Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
He pulled the next ball out of the bag, and whipped it across the street just as the neighbor came stomping down the pathway beside his driveway.
Cross rocked back on the swinging bench, half amused by the way Zeke turned his head sideways to hide his smirk at the neighbor’s indignant ranting. He lifted the cigar to his lips, and pulled in a thick drag as the man glared at Cross’s five-year-old son still whipping balls onto his property across the street.
“What is he doing?”
Still, Cross said nothing.
Beside him, Zeke shook his head. “Gets shriller the madder he gets.”
“Cute, huh?”
“Tell him to stop right now, Donati!”
Cross smiled. “That’ll be a no.”
“What—there’s fifteen balls in my yard!”
“Yeah, there’s another bag in the SUV, so we’ve got another forty, at least, to go.”
“Are ... are you serious?”
“Next time, guess you’ll just throw him back his ball and shut your fucking face, right?”
The man across the street huffed.
Naz kept throwing the balls.
Cross just smiled.
“Fuck this,” the guy muttered, ‘I’m calling the cops.”
Now that?
That had Cross roaring.
With laughter, that was.
Zeke, too.
God.
This was going to be a good day.
And a good lesson for Naz.
About his father.
Himself.
This life.
And business.
He controlled everything.
No one controlled him.
Cece and Juan
Chapter 1 - Miggy
Cece POV
2 years old ...
Cece bounced through the room, ignoring the calls of her name and the many people surrounding her mother. It wasn’t anything unusual, and whenever she accompanied her ma to California for business, as her mother liked to say it, there always seemed to be more faces around than Cece cared to keep count.
They all knew her name.
She barely remembered theirs.
Everyone was nice, sure. They never said mean things, or even yelled at her. No one said she was in the way, and they always treated her with what her da liked to say was the proper respect a Donati principessa deserved. Not that Cece understood what any of that meant, but she did know that she liked it all.
That was enough for her.
Besides, she was more concerned with where her Ma was in the large space. After running through the hallways with one of the hotel’s maids chasing after her, she was ready to find her ma, have a snack, and that juice she liked.
No big deal.
She darted around a rather large and quite tall man when she heard the sound of her Ma’s familiar voice telling a girl that she needed to get with the program, or get the hell out of it. The girl was quick to reply with quiet yes, Queen.
Yeah.
Business was always fun.
Even when Cece didn’t really understand it.
All she knew was that when her mother came to California for a week, they stayed in their big suite at a hotel that always knew them by first and last name, had Cece’s favorite things on hand whenever she wanted to pick up the phone and call down to ask—her Ma taught her how to do that—and people never stopped coming by.
In New York, the only people that visited were men for her da.
In Cali, it was all about her ma.
“Ma!”
“Oh, and Miguel, I need you to stay behind for a moment, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Not at all, Catty.”
“Hmm.”
Her mother’s quiet hum was quickly followed by a short, “Catherine, I mean.”
“Better, Miguel. Better.”
Cece found her mother sitting in the large chair that dominated the sitting space of the living room section of their suite. She tried not to bother her ma when she was doing business, if only because well, it was a little strange. So many people listening to her ma when she spoke, and everyone staring.
Oh, Cece liked being stared at.
She loved attention.
This was for her ma, though.
It wasn’t the same.
She understood well enough that her ma was doing important work. Work that shouldn’t be interrupted just because Cece wanted attention for one reason or another. Her ma always reminded her every time the private jet landed in Cali to be a good girl, Cece. And she did because she promised she would.
And she so loved her ma.
More than anything.
Catherine reached for Cece as she came to stand next to her mother’s chair. In her ma’s lap, a cup was already being passed over. In her pretty pink dress with the white polka dots all over, a cup of juice could be a dangerous thing, so Cece took her time drinking the liquid, making sure not to spill the sticky, red liquid on her dress.
That would make her mad.
She hated ruining her pretty things.
Her ma flattened her palm against the top of Cece’s head, smoothing the dark, wildly unruly curls at the crown as people gave their confirmative replies to whatever she had said before they started filtering out of the hotel room. A few stragglers stayed behind, chatting in hushed tones as the tall man from earlier stepped up. He was one of the familiar faces to Cece, although she could never quite say his name right. And when Cece couldn’t say something right, she simply didn’t say it at all.