Page 9 of Forbidden Property
He returns my complaint with a stony, disinterested stare.
“You are going to learn how to take care of your family. If you want power in this organization, you will find a way to make it work.”
I fight back my initial anger. “Understood.”
“Nicki will test your weaknesses,” my father says. “Most of the women in our family test our weaknesses, but I want you to become a better man from this assignment.”
“I’ll try.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t be letting Gino off the hook.”
I wasn’t worried about Gino. My twin brother has absolutely no ambition and there’s nothing I can do to change that about him. I don’t mind. I have plenty of ambition for both of us and Gino could be potentially useful if I ever get close to the power I truly want.
“I wasn’t worried about Gino.”
My father raises his eyebrows in disapproval. It would bother me more if he ever made his approval easy to come by. He has a strong preference for his eldest son, the only heir he needed. He considers the rest of us extras and only gives a shit if we’re useful. Luigi manages to see himself as the ultimate victim despite being my fathers favorite.
“You should worry about every member of your flock if you want to become a shepherd.”
Whatever the fuck that means.
“Understood.”
Dad smirks. “He doesn’t have your ambition. But be careful, Renzo. And start going to church. Because it says right there in the Bible –Pride goes before the fall.”
“I’ll look after my sister.”
“Excellent,” dad says. “I understand your ambitions. It’s not easy to be right smack in the middle. But these struggles will make you stronger.”
“Thanks for lunch, dad.”
“You’re welcome, Renzo. And I know how you think. Just because I go easier on some of my children doesn’t mean I love them more. I only test you as much as you can take.”
Chapter Four
Geralynn
Present Day
Ihate the way Renzo looks at me.
I know Nicki can’t help her circumstances (or her family), but every time I come over to her house, I have to face her terrifying older brother. He waits at the doorway every time for a “security interview”, which he doesn’t leave to the guard at the front gate. Work was terrible today. I work as a cleaner at a commercial building downtown owned by one of the richest men in town, Peter Corsini. I think he’s Nicki’s cousin, but she honestly doesn’t talk much about her family unless necessary, so I can’t be sure.
Today at work, I accidentally walked in on my boss getting a blowjob. To punish me, he made me deep clean all the bathrooms on the fifth floor, scrubbing toilets on my hands and knees until I gagged. To maintain the impact of the punishment, he says to me before I leave, “Remember to knock.”
The $100 tip burns a hole in my pocket and as soon as I’m done hanging out with Nicki, I’m going to blow every last dollar of that tip on a 1 gram weed vape. If I have any money left after buying the gram, I’ll spend it on iced coffee. I’m not in the mood for Nicki’s brother to question me, but I promised her I’d show up after work and I need her bad ass attitude to motivate me to quit this stupid ass job.
I walk the half-mile up their long driveway knowing that Renzo is watching me on camera and choosing not to drive down to the end of the driveway in his new black Jaguar to pick me up. He leans on the stone wall with a wrought iron gate that could keep out a small army. I can see him staring at me from a distance and pretend to be texting someone on my phone. Of course, he’s smoking. He thinks it makes him more authentic and Italian, but he just smells like a baby boomer. Nobody smokes anymore. It doesn’t make you cool.
“Good afternoon, Geralynn,” he says in heavily accented English once I’m close enough that I can’t pretend that I didn’t hear him. I glance up at him, exerting as much effort as I can into defying Renzo the one way I know how – showing him that his stupid ass doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
“Hey.”
“Phone. Backpack.”
I slide my backpack over my shoulders, relieved by the absence of the weight. I have to walk so damn far from the bus stop to get to their house that my back aches. I’d rather walk than call for Renzo to pick me up, despite Nicki’s assurances that it would be fine. I don’t trust being trapped in a car with this psychopath. He just gives me the creeps. I don’t even like handing him my phone.
Renzo takes my phone and slides it into an opaque black pouch which I’m pretty sure is some type of Faraday cage. Paranoid, much? He takes my backpack and slings it over hisshoulder. He looks weird and out of place with a backpack on, and not just because he’s 6’4”.
