Carmine (Rage MC: The Prospects #7)

Chapter Seven.

Carmine

M y heart bled for Molly for the scene that had just happened, but she seemed to take it in her stride. I couldn’t believe Molly’s parents didn’t know when her birthday was. That was appalling. No wonder Molly had been shocked when I knew the ages of my brothers and sisters. Mom had always made a huge fuss on our birthdays, and I understood what it was like not to have a celebration.

Sometimes, I thought Mom tried to make up for what we missed, but honestly, she just loved to celebrate our lives. If Mom realised that Molly had never had that, she would spoil her rotten. I already had decided to find out when Molly’s birthday was and ensure it was one she’d remember. The anxiety and my emotional turmoil left me when I pulled onto the road leading to Reading Hall.

We’d all thought Mom had lost the plot when she bought this. But Mom had ploughed ahead and made a wreck a home. Now, it was our safe harbour. Molly took stock as we headed up the lane.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Reading Hall, Mom and Dad’s home, and sadly, where I still bunk when I’m not playing.”

“You live here?” Molly questioned in disbelief. As we drove around the bend, she hissed. “That’s a castle!”

“That’s home. And yes, I do. See that tower there? That used to be mine, Tye and Fanatic’s. Once Tye and I became pros and Fanatic bunked at Hellfire, the younger kids took it over. Now I sleep in the basement when I’m here. There’s no point in having my own place when I’m away from March to October.”

“So, shouldn’t you be playing ball now?” Molly asked. “It’s August.”

“I’m out on an injury. Luckily, I return in three weeks, so I can be around for what’s happening,” I replied. “I’ve got a grade two wrist sprain, which can take up to six weeks to heal.”

“Oh, should you be driving?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a wrist support, and my docs are keeping a check on it. Relax, Molly,” Carmine said, squeezing my leg. “Nobody here will hurt you.”

Molly

Easier said than done, I thought as I smiled warily. Carmine had mentioned how huge his family was. Carmine parked outside and then hurried around to open my door. As he helped me out, Carmine stopped me and ran a finger down my cheek.

“Molly, I won’t ever let anything happen to my girl,” he muttered.

My heart fluttered in reply.

“Yours?”

“Mine, Molly,” Carmine replied and kissed me lightly. “My girl’s skittish and shy and never been courted before. I’ll go all out to demonstrate how amazing she is. And that means bringing her home to meet my parents because I’ve found someone special.”

“Me?” I squeaked.

“You and only you,” Carmine said seriously. “Now, let’s go meet Mom and Dad before they come and find us.”

Carmine walked up the steps leading to the wrap-around porch. It appeared out of place on the building but fit at the same time. Carmine opened one of the heavy doors, and I winced at the noise coming from inside.

“I’m gonna kill you, Tony!” a screech greeted us. Immediately, I moved behind Carmine as kids shot past, screaming.

“Mom! Eddie’s armed!” a boy yelled. “Hey, bro!”

“Kill each other quietly,” Phoe shouted back from somewhere.

“Wow,” I muttered, shocked.

“Dante,” Carmine replied as the kid disappeared.

“Carmine, run! Eddie’s going to murder someone!” another kid bellowed as he slid down a banister on a staircase. That looked fun.

“Scout, be careful,” Carmine called.

“Hello, son,” an older man announced, approaching and hugging Carmine.

“Hi, Grandpa. This is my girl, Molly,” Carmine replied. “This is Albert Wilkes; he came from England with Mom. Albert’s a grandad to us.”

“I never had a grandpa,” I mumbled, shy.

Albert smiled gently. “Always have room for another, although I’m tempted to sell one or two of them.”

“Tony!” a screech echoed, and I cringed.

Albert winced. “On that note, I’m off to my tower. I cannot deal with madam tonight,” he said, chuckling.

“Come on, before I have to play piggy in the middle,” Carmine murmured, taking my hand and leading me away from the stairs.

He led me through a couple of doors and into a large kitchen. Sitting in a chair at an island talking to her husband was Phoe. Drake was leaning back against a worktop as Phoe chatted to him. Another woman was singing as she stood at a stove cooking.

“Hello, son,” Phoe said, her face lighting up as she saw Carmine.

“Hey, Mom,” Carmine replied as he approached Phoe and kissed her cheek. Carmine turned to the second lady and kissed her too. “Mrs Ames.”

“Carmine,” Mrs Ames replied.

To my amusement, Phoe looked past him to me with a welcoming smile.

“You’ve already met my girl, Molly,” Carmine added.

Phoe clapped her hands together and let out a squeal as Drake rolled his eyes.

“Now you done it son,” Drake said, clasping elbows with Carmine and then kissing my forehead. “Welcome to the nut house.”

“Has Eddie stopped shrieking yet?” Phoe asked.

“Nope, she’s hunting Tony,” Carmine replied.

“Should we stop them?” I inquired.

“Nah, as long as they’re not spilling blood, it’s fine. And even then, if it is not rivers of blood, then I’m not too concerned,” Phoe commented blithely.

“Oh.” I looked to Carmine for reassurance.

“Mom let us fight it out, it was better than taking sides,” he explained.

“They won’t really make each other bleed?”

“Molly, my younger siblings are feral,” Carmine stated, and Drake began to laugh.

“You all were fuckin’ wild,” Drake announced.

“Yeah, I’ll deny that.” Carmine chuckled.

“Come and join me, Molly. Drake, get the children to lay the table,” Phoe said.

I was amused when Drake hit a gong as I sat next to Phoe.

“Take a seat, we’ve a few minutes before dinner. Would you like a drink?”

“Do you have a cold coke, please?”

“Sure, Drake, two cokes, baby,” Phoe called, and Drake yelled something back. Moments later, Carmine and Drake joined us, carrying glasses. Carmine and Drake had bottles of beer as they handed us our drinks.

“The mob is laying the table, although Tony is in hiding still,” Drake said.

“What did he do?” Carmine asked.

“Hacked into Eddie’s diary,” Phoe answered.

“Oh shit. Nobody touches a twelve-year-old girl’s diary,” Carmine replied, wincing.

“As you learned from Serenity and Jodie,” Phoe pointed out.

“Yeah, did I. Jesus, teenagers are rabid,” Carmine agreed.

“Then you shouldn’t have read their diary,” Phoe chided.

“Hey, I never spilled a single secret,” Carmine exclaimed.

“No, you were too scared of your sisters’ potential revenge while you slept.” Phoe snorted, and Drake laughed.

“Jodie and Serenity are scary as fuck. I wasn’t pissing them off any further,” he admitted.

A second, deeper gong sounded within the house, and Phoe looked up.

“That’s the dinner bell for the kids. They’ll be getting seated,” Carmine explained. He helped me up from my chair and led me into a dining room off the side of the kitchen.

The loud noise coming from it dimmed when his siblings saw he wasn’t alone.

“Who are you?” an African American girl demanded.

“My name’s Molly,” I said, reaching for Carmine’s hand. He took mine and squeezed.

“Molly’s my girl,” Carmine announced, and a stunned silence met us.

“Your what?” Eddie questioned, aghast.

“Girlfriend, Eddie, get over it,” Carmine retorted, holding out a chair.

“Carmine has a girlfriend?” a boy mumbled, staring with large eyes.

“Not without my approval,” Eddie stated, narrowing her eyes on me.

I’d no idea what to do.

“Urgh, does that mean Carmine’s going to grab her butt, kiss her and slap her ass like Dad does to Mom?” another child asked.

“Oh,” I whispered, a little shocked.

“That’s gross,” the boy continued.

“Scout, when I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it,” Drake stated with a twinkle in his eye.

“It’s still disgusting. Dad does it to Mom all the time,” the child I now knew as Scout shot back.

“Good for Dad,” Carmine said blithely.

Phoe coughed, and the kids looked up and all assumed innocent expressions.

Surprised, I nearly choked on a sip of water.

“Wow, they’re good,” I murmured.

Carmine nodded. “You’ve no idea.”

The dinner was an entirely new experience. Eddie spent the meal viciously stabbing her food with her fork and glaring at her twin. Tony, on the other hand, was so laid back he was almost horizontal. Dante kept poking at Eddie, wanting to be told what secrets her diary had held, and Garrett and Jake ended up in a pea fight. Meanwhile, Phoe serenely ate her food and ignored all of them.

Drake was the one who tried to keep some resemblance of control.

“Dad encouraged us to be fuckers, so now Mom refuses to deal with bad behaviour. Dad has to, and he suffers daily for it,” Carmine explained. “That’s his punishment for indulging all of us.”

The kids’ comments had me laughing by the end of the meal. None of them had a filter, and it was amusing to see how confident they all were. We’d been joined by Harley halfway through, and Carmine was asking him how things were going at the blacksmiths he’d had custom-made.

I was surprised to hear that Harley had a year-long waiting list for commissions. I didn’t realise smithing was that much in demand, but Harley explained that there were very few true blacksmiths left. Nowadays, ironwork is predominantly produced in factories, making a smithy quite popular.

There was a sadness in Phoe’s eyes when she looked at Harley sometimes, but it wasn’t my place to pry. Harley asked about Carmine’s wrist but avoided any talk concerning my work. Once dinner was done and the kids had scarpered, then Harley explained he hadn’t wanted to panic them.

We talked for ages before Carmine said he was taking me home because of work in the morning. Carmine once again walked me to my door, and our kiss was a little longer this time, but still not a full one.

“Why won’t you kiss me properly?”

“Because, sweet girl, I am courting you, and no gentleman jumps straight into shoving his tongue down a woman’s throat. Mom and Albert taught us how to woo a woman,” Carmine answered, leaning his forehead against mine.

“And if I wanted you to?” I sought boldly before cringing.

“I’m honoured, but I’ll continue to court you in the old-fashioned way. Grandpa would hand me my ass otherwise,” Carmine said before sneaking another kiss and leaving me bemused.

Carmine – two days later.

I was boiling. Absolutely freaking fuming. Angrily, I stabbed at the buttons on my phone and dialled my PR consultant, Freddie.

“Have you seen the article?” I snapped as soon as Freddie answered.

“Yes, and I was about to call. Who is she, and is it true?”

“The fuck it is. Molly is not a crank,” I stormed, glaring at the newspaper in front of me.

The headline screamed, ‘The Player and the Crackpot. The heat is on in Rapid City.’ And there was a picture of me kissing Molly. Judging by our clothes, it was taken two nights ago.

“Talk to me, Carmine,” Freddie said calmly.

I took Freddie through everything and explained what had happened to Molly. What made me angrier was her mother and father had made snarky comments once again, making Molly a laughingstock. Those bastards would pay.

The twisted theory of what was happening here was in the newspaper and her parents were clearly aiming to take charge of the project. They even stated that GS head office had requested them to take over and resolve whatever trouble Molly had caused. Which further belittled her.

They’d not met my mother clearly.

“Okay, let me get some damage control in place. I don’t like this. Someone had leaked the story. Not to harm you, but Molly, I feel,” Freddie replied.

“Find out who and let me know. I’ll destroy them. Also let me make it clear: Carmen and her dramatics are unwelcome; we were never dating. Lord knows why she’s wading in on this. And quote me, three dates don’t make a relationship. And warn Carmen privately, if she continues, her career will come to an abrupt end,” I snapped.

A model who I’d took on a few dates for publicity was wailing in the paper about me cheating. By the time Serenity and Mom finished with her, Carmen wouldn’t be fit to work in a strip club.

I slammed my phone down and gasped for several deep breaths.

“Carmine, we have wolves at the gates,” Liz, the head of security for Reading Hall, announced from behind.

“Liz, I need to get to the command centre,” I murmured, my mind racing.

“I’ve sent Matthias with some men to Molly’s home, and he’s reported she’s surrounded by reporters. Matthias is driving Molly to the command centre,” Liz said.

“Thanks.”

“And I’ll be driving you, Carmine. There’s too many of them, and they could cause an accident,” Liz stated, her tone brokering no arguments.

“Orders from my mother?” I asked, and Liz grinned. “I guess Mom’s all over this.”

“What do you think?” Liz replied.

“Damage control coming up.”

“And careers will be ended by tonight,” Liz agreed.

“Good old Mom.”

Molly

In disbelief, I stared as Mother and Father waltzed in and informed Susan they were now in charge. Susan laughed in their faces and continued issuing orders. Moments later, Phoe marched in with security at her back.

“I’m the boss, not Dr Jones-White, who clearly has had a lapse in her judgement,” Father announced to everyone. People paused, puzzled and conflicted.

“I very much doubt you are. Without my money, the project cannot proceed. And as this is privately funded, I decide who is in charge. And it’s not you,” Phoe stated.

“Lady, you’ve no right to interfere in a GS team survey,” Mother snapped.

“Nope. However, I have the right to withdraw funding for something I pay for. And I don’t like you. You leaked those details to the press to get back at Molly for defying you. You messed with the wrong family this time. The moment you appeared, Dr Jones-White and I prepared for this.

“You’ve no rights here, and you’re not taking over and claiming the credit that your daughter deserves. There is a press conference lined up within the next hour, and you’re not welcome,” Phoe snarled at them.

“You can’t stop us talking to the press,” Mother argued.

“Nope. And I’m sure the press will want to talk to you about how you can’t read a fucking report. But that’s between you and them. You attempted to make a fool of my son’s girlfriend, and that was your mistake.

“All you want is the glory, and you don’t care how many lives or careers you destroy. What eats you up is knowing Molly discovered something nobody else has. And you want to claim that as your own. You don’t want Molly to get the accolades she’s entitled to.

“And that makes you the most selfish, ignorant, greedy assholes around. By the time I finish with you, people will wonder how you got your doctorates. Because neither of you has a unique idea inside you. Molly has made a one-in-a-million discovery. By the way, the press will want to know why you all didn’t hear her out and study her data before ridiculing her and tearing her down.

“Then they’ll wanna know how you can live with yourself, putting people’s lives at risk like you all did. Dr White better start looking for another job, because he led this. We could have done something about this phenomenon, but it’s too late,” Phoe spat.

My parents went pale.

“My reputation is unblemished. People won’t listen to a crackpot,” Father shot back.

“No? You know what the public will listen to? The truth! Now get out, you’re not in charge here, and I don’t give a flying fuck what Dr White says. He is not funding this, I am. And remember, he’s not financing this because he doesn’t believe anything is happening despite the readouts and data rolling in. Which makes me question, just how qualified is he for his job?” Phoe retorted.

Mother and Father sent me a furious look before drawing themselves up.

“This isn’t over,” Father hissed.

“It is for you,” Phoe said, determined to have the last word.

Everybody watched them leave before all eyes turned to Phoe.

“We have a press conference in an hour. Would everyone, apart from those invited, please continue with what you were doing?” Phoe asked softly.

Heavily, I sat down, my hands shaking. I could only imagine that Phoenix was furious I’d dragged Carmine into this mess. Phoe approached me and grabbed a chair.

“Are you okay?” she murmured, reaching out and holding my hands.

“No. I made a mistake allowing Carmine to be nice to me. I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Why are you apologising?”

“Because I made Carmine seem horrible in the media,” I replied softly. “I didn’t mean that much to him. Carmine didn’t kiss me properly either.”

Phoe offered me a strange look.

“Okay, honey. One, Carmine doesn’t look bad. When the truth comes out, everything will be fine, and Carmine has broad shoulders anyway. Two, I damn well hope he was being nice to you. If Carmine wasn’t, I’d kick his ass. And three, I don’t know about kisses, but I do understand my son.

“Carmine has fallen for you, Molly, and he’s all in. Carmine and all the kids have been taught not to bring anyone home unless they are serious about them. You’re the first person any of my children have brought for dinner, which means you’re very special. Now I noticed you have had a hard life. It’s obvious from how those idiots acted you’ve not had real parents.

“But a true mother does everything possible to help her babies succeed. And you’re going to be my daughter-in-law… no shhh honey… I told you, Carmine is all in. A cut, old lady status, and a wedding. And then grandchildren,” Phoe said with a huge grin.

“Children?” I gasped.

“Oh yes. How exciting!”

“We were dating, but he has a girl. I don’t understand that. Carmine might not wish to date me after this,” I exclaimed.

“Carmine is smitten. That model is not his girlfriend. God knows who she is. Trust me, honey, my boy is going nowhere,” Phoe refuted.

I was about to argue when the command centre door opened, and Carmine entered. His gaze swept the room, and relief crossed his face when he spotted me.

“My publicist is all over this. By the time Freddie and Mom get finished, your parents will regret ever hearing of South Dakota,” Carmine promised as he approached us.

“What about your girlfriend?”

“Carmen is someone I went on a date with three times to boost her career. We have never been in a relationship. Carmen’s been sent a warning to retract her statement or pay the consequences. You, sweet girl, are the only woman I want on my arm, in my bed, and in my life,” Carmine said firmly.

“Do you mean that?”

“Yes, Molly. I told you, you’re mine.”

Guess it was as simple as that.