Page 157 of Forced Vows

"Your father didn't strike you?" That surprises me.

Miceli's face shuts down. "I didn't say that. He was a good father and he trained me and my brother the way he'd been taught."

"But you're not going to follow in his footsteps?"

"Not in certain respects, no. Neither will Sev."

"Wow. That's good to hear." Like really, really.

It would be a real bummer to have to poison the man I love. But yeah, there are things my grandfather did to train my dad and uncle that I would have dosed his coffee with rat poison for.

Miceli lets me feed him leftovers, watching every move I make in the kitchen. It's weird. Because the lust is banked and he just seems…happy maybe?

Like I said. Weird.

After bossing me around some more about taking a bath and treating my bottom and vagina…seriously? I'm supposed to use the tiny tube of cream there. Anyway, after all the instructions, and a kiss that pretty much blows my mind, Miceli leaves.

And somehow, not one of my family interrupts us.

After that very weird night, I spend the next day studying for my finals.

All of my tests are on Wednesday and Thursday, which gives me Monday and Tuesday for study groups on campus.

~ ~ ~

Fiona finds me in my room on Sunday. She wants to talk about her eighteenth birthday.

"Dad's already got this big bash planned and I'm going to hate it. You know I'll be hiding for most of it."

"Tell him you don't want the party. It's your birthday." And Fiona isn't exaggerating. She'll last about thirty minutes with the crowd and then she'll disappear.

Uncle Brogan doesn't even yell about it anymore, but he doesn't stop forcing her to attend events either.

"You know it's not that easy. Since when has our birthday ever belonged to us and not to the mob?" Fiona sounds more jaded than I've ever heard her.

I don't have an answer for her. It's not just Uncle Brogan. My dad allowed my birthday and his own to be used as events for networking with his criminal buddies.

But mom and dad also started the tradition of me celebrating my birthday separately and privately with friends and really close family, i.e. my cousins.

"Whatever networking even your dad plans for the day of, we can have a private celebration just you and me and Kara," I promise.

"And Zoey. I want her to be there too."

My first reaction is to say no way. But this is Fiona's birthday. And she's going to be eighteen. Old enough to date the nineteen-year-old. If Fiona wants to date a mafia soldier, that's her choice.

I just hope she doesn't end up with her heart broken. "Okay, and Zoey."

Fiona smiles. "I want to do like you did on your 21st."

"You mean sneak out?" Where would my cousin want to go?

"Yes."

"You don't want to go into the City do you?" I ask.

She bites her lip and shakes her head. "I want to go for a bike ride on the trails at Caumsett."

"Uncle Brogan won't refuse for you to do that."

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