Page 22 of Hidden Ties (Made Men #11)

SEVENTEEN

CODE PINK

T he knock on the door had Valerie sitting up naked in bed. Oh, shit.

After the two had gone from fucking on the desk in his office to fucking on the bed in his penthouse, she had completely forgotten something.

This time, the words actually left her mouth. “Oh, shit!”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. Whoever it is can come back late—”

“No!” she cried, jumping out of bed to put her clothes on. “I forgot I invited your sister over for a game night.”

Sal jumped out of bed within a second to start getting dressed himself. “Now, why the hell did you do that?”

“Because she has a PlayStation, duh!” She added the last flourishing word like it was obvious.

Sal rolled his eyes heavenward. “Of course.”

While running down the steps, she smoothed down her tousled hair before opening the door, hoping the sins she had just committed with her brother wouldn’t be obvious to Kat.

“Hey, Valerie …” Kat’s smile slightly fell upon taking in her appearance. “You still wanted to have a game night, right?”

“Oh yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I?” Her cheeks went ablaze.

“Oh, good. I just wanted to be sure because you don’t have a phone, and I tried texting Sal to confirm, but I didn’t get a respons—”

“Hey, sis!” Sal came down with awkwardness, making it all the more obvious that they had just done it. “Come on in. Sorry I missed your texts.”

“It’s not a problem,” Kat said, coming inside, but as she passed, she whispered something for only Valerie’s ears to hear. “Your shirt is inside out.”

“Thanks,” she whispered back before desperately trying to laugh it off. “I’ll be right back.”

She stepped away for a moment to go in the downstairs bathroom to freshen herself up a bit in the mirror and turn her shirt right-side out, thinking at this point, Just how more embarrassing can my life get?

When she came out of the bathroom, however, to her surprise, Sal’s living room was filled with more girls.

Valerie waved at them a bit nervously, thinking how pretty they all were. She couldn’t help but wonder how many of them Sal had slept with. They all smiled warmly at her, and she instinctively knew not a one had, except for her.

“Everyone, this is Valerie,” Katarina began the introductions. “Valerie, this is Elle …”

A girl with strawberry-blonde hair waved.

“Lake.”

The tall model-like brunette waved next.

“Adalyn.”

A short and cute-as-a-button brunette girl waved after her name was announced.

“Gianna.”

An obvious Italian woman nodded. She appeared to be the least girly one out of the bunch.

“And Chloe.”

This one had given her a tender but somewhat shy smile.

The black-haired, porcelain-skinned beauty took her breath away, along with the scars marking the left side of her face.

There had been a couple characters in her video game she had kept changing the appearance of.

One in particular gave her the most trouble, because she didn’t know what was missing from the female character’s look, so she had finally given up and settled on a look she wasn’t fond of before she’d sent her game off to Game Hookup.

If it wasn’t for losing her job and needing to eat, she would have never sent it off before some of the characters’ looks were fully fleshed out.

Now she knew, standing there, looking at the woman named Chloe, that her female character was missing badass scars.

“Hello, everyone.” Valerie smiled at them all, somehow feeling welcomed instantly.

Kat then explained the extra faces. “I thought game night would be more fun if I invited all the girls to join. I hope that’s okay?”

“Of course, it is,” she agreed, noticing the game Kat had brought with her, already thinking of all the KOs she planned to accumulate in Mortal Kombat. “The more, the merrier.”

“Well, I’m going to leave you girls to it,” Sal announced, heading for the door, visibly ready to leave. “I’ll let you all enjoy your little girls’ night. I think Gianna can handle it from here.”

Understanding why Gianna appeared different, Valerie figured she must be a bodyguard of some sorts, which explained the black slacks and shirt. Hell yeah. She was going to have to find a way to add her to her video game, too.

Sal waved goodbye one last time before opening the door, and when he did, the most gorgeous blonde Valerie had ever seen in her life suddenly materialized.

“Oh, hell nah.” Sal tried to stop the woman from entering by immediately shutting the door in her face.

With pounding hitting the other side of the door, you could hear the woman’s irritated voice. “What the fuck is your deal, Sal?”

But he stood firm. “You can’t come in!”

“Don’t make me call your older brother to come down here. ’Cause you know Dominic will!”

At her threat, the door let up.

“Now, step aside,” she ordered and passed with the click of her pointy high heels.

Seeing the huge rock on the woman’s finger killed all hope of Valerie getting to marry her. Never in her life had she been so jealous of a man, knowing instantly that whoever Dominic was, he was one lucky man.

“So, what are we doing tonight, girls?” The perfect blonde asked, smoothing down her baby-pink women’s suit that the altercation had messed up. The gold buttons that adorned her suit told Valerie that the unknown woman was the most expensive thing in the room.

“Well, we thought we could play some Mortal Kombat,” Kat said, showing her they had company. “Valerie here is big into video games.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Valerie. Where are my manners?” The woman flipped her blonde locks over her shoulders before smiling.

In that moment, Valerie could hear Sal crying in the distance, but she paid him no mind.

“I’m Maria. Maria Caruso.”

And I think I’m in love.

Goddammit.

Sal hung his head low in defeat before he shut the door back in place with him still on the same side.

There was no way he was going anywhere with these two in the same room.

Only God knew what would happen, and he was pretty certain that with all the Caruso women in a single room, it could be the start of female world domination.

“Where are you going?” Kat asked him as he headed back upstairs in solitude.

“Unfortunately, nowhere,” he spat back.

“But I thought you were leaving?” Valerie blurted out after her eyes left Maria’s.

“Changed my mind.”

“Fine …”

“Suit yourself …”

“All righty.” A different response came out of each girl’s mouth, all while laughing as he did the walk of shame back upstairs.

He used to make fun of the guys for being whipped by their women, but it was no wonder they were. He could practically feel Valerie’s bat being slung already.

After the performance upstairs and in his office, Sal was certain he’d do crazy things to have sex with Valerie again. She had officially smashed his record of times he’d had sex with the same woman, and he was already planning for another repeat performance.

There certainly were perks to fucking a girl who was a loose cannon, but the last thing he needed was for Crazy Valerie to meet Psycho Maria. Maria had only become more psychotic, as well, since becoming a mother to her daughter, Angelica.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he thought the world as they knew it depended on him, so he started a mass text …

COME GET YOUR WOMEN!!!

“I’ll do it,” Valerie volunteered herself to hook the PlayStation up. She never minded and always enjoyed doing it.

She moved behind the TV, and as she started hooking the game system up, she quickly noticed something. The TV had been wired for the Nintendo 64 after all.

I knew it! At feeling vindicated that Sal was the one who had wanted to fuck her first, her smug smile suddenly turned sweet.

It was kind of cute that he’d done that, even if it was just to get in her pants.

It especially didn’t bother her considering she was happy to no longer be an un-kissed virgin.

Smiling to herself, she finished. “All done.”

“What’s that smile for?” Maria was the only one brave enough to ask.

She wiped the grin off her face with cheeks burning red. “Nothing.”

“That’s definitely not nothing.” Adalyn winked at her, agreeing with Maria.

“Guys, leave her alone.” She thought Kat was sparing her, but that quickly changed. “I think she might have a crush.”

With a collective gasp from her newfound friends, they all chided in with different things.

“A crush!”

“ Ooo .”

“On whom?”

“ That, I won’t tell.” Kat locked her mouth and threw away the key.

“I do not,” Valerie refuted loudly but quickly turned her voice as low as humanely possible, “have a crush!”

“Oh my God, you so do,” Maria realized, putting two and two together before almost gagging to death. “On Sal!”

“I can fucking hear you!” Sal screamed over the banister at hearing Maria’s incessant gagging noises. He was about to throw up all over her if she didn’t knock it off.

“Well, no one told you to listen!” Maria screamed up at him.

“Yeah,” Kat butted in. “It’s girls’ night; you’re not supposed to be here to listen to girl talk, anyway.”

If he didn’t get them out of here, he was never going to get laid again. All he needed was for Maria to tell Valerie something stupid he did growing up to give her the ick.

Sal picked up the phone and sent another text in hopeless desperation, knowing his dick depended on it.

CODE PINK!

Valerie stood, listening to them bicker, swearing that the way Maria talked with Sal was that of a sister. She figured it was just because she was married to his brother; that could be the only explanation as to why.

She was about to open her mouth but didn’t dare knowing Sal could overhear.

“Hang on.” Gianna threw on some music, understanding her predicament. All of them were now unconcerned with the reason they had come over in the first place—to play video games. They wanted in on the latest gossip instead.

As they huddled together in a girl puddle like they were fifteen at a sleepover, Valerie felt comfortable enough to talk in a low tone, knowing that he couldn’t hear a thing over the obnoxiously loud music.

“Okay, fine!” she muttered loudly, admitting defeat. “I might have a crush on Sal.”

“I knew it!” Maria hissed triumphantly. “But also … ew .”

“Why ew ? Why ew ?” Valerie countered, afraid that she was missing something about him and maybe shouldn’t have ever slept with him in the first place … As if the basement full of women wasn’t enough; somehow, she’d let herself walk by that massive red flag.

“Oh, please,” Gianna shushed Maria. “It’s only gross to her because she sees him as a brother.”

Maria nodded. “True.”

Taking the biggest sigh of relief, she instantly relaxed. “Oh, good.”

“Sal’s totally hot,” Gianna continued expressing her approval. “These girls won’t agree ’cause they all have their own men, but take it from me: you might have got the best of the bunch.”

“Hey!”

“Easy, now!”

“Yeah, watch it!” the other girls hissed in offense, reminding Gianna to tread lightly when talking about their significant others.

“Listen,” Kat chimed in to give her own thoughts, “as someone who grew up a Luciano but married one of the Carusos, along with the fact that he’s my brother, so I have free rein to tell the truth … I can tell you that Gianna’s right. Sal’s a good person, and he really isn’t like the rest.”

“As much as I hate to admit it.” Maria almost threw up again but clearly wanted to clarify her feelings. “She’s right. And this is coming from someone who grew up with the Carusos but married a Luciano … The Caruso men are, well … entitled—”

“Mmhmm,” the girls agreed in unison.

Maria threw up another manicured finger to go with the one she already had up. “Arrogant …”

“Yep!” they said, chiming in again.

Another finger. “Asses.”

“So true,” all the girls agreed, backing her up one last time.

Valerie thought back over those words.

Entitled, arrogant, ass …

“And Sal isn’t one?” ’Cause, to her, it sounded just like him.

“Oh, honey”—Maria patted her hand—“you must not have met the others yet.”

“I’ve met Lucca and Amo.”

The girls went eerily quiet.

Kat cleared her throat, daring to ask, “And what did you think?”

“Scary and hot,” Valerie revealed before explaining her answer. “Lucca, scary . Amo, hot .”

All the girls busted out in laughter, except for one. Chloe.

“Lucca’s not scary,” the scarred woman said a bit defensively.

“Of course, he’s not to you,” Gianna told her before getting her laughter under control. “Amo is hot, though; I have to agree. But you don’t think he was an ass?”

“Oh yeah, totally,” Valerie agreed. “But Sal’s a bigger one, and for some reason, he scared Amo.

Wait—” Her brain finally picked up on what had been said earlier in the conversation.

“How is Sal a Caruso but also related to your husband, who’s a Luciano?

” Her brain even hurt trying to say it, let alone begin to understand it.

The two mob families of KC were notorious for their feud, up until recently, when she’d heard whispers of a possible truce.

All the girls looked at her pityingly in that moment.

“He hasn’t told you anything yet, has he?” Maria realized.

Shaking her head, she wished Sal had revealed anything at all to her about himself. Hell, if it wasn’t for her neighbor, she wouldn’t have even known his name.

Maria just patted her hand again. “Honey, we need to talk.”

Sal listened to the song “Milkshake” blaring over his stereo system while he listened to the girls whispering and laughing between the oooing and ahhing.

If he heard “ my milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard ” one more fuckin’ time, he was going to lose it.

It didn’t help he couldn’t hear what they were saying, meaning he already assumed the worst and that Valerie would hear anything and everything to make her never want to sleep with him again.

In a final desperate attempt, he added one more person to the mass group chat before texting …

HOT GIRLS AT MY PLACE

Christ.

He just had to pray awakening the playboy wouldn’t bite him in the ass.

While the girls finally started up the PlayStation, both her and Maria spoke in their own hushed conversation in the kitchen.

“So, is Sal a Caruso or Luciano? I’m so confused,” she asked, trying to get clarification.

“A Caruso,” Maria revealed like it was just that easy to understand. However, it clearly wasn’t as she continued, “But, technically, he should be a Luciano by blood, considering his father and siblings are all Lucianos.”

“Okay …” That only made Valerie even more confused, and it made her question Maria’s intelligence. “And how does that happen?”

Sadness crossed Maria’s beautiful features until she waved her hand toward the kitchen stool. “You’ll want to take a seat.”