“Everyone knows how Lu is with hurricanes.”

  “She wasn’t bad at all,” Nevin tells Ro.

  I fill my mug, ignoring them as they talk about me like I’m not in the room. All I care about is caffeine and my small hangover.

  “Someone kept my mind on other things,” I say with my back to them, smiling against the rim of my mug.

  “I don’t want to hear details,” Rosie replies immediately.

  “It wasn’t like that. We talked most of the night,” Nevin tells her.

  “But not all of the night,” I add, turning back around to face them.

  My sister touches Dylan’s shoulder. “Why don’t we head over, and they can meet us there when they’re ready.”

  Dylan rises from his chair, coffee cup in one hand, and grabs my sister’s other hand as it drops from his shoulder. “Whatever you want,” he says to her.

  “I think they need more time to wake up, even though it’s one in the afternoon.”

  “You know I like my sleep,” I remind her.

  “I can’t forget.”

  “How are the roads? Any storm damage?” Nevin asks Dylan.

  “Nothing you can’t work around in Luna’s truck,” Dylan tells him.

  “We’ll be there in a bit,” I say to my sister as she makes her way toward the door. “Don’t go off the rails and tell everyone what you saw.”

  “I won’t tell anyone you two were in bed,” she promises.

  “I mean about his beautiful penis,” I tease my sister, earning an eye roll in response. “No one needs to be jealous.”

  Dylan grunts. “You guys don’t talk about our dicks all the time, do you?”

  I smile. “Oh no. Never,” I lie.

  We know everything about everyone. Who’s pierced. Who’s not. Who has a curve. Who’s straight as an arrow. I won’t talk or listen to anything about people I’m blood-related to, but the men who weren’t born into this family…I know everything about them.

  Ro stops at the door and turns back toward the kitchen, where I’m still nursing my mug of coffee. “Don’t take too long. Dad’s on edge today.”

  “Fuck,” I mutter.

  “Maybe I should head home,” Nevin says.

  “Oh no.” I grab on to his shoulder, keeping his ass in the seat. “You’re coming with me. I may need protection.”

  He peers up at me, narrowing his eyes. “Who’s going to protect me?”

  “I got your back if you got mine.”

  “Doesn’t seem fair. He isn’t going to kill his own child.”

  “He’s not going to kill you either.”

  “Liar,” Nevin barks out.

  My stomach turns, thinking about my dad. There’s only one thing scarier than Mother Nature, and it’s a pissed-off Joseph Gallo.

  19

  NEVIN

  “Honey, come here,” the old woman who felt me up the first time I came here says, patting the chair next to her. “I want to talk.”

  I stay where I am, holding the plate of food and looking very much like a deer in headlights.

  “Promise,” she says again.

  “Go see Fran. She’s harmless, but watch out for Bear.”

  “Bear?” I ask, peering down at Luna as she stands next to me with half as much food.

  “Her husband. Big, bulky biker, looking like an ancient Santa Claus.”

  “You sure?”

  “She only does that to get a rise out of her man. He’s the jealous type, and she likes what jealousy does to him.”

  “What’s it do to him?” I swallow, hoping I didn’t survive prison and a hurricane only to be taken out by an old Santa.

  “I’ve never asked because I don’t want to know.”

  I crack a smile. “I don’t want to know either.”

  Luna dips her chin toward the old woman who’s sitting at the table in the kitchen. “Want me to come with you?”

  “Yes,” I snap. “Of course I do. Don’t throw me to the wolves.”

  She giggles. “Fran is hardly a wolf.”

  I blink and narrow my eyes. “Are you blind?”

  She laughs again. “Come on, big baby,” she says, moving toward the otherwise empty table.

  “Hey, Auntie. How did you two do during the storm? Any damage?” Luna asks her great-aunt as I slide into my seat.

  Fran stabs at a small piece of lasagna. “Not much damage at all. Bear had it all cleaned up before we headed over here. How about you, sweetie? You have any damage?” she asks, waggling her eyebrows.

  “Nothing of note,” Luna tells her. “But that’s apartment life.”

  “I heard you weren’t alone.” Fran looks at me and smirks. “I hope you two were able to sleep with all that ruckus.”

  “We didn’t sleep much. It was a hell of a storm,” Luna tells her, pushing the food around on her plate.

  “I’m sure that’s why you didn’t sleep.” Fran pats my hand and doesn’t wipe the smirk off her face. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with this fine young man next to me.”

  “Fran,” Luna warns. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

  “I’m old and hunched over. It’s the only place my mind goes these days, Lu… Thank God.”

  Luna looks around. “It was a very innocent evening.”

  “I’m disappointed.”

  “Why?” Luna asks her.

  “You’re only young once, Lu. Don’t waste a minute of it trying to be proper. Because when you get old like me, you’ll realize you wasted your youth being boring as hell.”

  I smile at the old woman, loving her outlook on life.

  “And this one’s already lost enough years. He doesn’t need to be sitting around bingeing television or playing chess.”

  “Chess?” I ask her, almost choking on my lasagna. “I don’t play chess.”

  “It’s a metaphor, child. I see the spark between you two. It burns bright, and I’m figurin’ it has something to do with what happened last night while you were there trying to keep her ass calm.”

  “Nothing happened,” Luna lies.

  Fran lifts her fork, pointing it at Luna’s chest. “That hickey on your neck says otherwise.”

  Luna gasps and tries to cover the spot her great-aunt just pointed to. “What the hell, Nevin? Are you sixteen?”

  I stare at her, seeing absolutely nothing and remembering last night very clearly. “Babe, I didn’t mark you.”

  “Got ya,” Fran says, laughing until she snorts. “Can’t lie now.”

  “Damn it,” Luna mutters, dropping her hand back to her fork. “I can’t believe I fell for that.”

  “It was way too easy,” Fran tells her, still laughing.

  “What was easy?” asks a man who does, indeed, look like an ancient Santa.

  “Nothing, baby,” Fran says to him. “Just talking to the kids about the storm.”

  “Hell of a night,” he says. “I’m exhausted after picking up that damn yard. I think it’s time for a condo.”

  Fran’s eyes widen. “Throwing in the towel, old man?”

  “When it comes to trees and grass, fuck yeah. You going to do it when I’m too old to walk?”

  She shakes her head. “I can’t do it now.”

  “Condo, Fran. Condo with a pool.”

  “We’ll start looking this week,” she tells him, reaching over to rub his beard. “I’m ready for a change.”

  “As long as you’re not trading me in,” he says while kissing her cheek.

  “Not on your life,” she says with a smile.

  “I ain’t letting you go so easy, Fran.”

  “I’m going to jump in your grave when you die,” she tells him.

  I watch their conversation in weird fascination. They love each other, but it’s not the stuff they show in the bullshit Hollywood movies. It’s clunky and awkward, but it’s plain as day.

  “How are you doing since getting out?” he asks me right as I’m shoving a big helping of lasagna into my mouth.

  Since my mouth is full, Luna answers for me. “He’s working at the bar and staying at the Wayward.”

  Bear grimaces. “Trash place. Always has been. Always will be. They still have mirrors on the ceiling?”

  I shake my head, hating that I can’t reply to him, but chewing the flaming-hot lasagna as quickly as possible.

  “It isn’t as bad as I thought it would be there,” Luna tells her uncle. “I asked him to move in with me, but…”

  “Your father would shit a brick,” Bear tells her flat out, which isn’t a lie.

  Joe Gallo may be okay with me hanging out with members of his family, but becoming the roommate of his last single daughter… That would be a hell no.

  “I don’t need his permission, Uncle.”

  The lasagna almost lodges in my throat when she says that. She’s a little rebel and I love that about her, but damn, the last thing I need is more trouble.

  I pound on my chest until I get the food to pass through my throat. “It’s for the best that I stay at the Wayward.”

  “Smart kid,” Bear mumbles, lifting his fork in my direction. “City don’t play when it comes to his girls.”

  “I’m sure the prison thing doesn’t help either,” I tell him.

  He shakes his head, and even though his mouth is full, it doesn’t stop him from replying. “I’ve been behind bars more times than I can count, and City’s always been there for me. Never judged. Hell, that fucker’s had his fingerprints taken a few times too.”

  “What?” Luna gasps. “When?”

  “It’s been a few decades, but he never shied away from getting his hands dirty, but only when helping a friend.”

  “Dad? I still can’t believe it.” Luna shakes her head softly. “He’s so…”

  “Your dad was badass in his younger days.”

  “I still am, asshole,” Mr. Gallo says, sitting down in an empty seat next to Bear. “You’re the one who’s gone soft.”

  “We’re both soft. We’re not young bucks anymore.” Bear laughs, slapping Joe on the back. “But trouble still finds me, while you’re at home knitting sweaters.”

  Joe gives him a look of death, the same look he used to give me and my jackass brothers when we were young. “I’ve just gotten smarter, while you continue to get caught. You haven’t learned a damn thing over the years.”

  “Sometimes I want to get caught,” Bear tells him while shoveling in another forkful of lasagna. “It’s like a vacation.”

  “It sure is a vacation for me,” Fran adds, giving Luna a wink.

  “I still can’t imagine my dad getting arrested,” Luna says, staring at her father like the man walks on water.

  “You should’ve seen him before he met your mother. The man was a lunatic.”

  Joe glares at Bear, and I swear to God, the air in the room damn near evaporates. “Don’t put shit in my kid’s head.”

  Bear sets his fork down, staring back at his friend. “What shit?”

  “I don’t want her thinking all criminals are good guys,” Joe says.

  My stomach knots, but I keep eating, knowing damn well he’s talking about me. No matter what he says, I still served ten years in prison. A person never comes out the same way as they went in, even if they’re innocent.

  “I don’t think that, Dad. I know the difference between a good person and a bad one, no matter where they’ve been.”

  “Even the best-dressed businessman can be the most evil person. Can’t always judge someone by how they look or the shit they’ve been through in life. Right, kid?” Bear says, pausing and waiting for a reply.

  I look up from my plate, finding him staring at me and not Luna. “Me?”

  “Yeah, dum-dum. I’m sure you met all kinds when you were inside. They don’t all come in looking like they’re the big bad wolf when they’re the worst of them all.”

  “Yeah. Plenty,” I mutter.

  Bear leans back, studying me as he rubs his gray beard. “You know we’re not talking about you, right?”

  “Sure,” I mutter.

  Bear doesn’t stop staring at me. “Kid, you did a good thing. I don’t care how long you sat behind bars, you did good. I’ve done some pretty shitty things in my day, but I never went to prison, and I wouldn’t have gone to prison for something I didn’t do.”

  I set my fork down, suddenly losing my appetite. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Everyone has a choice,” Joe replies. “You didn’t have to confess to a crime you didn’t commit. Ian didn’t make you. As far as I know, he didn’t ask you to either.”

  “He didn’t.” I fidget with the napkin in my lap.

  “Then you had a choice, and you did it because you loved him. When we talk about bad people and criminals, we’re not talking about you.”

  I sigh. “It’s hard to think of myself as anything but. I had ten years when I was treated like the worst type of trash, and then the years before that when my father treated me and my brothers the same way. It’s hard to think of myself as good.”

  “Get the fuck over yourself,” Joe says. “You are good. End of story. I may not have liked you much as a kid, because let’s face it, you were all dicks, but I respect you as a man.”

  I sit back, humbled that a man such as Joe Gallo respects me. Never thought that would happen in my lifetime, and I sure as hell didn’t think I’d hear the words uttered from his very lips.

  Luna grabs my hand under the table and squeezes. “He’s one of the good ones.”

  “Don’t find men like that very often,” Aunt Fran says.

  “We’re only friends,” I say quickly.

  Luna’s hand disappears. “Right. Friends,” she whispers as her shoulders slouch forward.

  Well, I fucked that up and did it big in front of her father. Way to go, moron. Although I’m in my midtwenties, I still have only a handful of years of experience with women and relationships. And what the hell did I know when I was sentenced and hauled off right after my eighteenth birthday? Not a goddamn thing.

  “With benefits,” Fran coughs into her napkin.

  “What are you talking about in here?” Rosie asks, walking into the kitchen with an empty plate.

  “Dad’s jail time,” Luna says, waving a hand at her father. “He’s been arrested a lot. Like a lot, a lot.”

  Rosie drops her plate to the counter and spins around. “He what?”

  Luna nods. “Yep. Has a record a mile long. Uncle Bear too.”

  Bear laughs. “Come on. Almost everyone here has been arrested. Hell, even your grandfather.”

  Rosie covers her mouth, wide-eyed. “I can’t…”

  “Shut the fuck up, Bear,” Joe grumbles, scrubbing his hand across his face. “Let the kids live a fairy tale.”

  “Oh no,” Rosie says, stalking toward the table. “I want to hear this. What did Grandpa do?”

  Joe shrugs. “Have to ask him.”

  “And you?” Rosie asks her father.

  “Which time?” Bear says, laughing again and not giving two fucks how Joe feels.

  “Oh my God. For real?” Rosie whispers.

  “Don’t listen to him. He’s an old man with a bad memory,” Joe tells Rosie.

  “Bad memory?” Bear places his elbows on the table and sports a shit-eating grin. “I clearly remember when you and your bride were arrested, and I had to post bail because you were—”

  “What?” Rosie screeches.

  Luna covers her ears. “I don’t want to hear this.”

  “That’s enough, baby,” Fran says to her husband. “You’ve scarred them enough for one day.”

  “Think of it as a bonding experience,” he tells her.

  She shakes her head. “You’re rotten to the core.”

  “Just how you like me, sweetheart.” He leans over, kissing her on the cheek. “Now, finish eating because I have a bed that’s calling my name, and I want you in it with me.”

  I smile, feeling awkward as hell, but I like these people. Each one of them is good and loves the others.

  Being around the Gallos, I realize how much I was robbed of as a kid. We had no family around, and the little bit we did have wanted nothing to do with my father or us after Mom took off. I can’t blame them. My father was a shitty human, but we were innocent, caught in the cross hairs of our age.

  “You want to go outside?” Luna asks me. “I’m sure they’re chomping at the bit to talk to us.”

  “Sure,” I say, but I don’t mean it. I’m comfortable around the older people…even Joe Gallo, and that’s saying something.

  The last thing I want to do is answer more questions and fuck up. I already inserted my foot into my mouth with the “friends” comment. I’m sure I’ll end up digging my hole even deeper once I’m around her cousins. I might as well throw myself in it and cover myself with dirt.

  “Leave your plates. I’ll get them,” Fran says, motioning for us not to touch anything.

  “Finally,” Rosie says to Luna as we get up. “There’s lots to discuss.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” Luna tells her.

  Yep. I’m dead. I went from winner to in the doghouse in the matter of one word. I wish I could go back and not open my big fat mouth, but shit doesn’t work that way.

  We haven’t talked about what we are or aren’t, and in a moment of panic, I said the wrong thing.

  Fuck!

  20

  LUNA

  “Why do you need me here?” I ask Trace as he opens the door to ALFA Security, waiting for me to walk in first.

  “Moral support.”

  I stop before I have both feet inside the office and turn my head to stare him straight in the eye. “Moral support for…”

  Trace smirks, and I immediately know whatever he’s about to drop on his dad isn’t going to be something Uncle James will be happy about. “I may have gotten myself into a jam.”

  I raise my eyebrows, wanting to know more. “A jam? What did you do? Steal a car? Rob a bank?” I giggle at the absurdity.

  Trace has always been the wildest one of the younger boys. His older brothers, Carmello and Rocco, had their share of crazy, but Trace has always worked extra to get attention. He is a kindred spirit to me since I am the youngest out of my siblings too.