a good idea, especially to put someone rational with War’s kids. How did they all end up so much like War and not his completely sensible wife? “That’s a good idea.”
“I’ll make a schedule then. And if you can’t make it, find someone to cover for you or contact me.” Sasha seems more than a little bit invested in this project.
Reck raises his hand. “You said there are lots of teenagers. Does this include a lot of teenage girls too?”
I groan silently. It’s going to be a long afternoon.
***
After what seems like hours, yhe group wanders out of Dad’s office, probably to the kitchen to raid my cookie jar. Like any of them don’t have enough of their own at home.
