Son of the Mob

“Once I tried to get her to admit I was adopted. After all, wasn’t I the only Luca male with no interest in the family business?” 

While Vince may not be interested in the family business, he is much better suited to it than is, for instance, his older brother, Tommy. It is easy for him to acknowledge the superficial differences and similarities between himself and his family: more challenging for him is to acknowledge that he has the same sort of abilities that his father has.

“My father. They call him Honest Abe Luca instead of Anthony because he’s so straight in his business dealings, no matter how illegal they happen to be.”

Anthony Luca is straight in his business dealings, but that does not mean that he is easy to follow or to read, as Vince finds out over the course of the book. In his dealings with Jimmy Rat and Ed Mishkin, Vince keeps thinking that he has outpaced his father, only to find out that his father is one step ahead of him.

“Think what a terrible burden it is for a high school kid: if you say the wrong thing in the privacy of your own home, you might end up sending your father to prison.”

Vince is both aware and not aware of the pressures that his family are under. He understands that his house is bugged by the FBI, but he does not yet understand just who in his family is being investigated, or for what crime. He has also not yet met Kendra at this point, the FBI agent’s daughter who will make his situation even more complicated.