Page 128 of Forced Vows

"Our girl is a mob princess. She's connected." Carrie makes air-quotes when she says connected.

Goodwin puts her plate down before dragging a chair from a nearby table and positioning it at the end of the table. "Connected to what?"

"I never said that," I protest.

Traci wiggles her eyebrows. "The mob."

"Oh, that." Goodwin shrugs. "That's not new, right?"

I nearly spit out my bite of nachos. "What do you mean? You knew?"

"Well, sure. I mean, it makes sense you use a different last name here, but we've all met your cousins and grandmother. Maeve Shaughnessy was married to the mob boss back in the day."

Tracy picks the perfect bite of her salad, balancing lettuce, feta, a single olive slice and a bit of cucumber on her fork. "How do you know all this?"

"My dad got his start with backing from Fergal Shaughnessy."

Goodwin is a legacy. Her dad's famous for his smooth baritone and has two platinum albums. Her great-aunt made it big in British theater. Goodwin is a good singer too, but she prefers stage direction.

"Just because my grandfather bankrolled your dad starting his career doesn't make him a mobster."

"You said you could neither confirm, nor deny," Carrie says.

Traci's dark red faux-hawk bobs in vehement agreement. "That's practically an admission."

"Correct." Aleks sucks at the straw in his protein shake. "Your family convinced the college administration to let you come back?"

"Hey...you know about the dean suspending her? Why didn't you tell us?" Traci demands.

Goodwin stirs rice into her Kung Pao Chicken. "Of course he knew, his boyfriend has work study in the dean's office."

"Why didn't you say?" Carrie asks.

Aleks pushes his empty smoothie cup away. "I was going to tell you in Script Analysis, but she was back."

"Fair," Traci says.

Goodwin bumps Aleks's shoulder. "You're forgiven, but I'm not sure what for."

Carrie laughs and then explains.

Goodwin shakes her head. "What a tool."

I'm not sure if she's talking about Boaz or the dean.

"I think we should put a steaming pile of dog shit in the dean's car, though." Traci munches another one of Carrie's fries.

It's so close to my plan for Miceli if he paid off the college to let me return, I raise my fist for a bump. "Great minds."

"Right on," Traci bumps my fist.

"The fuck was he thinking?" Aleks demands.

Carrie's face forms a rare frown. "Can you believe Boaz?"

"You should get one of your uncle's friends to give him a beat down," Goodwin mumbles around a bite of Chinese food.

"Unnecessary," Aleks says complacently.

---