Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
“What are you talking about?”
“Aunt Jess told me everything. There are men at her house right now, ready to tear it down.”
He squares his shoulders. Then he holds up a finger to me and pulls his phone out of his pocket.
“What are you doing? Calling the police? Because you don’t need to, I’ll go. I don’t want to stay here another—”
“Trevor? Good, glad I got through to you. I’m going to put you on loudspeaker, and I’d like you to tell me what you’re doing with that house.” Erik takes the phone away from his ear, and presses the screen, and the voice of the person he was talking to fills the room.
“You want me to—”
“Just say it, Trevor,” Erik growls.
“We’re moving it.”
Erik meets my eyes. One eyebrow goes up, and I bite into my bottom lip. “You’re not demolishing it?” he says.
“No, you said not to. We’re going to have to pull some of it apart, but we’re keeping it as intact as possible, and reassembling it in the new location. That’s what you said, but if you’ve changed your mind…”
“No. That’s fine. Carry on, I’ll speak to you later.” Erik ends the call and tosses his phone down next to mine. “That’s Trevor. He’s one of my contractors.”
“They’re not tearing it down…” I mutter. “They’re… And what about Buffalino?”
“That’s who I just went to see. He won’t be bothering you or your aunt again. In fact, if he ever looks at you the wrong way in future, you tell me, and I’ll take care of him permanently.”
“You didn’t…” I take a quick breath as I meet his eyes.
“No. He’s powerful. I’m powerful too, but I didn’t touch him. I couldn’t take that risk with your safety. But he knows you’re off limits, and that’s all that matters. He wanted the land, not the house, and he’ll get it.”
“I’m…” I glance down at the smashed plates, tomato juice and baked bean sauce like modern art all over the floor. And I start to giggle. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”
9
Erik
Epilogue ~ Fifteen Months Later
I was never sure what my purpose in life was before Andrea.
I never cared.
I worked. I tore down shit. I made money.
I loved my family, but they weren’t the center of my universe. Not like this.
I created a life I never envisioned and every day, there’s a new high, and I never want off this ride.
I’m backstage at New York Fashion Week, watching my girl walk down the runway with the latest, hottest designer for the finale of his show, with her wearing the crown of the show, some haute couture ball gown that took six months or some shit to make.
But nothing is more beautiful than her, and what I have strapped to my chest right now.
Magnus was giving me a ton of shit just before the show, as Andrea adjusted the straps on the baby carrier so I could carry Emma Jane around while my wife walked in her third show of the season.
Her body has taken on a new richness, but she’s still one hundred percent model material. In fact, everyone loved her new curves and the age of stick-thin models as the only representation of the female form is ending, thank God.
Magnus and Cassie are in the front row, I can see them from here, Clapping and whistling as Andrea passes their seats, and I applaud like a lunatic from my place backstage.
I’ve kept my word, and she’s never alone at a casting call, shoot or show. No one touches my baby without me standing next to them staring them down, male or female.
That’s all mine. I tell them all, and I don’t know if it’s the beard or the voice or the fists that seem to keep them in line, but whatever it is, we’ve not had any issues.
Andrea’s mom moved in with some dude in Ecuador. I met her at the wedding. I wasn’t a fan, but I was polite for my wife’s sake.
Her aunt though, Jess, is a gem, and I made sure she was set up with the best doctors, a driver and a penthouse in a high rise next to the medical center. She’s doing well, even comes out to our new place in one of the buildings Magnus and I built on the riverfront for Sunday dinner every week.
My girl is amazing, but she can’t cook worth shit, and I am unskilled as well. So we have a cook, and eat out a lot, but truth is, I like showing off my family. I don’t want anyone touching what’s mine, but I am proud of what I’ve built, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
The casino went forward, but I bowed out of the project when things came to light about some of the dirtier aspects of what was happening without my knowledge.