Jesus, it'd been years since he used one of these.
Sighing, he inserted a quarter and dialed a familiar number. It'd bypass his father's secretaries and the usual nonsense and take him straight to who he needed to speak with.
Antony picked up on the fourth ring. "Antony Marcello speaking."
"Papà," Lucian said quietly. "I'm good. Settled. Safe."
A breath of relief whooshed into the phone. "Thank you, son. Your mother isn't happy. Find her something especially nice for her birthday to make up for it. I'll have a room booked under the usual name and something appropriate for you to wear at the hotel across from the Opera Theater. Be on time, please."
"Already done. They'll be in her kitchen when she wakes up on her birthday."
"Goodbye, Lucian."
"Later, Dad."
Lucian hung up the phone just long enough to insert another quarter and dial the number to burner cell phone he'd picked up for Jordyn a couple of weeks earlier. He had a feeling she wouldn't be up to going to work today, so he didn't bother to call the phone Antony provided her for work. She picked up the call faster than Antony had his.
"Hello?"
"Jordyn … hey. I miss you already, beautiful girl."
Silence answered Lucian back.
"I can't talk for long, but I wanted to call and apologize for not waking you up this morning."
Jordyn whined a soft noise. "Lucian?"
"Yeah, sweetheart. This will be the only time I call, okay?"
"Okay," she whispered.
"Let Cecelia take you out to pick something beautiful for her birthday. If you need anything, you know the numbers to get inside my safe. Everything is in there."
"Not you," Jordyn said, laughing lightly.
"It won't be long. Nothing big. I love you, huh?"
"Love you, too."
For the first time that morning, Lucian smiled. "I have to go."
"I'll see you soon."
"Soon," he echoed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jordyn tried not to trip over the floor length evening gown that was a couple of inches too long without her heels to answer the knock on the bedroom door. Over the last two weeks, she stayed mostly at the condo because she felt closer to Lucian, but on one or two occasions, she found herself at the Marcello home, staying in his bedroom there.
For Cecelia's birthday, she had stayed at the Marcello home the night before, and the entire day of the celebration. Apparently getting ready for this opera event was a big thing. Jordyn didn't quite believe Cecelia on that front until the woman was knocking on the door at ridiculous early morning hours because they needed to start getting ready.
Over twelve hours before the show.
Jordyn mistakenly assumed managing her curls into something decent and putting on a bit of makeup was enough for the event.
It wasn't. Oh, no.
Cecelia, as lovely as she was most days, could be a downright tyrant when it came to prepping for a party. It wasn't just a simple trip to the hairdresser, the entire fucking spa might as well have come to them. According to her, the party before the opera was probably more important than seeing the show itself. Jordyn wasn't entirely sure why, but a few names had been dropped, the Marcellos included. Everyone who was anyone in New York politics, socialites, and old money was supposed to be there.
It was disconcerting.
Lucian offhandedly mentioned once or twice that his family didn't shy away from public attention. Charities, political runs, and business included. It was just as important to the legal side of the Marcello Empire as it was to the illegal side of it.
Tonight, Jordyn was officially being introduced into that world … at the side of a Marcello son.
She knew it was important. Not just for her or Lucian, but for his family as a whole.
Jordyn wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. Being significant just for the sake of being significant had never been a goal of hers. In fact, she'd spent most of her life trying to stay under the goddamned radar.
This would be nothing like that.
Jordyn yanked open the bedroom door, coming face to face with a grinning Antony.
"You look lovely," he told her.
Jordyn huffed, blowing a stray curl from her eyes. "Thank you, but your wife is still horrible."
"Sometimes," Antony agreed. "She makes up for it, otherwise. I try to look at it from her perspective. You're the first woman any of her sons have brought home for her to spoil and love. This is just her way of showing you how much she cares."
Right …
"She's ridiculously lucky it's her birthday today. I do not like to be prodded, plucked at, and touched like cattle at a meat market. She can call that beauty treatments all she likes, it's more like torture. No sane woman enjoys that nonsense."
"Cecelia is aware. Tomorrow, she'll be back to her normal, wonderful self."
Jordyn snorted. Antony didn't even bother to deny his wife's craziness. "I'm almost finished dressing, if that's what she sent you up here for."
"No. I came up here for something else. It doesn't concern her, and she's busy being spoiled by Dante and Gio while missing Lucian. So now is as good of a time as ever to do it."
Jordyn's anxiety spiked. "Is it about Lucian?"
Two weeks without Lucian were not easy to get through for Jordyn. The silence was deafening. The bed was cold. Work didn't keep her nearly busy enough not to be constantly worried and thinking about him. She wasn't sleeping well and her appetite was all but gone.
The only thing that helped was each new morning meant she was one day closer to seeing Lucian again.
Oddly, though, Jordyn had a sneaking suspicion Lucian was closer than anyone thought. Especially to her. More than once over the last two weeks, she felt someone's eyes on her. Hell, it was New York. Who wasn't watching? This didn't feel anything like that and it didn't make her feel unsettled, either. Instead, it was comforting. Hazel eyes, dark hair, a two finger wave and a cocky wink were quick to disappear into a crowd whenever she turned to look.
Oh, yes. Lucian was watching.
It was still hard.
"As far as I know, he should be fine," Antony finally replied, cocking a brow. "If he's late tonight, however, I won't be able to say the same when his mother gets a hold of him."
Jordyn's hand fell to her chest to calm the racing organ beneath. "Are you trying to give me a freaking heart attack, Antony?"
"I didn't realize when we talk the first thing I need to say is that Lucian is okay. I'll keep that in mind for future reference." Jordyn's patience was worn so thin, she simply stared at him and trusted her annoyance was clear. Apparently, it was. "Anyway … "
"I need to finish getting ready," Jordyn said, hoping he'd get the hint.
"In a moment," Antony replied, taking a step into the bedroom. The door was closed behind him, effectively closing out the rest of the house. "Something came for you yesterday, delivered to my consigliere."
Jordyn's brow furrowed. "You mean Paulie?"
"When I call him Paulie, he's just my friend. When he's my consigliere, he's doing business for the family."
The family being the Cosa Nostra side of things. Jordyn understood what he meant quickly enough.
"Oh. Why would someone give something to him for me?" she asked.
"To make a point, I think," Antony said, shrugging. "Besides, I believe this is something you'll be happy to receive."
Antony opened his tuxedo jacket to pull out a small package from the inside pocket before handling it over to Jordyn.
"I apologize for opening it, but it was designated for me first and I felt it was important to make sure it wasn't anything threatening. I can go, if you'd like to see what's inside alone. The significance is clear enough you shouldn't need me to translate for you."
Jordyn thanked Antony, waiting until she was alone in the bedroom again before sitting to the edge of the bed. Opening the top of the package, Jordyn upended the contents to the silver bedspread.
The three items that fell out were not what she expected.
A check. Her final one, actually, from Legs and Leather. Oddly enough, it was handwritten, not the usual printed ones Ron used to have done up at the bank. The signature of a man's name she didn't recognize rested at the bottom.
That slip of paper probably would have been enough for Jordyn to figure out what Antony meant by the significance … if the small wedding band she hadn't seen in years wasn't tapped to the side of the check, also.
It was her mother's wedding ring. Sandra hadn't worn it on her finger, but instead, on the necklace Jordyn had gone back to retrieve along with her memory box. When she found her mother dead from the overdose, the necklace had been broken off, and the ring was missing.
Jordyn once thought she overlooked it in their messy apartment when she searched for it. She'd also wondered for so long if her mother's death wasn't exactly as it seemed. The ring suddenly appearing again said a lot.