Page 14 of Hidden Ties (Made Men #11)

TWELVE

CHIN UP

V alerie wasn’t sure what to expect before Sal opened the door to his penthouse.

The city lights glowed through the floor-to-ceiling windows and highlighted his decor.

While the luxuriousness of the space was over the top, his furniture was understated with warm neutrals and touches of navy-blue hues.

It was truly breathtaking and yet somehow felt like home for a space that should feel a bit pretentious.

In disbelief at the sight, she barely could get her words out. “A-And you live here ?”

Shutting the door behind him, he nodded. “Yes.”

“This is nice .” Clearly finding her voice, she dropped her bat and made herself right at home by throwing herself down on the lush couch.

She felt the luxe material, thinking she could get used to this.

The futon she had been sleeping on, she wasn’t sure she could go back to after a night on this bad boy.

Looking back over at Sal, she could see he fit in his surroundings here better.

How she hadn’t noticed he didn’t belong on Prairie Drive sooner, she would never understand.

It was like witnessing the difference between Clark Kent and Superman in real life.

It wasn’t just the glasses that made all the difference; it was the personality—no, the confidence .

Every piece of new information about him made him more enigmatic to her, and she needed to know more. The real question, however, was: Clark Kent hid who he was because of his powers …

So, what is Salvatore hiding?

“Do all the men who work for Lucca get a room at the Casino Hotel, or just you?”

The nonchalant way she tried to play it off didn’t work. Sal could see her curiosity behind her eyes, while behind his, he contemplated what he could or couldn’t reveal.

“Come on.” She gave him a knowing look. “I think it’s safe to say the rumors about the Carusos are true.

I’ve seen behind the proverbial curtain, but don’t worry, because we both know it would do me zero favors to ever spill the beans.

Plus, I have absolutely no one to tell. I have no friends.

Well, that’s not true. I have one friend. ”

Sal laughed mockingly. “Who? Your huge boyfriend?”

“Okay, fine, so I lied about having a boyfriend. Sue me.” She shrugged the lie off quickly. “They’re just a friend I’ve been playing games with online for a couple of years now.”

Shaking his head at her, he let the big fat lie slide, considering he’d known it was bullshit, anyway.

He found himself taking the chair next to the couch to ask her a question with his curiosity piqued, though he chalked that curiosity up to deciding what he should or shouldn’t reveal to her about the family. “No family?”

“Welp, my mom left to go get a pack of cigarettes, but that was when I was two—”

“Ouch.” Sal couldn’t help but feel that pain for her.

“Then there’s my father.” She adjusted, making herself more comfortable on his sofa as she freely started to overshare.

“I have to give him credit for at least trying to stick around for me at that age. But, you know, it was hard for him to raise a kid, and a daughter at that, alone, so he married another woman pretty quickly after my mother left. My stepmother was nice in the beginning, but I noticed the older I got, the more she started to begrudge me for spending more time with my dad as he got me into computers and video games. She made sure to dig a wedge right into us before I turned eighteen and forced him to choose between me or her after I graduated high school. And since I was going off to college, I think he was scared of the thought of being alone again, so he decided I was the one to cut off.”

Double ouch. While Sal couldn’t relate much to that part of her story, he supposed there was the perk of his father never wanting him to begin with. “I’m sorry about your jealous bitch of a stepmother.”

“It’s okay. I guess I should be thankful she at least waited till I could go live in a dorm to do it, so I wouldn’t be homeless.”

Swallowing hard, Sal was grateful not to have to comment as she continued speaking.

“My father’s the one who I really blame. She didn’t technically owe me anything. We weren’t blood related or anything, you know?”

That statement made his body seethe for Valerie.

“No, you weren’t. And while I agree your father is a piece of shit, she’s no less of a piece of shit than he is.

Whether you’re related to someone by blood or not is irrelevant.

The day she married your father was the day she chose to accept you as family as well, considering you were only a child.

If anything, she should have encouraged your relationship with your father and, even more importantly, your interests and talent.

I’m sorry, Valerie, but none of your family was your true family. ”

“I guess I never thought about it that way.” Those words quietly left her lips in sadness but also realization.

A few quiet moments in contemplation passed before she spoke again.

“You know, it sounds like you’re speaking from experience. Is that how you ended up becoming loyal to the Carusos?”

“How I got where I am today is rather complicated and a long story that will put you to sleep considering how tired you must be.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” she said, highly interested, but it wasn’t hard to miss the heavy lids growing, her eyes looking wearier by the second.

“You can take my room upstairs, if you’d like,” he offered, but there would be no answer as she had fallen fast asleep after her eventful weekend and day.

Not bothering to move her, considering how comfortable she looked, he went upstairs to grab a few things before coming back down.

Placing one of his shirts on the couch beside her, he did so in case she woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to be more comfortable, before he covered her with a cozy blanket. Tomorrow, he would have to figure out a way to get some of her stuff here for the time being.

Despite wanting to curse Lucca for forcing his hand to help her, his feelings of strong hate toward her were slowly turning into strong dislike .

Unable to help himself, he brushed some of the silky hair off her face with his fingertips to reveal more of her sunlit kisses.

Fine. Mild dislike.

“Good night, Valerie.” Sal finally pulled himself away from her to catch some sleep as well. “Sweet dreams.”

It was going to be something he instinctively knew he wasn’t going to have tonight …

It was Sal’s tenth birthday and had been going pretty shitty until he noticed his mother waving him down after the school bell rang.

To say school was fun when you were homeless would be a stretch of the imagination. Him being so advanced for his age only made it that much worse.

“You like it?” His mother wiggled her brows at her son playfully.

It took Sal a minute to figure out she was talking about the navy-colored car she was standing in front of.

“It’s a Cadillac Coupe de Ville,” she said proudly. “For your birthday.”

“What?” his child mind said in disbelief before they both jumped into the car.

“This is so cool!” He knew it wasn’t new by any means, but it still felt like a spaceship to him, considering they had never owned a car before in his whole life.

“Wow!” He ran his young hand across the dash. “I love it. How’d you get it?”

“I won it,” she said, flashing a broken smile.

That, Sal highly doubted.

Ruffling his chestnut hair, she started the car up, making his smile brighter. “How was school?”

Slowly, his smile disappeared. “It was okay.”

“The kids are just jealous of how smart you are, honey. Don’t you worry; everything’s going to be different now.

We have this car we can sleep in, so no more shelter, and I’m about to come into some money, so we can finally buy a house on the upper side.

That way, you can start going to school with kids who are more your speed. ”

For his mother’s sake, Sal faked a smile and nodded his head, knowing that was never, ever going to happen. Every time she got better, it only lasted for a month or two before they were right back on the streets. While it was the first car she had ever gotten, he knew it wasn’t going to last.

Of course, he wasn’t wrong about it not lasting forever, but it did at least last longer than he’d originally thought before his spaceship was swooped up by a tow truck.

Those had been the happiest four months of his life, and one day, he swore he’d get one just like it for them again when he was older.

The day it was taken away had been hard. It had been so cold, wet, and rainy all day for them not to have a roof over their heads, and he knew the night was only going to be rougher. To top it all off, he was starving.

Hearing his stomach growl, she reached into her pocket to come out with only two dollars. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll make do. Come on.”

When cash was this low, there was only one place they could go and both eat.

Taco Bell.

You could get a burrito for less than a dollar; it being filled with rice and beans did a good job filling them up for the day so they wouldn’t go too hungry.

Entering the fast food place, he figured his mom planned on halving the burrito since she only ordered one. She probably wanted to save the rest of the two bucks for their next meal, since their luck had been so low lately.

He opened the food up from its packaging, but she stopped him before he could break it in half.

“No, thanks, honey. You eat it. I’m not hungry.”

Sal couldn’t help but notice her scratching her arms and the shivering, despite them finally not being out in the cold.

It was hard to stomach the food, considering it was their fifth night eating Taco Bell, yet you always were to finish your food if you weren’t sure where your next meal would come from.

The two stretched the time before they had to go back out into the cold for as long as they could until a worker finally came and told them it was time for them to leave.

His mother never went without a few curses, but Sal managed to get her to leave by pulling her out the door before he got too embarrassed, or worse—they could never return.

Truthfully, Sal couldn’t have cared less if he didn’t get to eat at this shithole for the rest of his life, but it was better than starving to death.

As they left the restaurant, he had an eerie feeling about what his mother was going to say before she said it—she always looked like this before she needed her next fix.

“Listen, honey, I need to go take care of a few thi—”

“But it’s a full moon tonight,” he exclaimed in a hurry after looking up at the sky.

“It’s okay, honey. I’ll be fine; don’t worry,” his mother assured him. “I need to go do something to help get our apartment. Take this. Hopefully, it’ll give you a few hours of playtime on the computer, then we’ll meet up at our usual spot in three hours.”

Sal looked at the outstretched change remaining from the money left. He didn’t want to take it, but she forced him to, putting it in his pocket before giving him a big hug.

“I love you, honey.”

“Love you, too, Mom.”

She kissed him on his head. “See you in three hours.”

Though he knew it was wrong to let her go, he did.

It was always on a full moon night that Sal worried for his mom’s sake.

Usually, he could talk her into staying with him, afraid her stupid family superstition was true.

But, for some reason, this night, he didn’t.

So, when he went to Terry’s Internet café, he couldn’t concentrate, finding himself looking out the window at the moon.

The bad feeling in his stomach only made him sicker the longer the night went on.

If he knew where she’d be, he’d go out looking for her, but he was supposed to wait until the clock struck midnight before he left.

Unable to wait any longer, he left five minutes early with dread overtaking his young body.

A sigh of relief escaped him when he saw her walking toward him under the streetlamp glow.

Little did he know, leaving those five minutes early that night was the only reason he was going to talk to her for the last time.

“Mom!” Sal cried as he ran toward her, closing the distance when she faltered, holding her stomach.

With her falling into his arms, they dropped to the pavement together. Trying to apply pressure where the blood flowed freely, he sobbed as tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Mom …”

A tear slipped out of her own eyes, knowing her fate was sealed. “Oh, look how beautiful.” Reaching out to take her son’s face in her shaky hand, she pointed his tiny chin up so he’d look toward the night sky while her eyes never left him. “Chin up, honey. It’s a full moon tonight.”