Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
That early morning, as Dante headed to the café, dumb luck had him stumbling onto the scene. Afraid his adversary, Lucifer, would find out Sal was his child and groom him for himself now that his mother was gone, Dante did everything in his power to try to convince a young Sal to come live with him and his family. It wouldn’t be until Sal turned thirteen on his birthday and had to eat Taco Bell out of the dumpster for the last time that Sal finally gave in. Having been told the truth by Dante of who his father was upon his return, he no longer desired to leave the Caruso family home and began to accept his mother’s death and new family into his heart.
Sal’s gifts made Dante prouder and prouder each day as they grew, so while Dante took him off the streets for selfish reasons, Sal became a true son to him, regardless of his parentage, having actually gotten closer to him as a father than his own sons he had fathered.
Dante’s legitimate children, Lucca, Maria, Nero, and Leo, could have begrudged him for that fact. However, they never did. Each one accepted him into their family with open arms. They were a family not born out of blood but out of loyalty. A loyalty so strong that each of them would pay with blood.
It took him standing under a hot shower for a long time to finally calm. By the time he got back into bed, he couldn’t help but hear a persistent thudding noise coming from downstairs.
Tossing the covers off him in a huff of air, he threw on his white sleeveless undershirt and patted down the steps to find her looking through his kitchen cabinets, opening and closing each one as if it wasn’t the middle of the night.
“What on earth are you doing?” he growled from behind her with his arms crossed.
Half scared to death by his unknown presence, she jumped ten feet in the air.
Sal had no fucking idea how the girl could ever be good at video games; her awareness of her surroundings in real life was at a zero. How she’d made it to this age still alive, not kidnapped, or headless, he didn’t understand.
“Fucking hell, you scared me half to death.”
Under his breath, he mumbled, “Not like that’s hard.”
After finally calming her heart rate, she made a worried face. “I’m sorry, did I wake you? I thought I heard the shower running, so I decided it was safe to get up ’cause I’m starving.”
How she was so small was another thing he’d never understand. Valerie had found the old shirt he’d left out for her, revealing more of her shape than her usual baggy attire. While it swallowed her in height, it fell against her tiny hourglass frame, and it slightly bothered him that he noticed.
“You didn’t,” he agreed, not wanting her to feel too bad. Taking a seat at the counter, he ran a ragged hand through his hair.
“Bad dream?” Valerie asked.
“Yeah, something like that.”
After listening to her abuse another one of his cabinets, he finally gave up and got up from his seat to move toward a door that didn’t really look like one since it blended into a cabinet seamlessly and revealed a secret pantry.
Her eyes grew in wonder. “No wonder I couldn’t find any of the good shit!” After contemplating her options for a few minutes, it was obvious she still couldn’t find what she wanted. “Have you ever heard of MSGs? Where do you shop? Whole Foods?”
Internally groaning, he leaned over her frame from behind her, causing him to internally groan for another reason. Grabbing a bag from the top shelf that she probably couldn’t see, he held it out for her. “Try these.”
When she wrinkled her nose, he found the action kind of cute as she sniffed the opened bag of cheese puffs that were, in fact, organic. Reaching in the perfectly small-portioned bag, she popped one in her mouth. “Not bad,” Valerie said, going for another.
“Glad you like them,” he commented, already heading back upstairs. Sal didn’t trust himself this close to her so late at night in just a shirt if he found the action of her eating a cheese puff attractive.
The night he’d spent with Samantha had been so unsatisfactory. Sal wanted to blame Valerie for working himself up in anger and not being able to perform, but he was starting to realize that the truth was, Samantha wasn’t the girl he had wanted that night.
There was no one on this Earth that made Sal as hard as he was right now, except the unbearable, aggravating woman standing in front of him.
“Wait,” she said, causing him to curse internally.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Christ, even her potty mouth was rubbing off on him.