“Shut up!” He smiles.
“Like Marco is any different. His belt draws the eyes to the more thandecentbulge in his pants.”
“Agrissinoslap is coming your way,” he threatens, grabbing a breadstick.
“How can you be this cold?”
“Practice,” he tells me with a sharp grin.
“I want to share boyfriend dick stories, and you dare treat me like this? For shame. Shame. Shame. So shameful?—”
Fly stuffs agrissinoinside my mouth, cutting my monologue short. I nibble it as fast as a squirrel, letting breadcrumbs fall over my shorts and sweater. It tastes amazing, so I grab another one.
“It’s nice that Seb kept their rooms,” I say, flicking some crumbs away.
“He doesn’t like change much,” Fly tells me.
“You seem to know him well. Is he really human? Or wearing a skin suit over his alien suit?”
He chuckles. “He’s peculiar but okay once you get to know him. He did give you that gun for safety. Since your father is still out there.” I can hear the deep concern in his voice.
I’m worried too, but more for Luca than me. “Yeah, I believe the cow snatcher will never let anything happen to us.” That’s why I should tell him about my father and his.
He rolls his eyes at me. “Do you have a nickname for everybody?”
“Of course,” I say with an arrogant tone. “You are…naughty pixie.”
“You just made that up. How about thick-skinned, stern-faced gorilla for Marco?” His eyes widen with mirth.
“The wacko psycho for Luca.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him, getting another laugh.
“Luca ‘The Blade’ Nero has a nice ring to it. You did well there,” he lets me know.
I’m spreading the word when I go to my clubs, and it’s working.
Sebastiano ‘Ice’ Leone doesn’t need a change. “I get now why the boss isil capo dei capi.”
“His chill, intimidating vibe, right?”
I nod at him. “Yeah. He’s charming in a cold, bordering freezing, composed way.”
“I can’t imagine him having sex,” he leans into me to whisper. We are still drinking wine; maybe stopping would be the right choice. Maybe…
I roll my eyes at him. “How do you think Nicky came to be? Under a cabbage?” I tease him.
He slaps my arm and shushes me.
“So, tell me! These are not taxi doors, they are ears, spit it out.” I slap him back.
“Don’t know the details. But it’s not a nice story.” It’s all I get.
Fuck me, poor kid. He’s so innocent and wary. He needs someone sweet and loving near him. I can’t picture the boss doing that, even though I learned never to judge a book by its cover. Need to keep an eye on them now that I’m part of the family. God, it’s so nice to belong somewhere.
“Okay, tell me, dancing with a T. rex or swimming with Godzilla?”
“Can I choose the location?”
Nicky chooses that moment to come back with Nacho. Fly is finally done with the bracelet, and the kid ties it around my wrist. I feel a rush of emotion surging from my chest, and I haveto clear my voice and blink a couple of times to shove it back. The necklace around my neck and now this bracelet, they are proof that this is all real.
