11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

In the corner of the living room was a bookshelf he'd barely seen the day he'd broken into the cabin. While they were sitting after they'd finished their tea, Prince at the end of the couch while hugging his knees to him. He asked Dex about it.

Dex was sitting in the recliner, trying to make it all business, but when Prince asked, "Do you read? Are those your books?" All Dex could say was "Yes, and no."

"Yes, you read, no, those aren't your books."

"Right. I love reading, and I'm not too proud to say I've discovered romance novels recently."

Prince barked a laugh at that. "Romance novels? Those like with the long-haired guy all bumpy with muscles holding the woman who is always in some wispy gown?"

"No! On the covers of my books are two men."

"Oh. Right. So, you are really gay?"

Dex shook his head as he laughed. "Yes, Prince. I'm gay."

"Isn't that frowned on, being in the mob?"

"Sure, sure, it was, and it still is in most families. When my family was on its own, a small family that only ran in Cincinnati, it was true. We aren't on our own anymore, though. We…well, we merged, I guess you could say, with a much larger family, and that family has two bosses. One is a family man with a wife and kids, and his brother, the brother who helps him run it, and in reality, runs most of it, is a gay man. He won't let anyone in the organization or any branches of it talk shit about us. If they do, they're brought to him so he can convince them how powerful a gay man can be."

"I like that," Prince laughed. "No greater nightmare to bigots than a gay man with a gun and power, right?"

"Right."

Prince watched him closely, and couldn't pick out one lie from him, one thing he could be hiding. "Your organization, the Kings, right? They got swallowed up by a bigger family. Did you agree to that?"

"Yes, though my agreement wasn't for years, as I was a kid in high school when we joined the bigger family. We were getting hassled by other organizations that were trying to move into our territory. Gangs, cartels, lots of bad guys that have no codes of honor, no principles, no truth. To be under the umbrella of a family that values those things above all else, including money, it's an honor."

"Wow. I didn't think those kinds of things existed anymore. When my father takes over smaller companies or buys ideas for new software from developers, he has no honor. He kills those projects so his are still the best or he sticks our company's name on it, never giving credit to the developers."

"It's like those superstores that moved into small towns and undercut all the local businesses. They could afford to sell things for cheaper, so they made a lot of ghost towns. People like your father are evil, in my opinion. Small business, and small families like The Kings, are important for the good of the world. Dreaming of opening a place to provide for the next generation, it's important."

"So, you get your own independence?"

"Yes. We still run Cincinnati, but we have this amazing backup now. We help them when needed, they help us."

"Including recruiting me?"

Dex smiled at him rather shyly. "I'm an amateur computer nerd. I'm terrible, but I get things done when I need to, even if I must ask for outside help. My cousin is the head guy for The Kings. He's our boss, our don, if you will, but for the bigger family, he's a capo."

Prince stared at him; his eyes squinted as he tried to understand it all.

Dex explained, "A capo is the head of a part of the bigger organization. Like, okay the don is the general, and the capos are the captains."

"Oh, okay, not that I know the military all that well, but I understand that."

"Good, and well, you would work for the main don, but he lends you out to the capos if they need you. I have to say, just so you have it all on the table, you will work a lot, but you also can hire people to work under you. They have to be vetted, of course, and know the rules."

He'd be the boss. That sounded nice. The simple fact that he wouldn't be working under his father was benefit enough. Still…he'd never considered working for mobsters. "I'd be breaking the law. I know you'll either deny that or stay silent on it, unwilling to be truthful with me, but?"

"You'll most definitely be breaking the law, Prince."

"Wow, straight out like that. Okay…"

Dex grew more serious and looked him straight in the eye. That stare alone told Prince that what he was about to hear could get him into a lot of trouble. Deadly trouble.

"Prince, I can see that you want this job, but not only my cousin but the don of the main family wants to assure you have all your options clear and all the information you could need. If you choose to use the information against them, this can work both ways. You'll think twice about it, because everything I'm about to say is true."

Swallowing the desert-dry lump that had formed in his throat. "Can I choose not to hear any of it?"

"You can. I don't have to tell you a thing more than you already know. If you go to the feds with what I've given you already, they'll laugh in your face. Capisce ?"

"Yes. I get it. I'm not telling anyone anything," Prince said and pressed his palms together, sliding them between his knees. "I think I want to know."

Dex moved over next to him, close, taking his hands from his knees and holding them in his. "Be sure. You can't do anything with the information but get you into trouble, so it's not like you're gonna disappear if you decide not to take the job. Still, I don't want this on you. I've learned enough about you I know it'll sit roughly on your conscience."

How could he think about anything but those dark eyes staring into the middle of his fucking soul? It was like a bad romance novel, and his life and future were on the line and instead of having one brain cell in his head, all he could do was want the man in front of him like he was air.

When Dex was being super serious, his eyes were clear, like the dark morning sky before the sun fully ascended. Other times, when he was flirting, for example, they were cloudy, like a storm was brewing, and it was visible in those eyes.

Right then, they were clear, but when Prince started moving, almost against his own will, toward Dex. He was drawn to him so completely he didn't think he could take another second.

With a tiny growl coming from his throat, Dex grabbed the back of Prince's head and pulled him in for a kiss that sent bolts of white-hot lightning through him.

His mustache and beard brushed his face, his lips pressed hard into Prince's. He was lost in that kiss. Suddenly, all the sadness and longing he had for a life of any kind of normalcy was gone. Not only did he feel, finally, like a normal man, he felt good.

If a guy like Dex Monarco could like him, it meant he wasn't the person he thought he was. Pitiful and pathetic, rich, sure, but one of the few rich people in the world that hated being so.

Dex ended the kiss after his tongue swept Prince's and he blew out a long breath that ended in a rushed chuckle. "Wow, Prince. Totally lost my train of thought."

"Thinking is overrated," he said rather brazenly.

Dex pulled back, then shifted, so he was sitting against the back of the couch. "I shouldn't have done that, but I can't help it. Prince, I don't want you to think this is part of my sales pitch."

"If it is, it's working."

Dex's head spun to the side and his grin grew before he barked a laugh. "Prince, you really need to not say things like that!"

"Why?"

He turned his entire body to Prince and explained, "The sexy part, yeah, being forward is okay, but the business part of this, you need to stay aloof and play hard to get."

"Well," Prince said, looking toward the window where the pine and spruce trees were bending a little at the tips with the wind that was blowing harder since he'd come into the cabin. "I just killed my future with the family business, and if I leave this camp, I'll kill my grades at school, which would kick me out of the family business or make me subservient to my father forever." He looked Dex in the eye and finished, "I'm okay with begging for an opportunity that will let me be free to do what I want to do."

"It's not just that, Prince."

"I know, I'll have specific duties for the…organization. In my free time, though, I can develop, right? And if I do, I share that with the organization. I don't expect to use their resources and not share with them, but I also won't do what a university would do if I worked for them. They'd take my idea as their property and give me a very small percentage, if any. The prestige is good enough for us, or it should be! No. My mother did it with my father. She signed over her software for love. I won't do that."

Straightening, Dex's eyes got wide. "Damn. I think a lot of people must underestimate you. That's…not a bad thing, Prince."

"I'm in need of a lot of things, Dex. I'm not stupid. If I have the freedom to develop my own programs or hardware, I'm in. I want a contract, but I know there are likely a lot of things that can't be written. I will do what I need to do."

"I'll, uh, get my computer and we can work out your demands, and I'll send them to Neil and our bosses."

His stomach flipped as Dex said Neil Harrison would see his proposal. "Neil? Sorry, fanboy moment."

"He was a fanboy of your mom, so I guess it's only right."

They worked for an hour on the contract proposals he wanted, right down to a house in those woods Dex told him about. The last thing was his choice of bodyguard. "Can it be you?"

"No, unfortunately. Conflict of interest. But…I can request to work there in another capacity, but if this doesn't go anywhere, I wouldn't want to be there."

"Why?"

"Why?" he asked, then sighed heavily. "Would you want to live and work where someone you thought you could…be with, but it didn't work out? It would be awkward."

"Okay, but…"

Dex hushed him with a hand under his chin and a whispered, "That will work out. Either way. Don't worry about me or the possibility of an us."

"Okay. Then, it's done," he said, moving the laptop from his legs to the wooden coffee table. "When will you give this to them?"

"Tonight. I'll speak to Neil, who'll then speak to our bosses. If it looks good, I'll move to the next step and let you come here and speak to them on a video call."

"The last interview?"

"Yes."

Prince glanced at the door, knowing he should get back to camp before people worried. "I need to go. How will I know what they say?"

"Easy. If you should come by tomorrow, I'll wear a black T-shirt when I go fishing. If not, I'll wear a red one."

"What if I just want to come by, whether the terms are acceptable or not?"

"Then, by all means, come by. I told you, this…chemistry between us isn't part of the pitch."

Prince moved to him and whispered, "Wish I could take you with me."

Dex touched his lips to his with a sweet tenderness that made Prince melt into a puddle of very warm goo. "You don't need me," he said against Prince's lips. "You can stand on your own, but when you need to scream about it, and need someone's arms to hold you, come here."

He moved back a few inches and caressed Prince's face. "I may not replace your father, but I can sure as fuck be your daddy."

"My daddy. I like that."

"I'll just bet you do."

Prince replayed the entire day over and over as he trudged back to the camp. He knew he was smiling because his cheeks actually cramped after a couple hundred feet.

The wind on his face, the distinct skip in his step, he knew how lucky he was and how much he could have. It was never obvious before he'd come to the camp, but for once, he had real friends and the possibility of a boyfriend that he wouldn't have to hide.

Not to mention, a job that he'd dreamed of.

When he got back to the camp, Silvio ran over to him from the small group of kids he was talking to. "Hey! You okay?"

"I'm…great. Did my father leave?"

Silvio looked away and wouldn't face him until Prince forced him to. "Prince, he didn't leave right away. He spent an hour with Toby."

The good feeling he'd had most of the day hit the rocks and cracked into a million pieces. He knew it shouldn't bother him. Toby was the son that Leonard had always wanted. "That's true to form."

"He's an asshole. All he did was look down his old ass nose as all the kids. I had to tell Sabrina to get Toby to get rid of him."

"I'm taking the job," he blurted. He'd known he would take it, but until then, he'd felt a little guilt over it. After hearing what his father had done after Prince had left, it clinched it.

"I…" Silvio stared at him and then he smiled like he'd suddenly gotten the punchline. "You're hot for that guy, I knew that, but…did you two…like, you know, get busy?"

"No," he said, laughing, his good mood returning. He waved Silvio to follow him as one of the female counselors and her group of kids were approaching. Once they were in the counselor cabin where their things were stored, Prince pulled Silvio to his bed and they sat and spoke in whispers. "I can't tell you a lot, but you know, like I did, and…we spent a long time talking and then writing my proposals for my contract."

"You're gonna have a contract? How is that holding up in court?"

Prince laughed and confessed, "I thought the same. But it's an actual contract for the most part, but some things, well, they can't be written, of course."

"So, your pay and benefits and such?"

"Yeah. Dex helped me."

"Dex? The mafia guy?"

"Yes, the mafia guy. He made sure I put up proposals that would give me all that I wanted. If they're negotiated, fine, I'd have talks about it and get it sorted, but if not, why wouldn't I get everything I wanted?"

"They could tear it up and whack you."

Prince giggled and said, "I guess so, yeah."

"How is that funny?"

"One, you used the word whack. Two, I don't think Dex would let me walk into something that could hurt me."

Silvio's eyes rolled hard. "You know that do you? You're sure of a guy you don't know that he'll steer you right, because, what? He likes you? You are way too trusting, vato ."

When Prince thought of the kisses they'd shared, how nervous Dex seemed one minute and how confident the next, he knew no one was that good an actor. "Yeah, maybe, but you saw what I would be left with if I don't take this job."

"Which is worse than death to you, right?"

Thinking of being in an office day after day, paperwork, working on the computers only to see cash out and cash in columns, investment portfolios, how to save a buck by laying off people just trying to make a living so the investors could buy yet another vacation home…

"Yeah. I don't think it's in me to do that. Maybe I thought so before, that I could weather it so my father might finally be proud of me, but…"

Silvio slung an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. "I get it."

When Prince thought about his demands in the contract proposal, his favorite of all his demands, and those he wouldn't negotiate, was to give a full scholarship to counselors of the Sunny Side Camp, and the first recipient would be Silvio.

The other part of it was unlimited funds to keep up the camp. He himself would take a modest salary as long as he could share in the profits of any programs he developed. Dex had looked at him strangely after that, like he couldn't believe someone would work literally so other people could benefit.

"Silvio, I want to thank you. You're a good friend."

"Yeah, I am, right? Awesome," he said as he rose from the bunk and puffed up his chest comically. "I am just amazing."

"You really are. Perfect, some would say," Prince agreed as he giggled. "Perfect, and good looking!"

"Oh, yes, I am hot as a log on the fire cooking s'mores."

"Nice."

"I am smart too, see?"

"Yes, bright as the sun over the Sahara."