“How does that level the playing field?”
Nathan smiled deviously. “Silas had nothing, but you’ve given him something to protect, something of value. Hope. You gave him something to loose. Something that gives me lots and lots of power.”
Carte snuggled closer to him. “Do you think he cares?” she asked softly.
Nathan nodded. “I know he does.” He kissed her forehead and turned on his side, facing her. “Once again, you have worked magic, my love.”
Carter laughed softly. “I did nothing, Nathan. You’ve done most of the work in this, and you’ve done an incredible job.” Gently, she placed a lingering kiss on his lips. “I’m so proud of you, bubby. You’re going to be an exceptional boss.”
“You think so?”
Carter smiled. “I know so, honey. You always amaze me with how wonderful you are. Wonderful businessman, friend, son, husband, and father. That’s you Nathan Salerno. Perfect.”
“
Aww
…” He let out an exaggerated sigh and kissed Carter all over her face. “You’re the sweetest wife, Carterina Salerno.”
Carter giggled, and Nathan kissed her once more before giving her a mock stern look. “Don’t think you’re not getting your ass spanked for keeping secrets from me, woman.”
“But I don’t want a spanking,” she whined, and pouted for emphasis.
Nathan shook his head. “There’s no changing my mind, Mrs. Salerno. You must be punished for such actions. This coming Saturday is our date night. The boys will be spending the evening at my father’s.” He smiled and laced their fingers together. “I will hold off my punishment until then.”
“But why?” Carter asked with a frown.
He smirked. “Because the punishment I have in store for you will be a bit …
intense
, Carterina. I will not have you startling my sons with your screams.”
A shiver of anticipation rushed through her body. Carter couldn’t stop her imagination from running wild with his words. “Okay,” she whispered. “Saturday then.” She was positive it would be a deliciously painful night for her. She could hardly wait.
Nathan held her closer while his fingertips glided up and down her back. His eyes closed and he moaned deeply. “Tell me again, baby. Walk me through the entire scene. How did you slaughter the man that killed my mother?”
A wicked smile spread across Carter’s face. “You like to hear that story don’t you?”
His eyes remained closed as he nodded his head. “Mmmhmm.”
Carter placed a kiss to his bare chest, and whispered the story of how she killed Scott Flanagan. “When he came after me all I remember thinking was, I had to protect my brother and the life I carried inside me. He had a knife …” She quietly told him the whole story and he drifted off to sleep.
She, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep at all. Her mind was going a mile a minute. Closing her eyes, she silently prayed for the safety of her family, for the wellbeing of her husband and sons. She hoped with all of her heart that Silas would take her offer and they could all move forward in peace, but she wasn’t sure he would. She didn’t know if he cared for her that much, she couldn’t tell if she had actually gotten through to him. With a sigh, she hugged closer to Nathan. Who knew? They would know nothing unless two gifts and letters came in the mail, and that could possibly take weeks. So whether or not Silas
really
cared for her remained a mystery … but only for a few weeks.
~*~
Almost three weeks later Carter received a call from S.O. informing her that four packages had arrived for the twins from Austria.
That was the moment she knew her lunatic, monstrous, biological father really loved her and Gabriel. It was the moment she knew the war with Silas Steele was over.
Chapter 23: 16 months later. . .
I am a mother of two little beautiful baby boys that need me. I cannot go to jail today. I will not go to jail ever. I cannot hit anyone today. Just find out why Mr. Clay disobeyed Angelo’s orders, and handle it.
Mr. Clay was the man that owned the Manhattan Hotel and the whores it provided to a preferred client list. She’d paid the man a visit—per Angelo’s orders—just four months after she’d moved to New York with Nathan. She pulled out all of the stops, told him to stop selling whores in Angelo’s territory, and even threw in a threat or two, but here she was, nearly two years later, visiting the man again.
Angelo hadn’t even let Carter enter the S.O. building this morning before he hit her with the news that Mr. Clay had begun business again. Not only that, but his business was booming. Lots of new clients, and a mysterious new business partner protecting him. Well, at least the man thought his business partner was protecting him. Carter’s job today was to go to the hotel and show Mr. Clay that no one could protect him from S.O. The man was openly selling sex to clients in Salerno territory, not to mention the news had just reported the death of a cop that Angelo had known was investigating this hotel a few days ago.
Angelo believed that Mr. Clay and his mysterious partner had something to do with the cop’s death, and so did the NYPD. Since Angelo was believed to have a hand in Mr. Clay’s business by the authorities, the detectives had come to him first. They’d been confused when they came to see him. Angelo had made many deals with some big names in law enforcement long ago, and killing cops went against that deal. They came to Angelo with one message, and it was clear: fix it, or lose everything.
Today Carter’s job was to find out who Mr. Clay was working with, and take the information back to Angelo.
No hitting, Carter. You need to be good …
she reminded herself. Information, not a beat down. She didn’t want to ruin this for her family. The situation was too delicate.
“Hello, I need to speak with the owner of the hotel please.”
Carter’s finger tapped lightly on the polished wood of the reception desk as she waited for the receptionist to look up from his computer and acknowledge her presence. When he finally did, he acknowledged her breasts before making eye contact with her.
Carter’s jaw clenched and she tried to suppress the sudden wave of irritation that crashed into her. Wow, that was quick. She was already mad. Go figure.
She was positive that it was because this was her second visit to Mr. Clay and she really wanted to hit someone, but she wouldn’t. She would be on her best behavior. She shouldn’t have been angry about the man openly staring—it was something she was used to since a large number of men did it often—but today she didn’t really have the patience or tolerance it took to deal with disrespectful, idiotic,
horny
men. Today she wanted to take one of the pens in front of her and jam it in this ogling bastard’s eye. The need to be violent only became more intense when the asshole looked at her breasts once more.
“I’m sorry, miss, did you ask something? I was filling in some information.” He lifted his eyes back to hers. “Do you mind repeating? You said you wanted to speak to my manager?”
Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and plastered on a fake smile. “No. I said I’d like to speak with the owner please. I don’t have an appointment, but I’m sure he’ll see me. Just tell him that Mrs. Salerno is here to see him.”
The receptionist’
s eye
brow arched. “Salerno? As in—”
“Yes, the Salerno Organization,” Carter said shortly.
Literally everywhere she went, if she had to use her name they asked that fucking question.
“Wow,” the receptionist said. “So you must be the rumored wife of the playboy, huh?”
“Not rumored. I am his wife.” She reached over and tapped her finger on the phone impatiently. “Now how about you call the owner …”
From behind her, Mickey leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “This guy is a fucking dick. How about you let me handle him?”
Carter chuckled and shook her head. “Hell no.” Mickey would kill this guy. “I have a temper, but lately I’ve been better at controlling it than you.”
And she had been. Months ago, Carter had been reprimanded about her temper by her father-in-law, and she had admitted that she’d been a little out of control since her father reduced their contact to one phone call and one Skype chat a week. He’d still left, even though the only thing Silas had been doing to piss Carter off lately was sending more gifts than she’d permitted him to a year ago over the phone. She was hurting and acting out, but now—after her talk with Daddy Angelo—was feeling a lot better. Plus, relationship and closeness wise, Carter and her father were stronger than ever.
So Carter had cleaned up her act, and stopped being so quick to anger. She was actually proud of herself for being so good. Sometimes Mickey had to get physical, but not Carter. Carter’s hands had been clean and calm. She was proud of herself for proving everyone wrong about her
‘
out of control’
temper. She’d gained more self-control since becoming the mother of amazing twin boys, who were now one and half.
She turned her attention back to the receptionist who still hadn’t done as she’d asked. “Are you going to call him?” she asked super sweet
ish-ly.
The receptionist nodded and looked down at his computer. After typing in a few things, his eyes rose to hers, and with pursed lips he shook his head.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Salerno,” he sighed. “I wish I could get you in to see him, but sadly he’s not in.”
He’s not in? Did this motherfucker just try to tell me that a man that I saw walk into the hotel with my own eyes wasn’t in?
Carter blinked rapidly and she swallowed down her anger. She took a deep breath through her now flaring nostrils and pasted on a fake smile again. “You’re lying,” she eyed his name tag, “Jacob.” She leaned forward on the counter. “I saw him walk into the hotel not too long ago. Now be a dear and tell him I’m here.”
His eyes shot down to her chest again, then quickly back to her eyes. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Salerno, but I can’t do that.”
Be calm, Carter, it’s not that big of a deal. . .
“Why?” she asked tightly.
Jacob smiled. “Mr. Clay pays me lots of money to not tell anyone
why
, Mrs. Salerno. He also informed me that you were not allowed in this hotel, and if ever you came in to call security and have you escorted out.”
Carter blinked. Okay, this was just not working out for her at all today. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of it. She was admittedly a little stressed, since she hadn’t gotten any sleep last night because both Aleksandr and Maksim had tummy aches. And she didn’t get her extra hour of sleep this morning because her husband had woken up horny. She was irritated, sleepy, and still pissed off that she had to visit this prick again.
Taking a deep breath, Carter took a step back from the reception desk. “Can you just give me a second before you call security, Jacob?” She needed to be talked down. She was very upset at the moment, and the only thing she could envision was blowing this hotel up. That would handle this entire issue. Just kill them all. She held out her hand and Reno came forward with her cell phone.
Luckily, her mother answered after one ring. “Hi, baby girl,” she greeted in a bright tone. “Boys, Mama is on the telephone.”
“Ma-ma!”
Laughter erupted over the phone, and Carter heard numerous people in the background before one of her little boys began to talk to her.
“Ma-ma? Lo?”
Carter smiled as soon as his little high-pitched voice hit her ears. “Hello, Aleksandr.”
“Ma-ma?” Aleksandr asked again. “Lo, Ma-ma?”
Carter laughed softly. “Sandr, baby. Do you have the phone on your ear?” She was positive he didn’t. Every time her little Aleksandr answered a phone, whether real or fake, he would put the hearing end against his chubby little cheek.
“Let Grandmother see the phone,
bébé,”
she heard her mother say. “There you go, sweetheart. Your mama is on speaker phone now.”
“Hi, Ma-ma,” Aleksandr chirped. “Maksi, Ma-ma! Ma-ma talking.” Try as her baby might, he could never get that
M
at the end of Maksim’s name. As a result of his inability to say Maksim, everyone in the family now called Maksim, Maksi.
Carter giggled. “Hi, baby.”
“
Ma-ma on phone?
” Maksim’s slightly deeper, tiny munchkin voice finally sounded. “Ma-ma go-n swim now?”
Carter chuckled. Her boys loved swimming, just like their daddy. “Soon, my loves. Mama promises to take you swimming.”
“Go swim?”
“Yes, baby. We’re going swimming.”
They both expressed their excitement in unintelligible words. Some of the sentences she could understand, and some she couldn’t. While they were both quite advanced in their speech and vocabulary, and getting better every day, they were still only one year olds. They knew a lot of words, repeated pretty much everything Carter and Nathan said, and spoke lots of really adorable gibberish when they were excited about something. Carter just smiled and listened to her sons talk up a storm. They were her everything. She couldn’t possibly express how much she loved them and being their mother with words. She felt immensely blessed to have them. She absolutely loved being
ma-ma
.