“Okay, now it’s getting a bit uncool.” He stopped her “motherly” rubbing, getting rid of the stain himself.
“Sorry.” She laughed.
When they finally got to the school’s front doors where the red carpet ended, Leo went up to the ticket booth and handed in his homecoming of 2015 ticket.
“Are you volunteering, sir?”
“No, I am,” Maria answered, even though the mom with the clipboard of names had clearly asked Jerry.
“The parents don’t come in to drop their kids off. They usually drop them off at the front of the school for this kind of thing.”
Without listening, Jerry took a seat on one of the benches, pulling out his newspaper from under his arm.
It was just like old times. During school dances, they locked all the doors but this one so no one could enter or exit except through the front entrance. If she needed him, she could call his cell, and if something were to happen, he could be there in a minute flat.
“You can wait outside, if you’d like.”
Jerry opened his paper larger. “I think I’ll wait here.”
The volunteering mother didn’t know how to respond, seeming to be a bit intimidated by the older, large man in the suit.
“He’s just a bit overprotective.” Maria shrugged it off with a fake laugh. Trying to divert the woman’s attention, she continued, “I’m volunteering. Maria Caruso.”
“Kayne is coming this way,” Leo whispered over to her under his breath. “I’ll meet you back here when the dance is over. Good luck.”
Nodding as he walked away, she knew why he had done so. Unlike how Maria had made Leo look walking in, despite that he said she didn’t, Leo didn’t want his sister looking uncool by having her little brother hanging close by while she flirted with his sexy English teacher. She was really going to have to think of something to buy Leo after tonight.
“Ah, yes.” The volunteer finally found her name on the list. “I see you right here, Ma—”
“Maria, thank you for coming. I wasn’t sure if you’d actually come or not.” Kayne seemed happily surprised to see her.
Her cold heart thudded once in her chest from seeing him. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Well ….” Clearing his throat, he stopped himself to look down at the woman with the clipboard staring adoringly up at him. “Thanks, Kathy. I’ll show Maria to her post.”
Feeling his hand at the small of her back, she happily let Kayne lead her to the coat check.
Even though there was no longer an eavesdropper, he was sure to keep his voice low. “Leo mentioned some family issues when he returned back to school this week after missing some days.”
“Right.” Not wanting to bring up the specifics, she decided to be honest since the wedding from hell had reached the paper. “A family wedding we attended last weekend got a bit out of hand.”
“I heard.”
Well, shit. She probably shouldn’t have sugarcoated it, then. The only reason everyone knew about it was because every hotel resident had fucking heard it and the screams that had followed. The only good thing was that no one truly knew who One-Shot was, and more than half of Kansas City’s police force was in her father’s pocket.
The long-time standing Caruso-KC police department had been passed down for generations with each boss and commissioner through the years. On the surface the police force might look like they were the ones in control, but the truth was that this city was run and owned with the money and fear of the Caruso family. So, basically, the chief of police or any political member in this city were members of the group of people they swore to their citizens they would protect them from.
Truthfully, the citizens of Kansas City were in better hands with the Carusos than they were with the police department. When something happened to someone in this city, Dante or Lucca knew about it, and they did everything in their power to make things right. So, if your kid went missing or, worse, ended up dead, by the next morning, Lucca could have you in a room facing your son’s killer with a 9mm pistol in your hand. It wasn’t exactly your land-of-the-free type of justice-for-all, but it did more for the family than waiting a year for your child’s murderer to finally be put behind bars, only to be let out fifteen years later on good behavior, preaching they had found God.
That was why the boogieman had become a household name. If you did something heinous, your only judge, jury, and executioner was Lucca. His justice wasn’t only swift and true; it was fucking e-x-a-c-t. The only way the boogieman took pleasure in his work was if you were given exactly what you deserved. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth was something he took literally, as long as Lucca was in a good mood.