Hey, loves!
We're back for a teaser from Michel and Gabbie's standalone novel, Dirty Pool, which releases next month! Hope you're ready for these two.
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“What are your plans for the summer, then?” Catrina asked, bringing him back to the conversation at hand. “Today was your final exam before break, right?”
“It was.”
“And?”
Michel shook his head, knowing there was no way out of this conversation. “And I haven’t decided yet what I’m doing with my break.”
That was a lie.
He had decided.
He wasn’t going home.
Catrina made a sad noise. “Well, okay.”
He knew what his parents wanted—they missed him, and would like to have him home. In a way, he wanted to go back, too, but he’d heard the stories and rumors. Students that went back and got comfortable at home after their first year had a higher chance of not returning for the second. He didn’t think his mother would appreciate him telling her that, though.
But he did miss them.
He missed his family. His cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. All of them. Even his younger sister, as annoying as Catherine could be. Being an Italian through and through meant he grew up in a culture that took family seriously. Large dinners, church every Sunday together, and time spent as a whole unit of one. The closest thing he got to being near his family in Detroit was the Marcello faction of the mafia in the city—the Vannozzo family served his needs when he needed something familiar around him.
They kept him busy sometimes, too.
At least, his dad didn’t mind because Michel was around people Dante trusted, and had some control over being they were an extended arm of his father’s mafia organization in New York. He wasn’t really involved in the Vannozzo’s business here, but they had been hinting lately that if he wanted to get back into a bit of dealing—like he’d done for years in New York throughout his high school years—that they would be happy to provide him with the shit to sell.
Michel was considering it.
He didn’t know what his father would think of that now that Michel was in college, and he was supposed to be putting the famiglia ideals behind him for this doctor dream. He wasn’t really interested in finding out, either.
Catrina hummed under her breath, drawing Michel from his thoughts as she muttered, “Yes, Dante, I’ll tell him.”
Michel chucked. “Tell me what?”
“Your father said you should come home.”
He fiddled with the fob to his Mercedes as he stood beside the car, and then hit the unlock button. The car lit up on all four corners, the black paint job shining in the daylight. He didn’t immediately jump into the vehicle, instead opting to finish his conversation with his mother first.
Now or never.
“I’m not going to come home for the summer,” he said.
Catrina was quiet for a while, and he hoped he hadn’t upset his ma. He loved her, but he also needed this time. As it was, he’d made the move to Detroit a whole year earlier than his first year of pre-med had started. He wanted to settle in, and get used to the city. He was going to be here for a while, right? He might as well learn to love it.
That meant staying.
Catrina relayed what Michel said to his father. In the background, he heard Dante reply, “Well, tell him to stay out of trouble.”
“You heard that, then?” Catrina asked Michel.
He laughed. “I did.”
“Do as your father says, Michel.”
“When do I ever cause trouble, Ma?”
“Define trouble.”
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