Picky Eater

Ch 14: It's family business.

"How are you, Evelyn?" Dante asked, obviously put on speaker phone.

Nino was motioning to her with an emphatic thumbs up.

Evie got the hint. "I'm doing good. Thank you."

"Are you having fun with your Uncle Nino?"

"Mm hm." Evie hummed. "It's really fun."

"That's great. Now, did he break up with that human like I instructed?"

"Dante," Nino snapped. "Drop it. It's none of your business."

"It is my business," Dante argued. His voice was unwaveringly steady. Never surprised by one of Nino's retorts. If anyone could read minds, Ben assumed it'd be Dante. "It's family business. I'm going easy on you, you know. All I want for you is to fulfill one obligation to the family."

"How is me getting married helping the family? Won't I be leaving it? You just want to pin me down, admit it."

Ben closed his eyes, taking this news like a bat to the stomach.

Again, Dante didn't miss a single beat. "It's not a terrible thought, but no, Nino. You'll have to choose a different way to vilify me. Marrying Knox Lavigne—" he said and Ben wished he didn't know their name. It made it so much more real. Dante continued, "—will do more for this family than you obviously understand. Marrying into the Lavigne family will provide our coven with more than just financial security. It gives our family access to another half of the world. It builds the size. It gives us strength and protection and keeps our names in the right people's mouths. Some thought our parents were silly. Nobody thinks the Lavigne family is silly."

Ben realized he couldn't check any of the boxes on Dante's list.

Dante also admitted with a sigh. "Will it bring peace of mind knowing you end up with a good family? Yes, maybe it will. I don't think that's such a terrible wish for my little brother. I don't care how old you or Anthony, Bianca, and Mathew get. You'll always be my little siblings."

"You're normally not so sentimental," Nino said in a teasing way. In its way, it's the nicest Nino has spoken to Dante. "You must really need something from me."

"Knox is in your city."

"What?"

Ben sat up and Anthony strung an arm around his chest to keep him from throwing himself off the building.

Dante said, "Knox is there. Not for you, but while he's there, I think you two should talk. Get to know him. Meet him. Then, decide if you can handle marrying him or not."

It was only a few seconds, but Nino's silence felt like eternity. He finally asked, "How long is he in town?"

"Just Saturday."

"Ok."

"Ok? Ok, what?"

"Ok," Nino grounded out. "Give me his number. I'll set it up."

Ben dropped his weight into Anthony. That must've given him the hint. Anthony slipped his hands underneath Ben again and slipped backwards, away from the alley and out of sight. Before Ben knew it, they were gliding through the city at breakneck speed and Ben found himself at his front doorstep. He looked up at the brownstone and scanned the street.

"Are you..." Anthony said carefully, unsure where to land, but Ben did.

Putting on a smile, Ben turned around. Anthony stood on the street and Ben just shrugged. "Fine. I'm fine. After all, I'm the one who's been begging Nino to get along with you guys. Him bending to Dante and playing nice is good. It's good. I'm good."

"Uh, huh, sure." Anthony pretended to buy Ben's crap.

Ben shouldn't have gotten his hopes up.

That mistake would be his first and last.

***

Ben tried writing in five different spots in his house. He finally gave up and went to his office and closed the door. There was a freak summer storm and Ben was losing himself, watching the rain splatter the windows. He glanced at his phone and the notifications from Tim and Lincoln. He should really text them back, but being alone sounded sweeter.

The front door opened, letting in a quick bubble of sound. Ben sat up and froze, listening intently as Nino told Evie to get ready for bed. He asked, "Are you feeling better?"

She must've nodded because Nino said, "That's good."

"Hey, guys," Anthony said. He had been hanging out in the living room, going through books, movies, and finally playing on Ben's game console. As Anthony spoke, Ben could hear Evie's feet hitting the staircase as she went upstairs. "Damn. How long was that talk with Dante?"

"Evie and I went out hunting. Were we that blood thirsty as kids? You'd think we were starving her."

Anthony laughed and Ben rested his chin in his hand, listening to the brothers talk like it was his favorite song. If only he could ignore the hurt inside his heart. If only Ben didn't care so much... but he did. He cared with every fiber, cell, and freckle in his being. Unfortunately, the person at the top of his list had Ben on the bottom.

"Where's Ben?"

"In his office," he said, giving nothing away. Ben scooted back in his chair as the footsteps grew louder. His hands shot to the keyboard and started typing absolute nonsense while trying to be so unaware of Nino. He could feel the air shift as Nino opened the door. Ben just glanced up, but quickly went back to his screen, typing Nino's name over and over with lots of exclamation marks, following up with curse words. He had to release some of his anger this way because at its full potential, Ben's rage had the power of the sun that threatened to burn Nino Ventura into a crisp.

Nino seemed to have forgotten Ben was done with being walked all over by the vampire.

However, Ben was more than happy to offer a reminder.