I nod. Drago told me what happened to Sienna’s parents. She and her sister were five at the time. After the tragedy, they were raised by their brother. Single-handedly, supposedly. But, I’m finding that difficult to believe about the jerk who’s currently ruining my life.
“Arturo petitioned to be our legal guardian. However, the old don decided that our estranged aunt should get custody of Asya and me. Don’s word is the law. He’s the highest authority.We… Our… What was left of our little family was being torn apart. We were going to be forced away from our brother and sent to live with a woman we’d never even met, Tara. And there was nothing Arturo could do to stop it.”
Taking her hand, I squeeze it lightly. I’m well aware of what it’s like to lose loved ones at such a young age. Sadly, my and Sienna’s histories are very similar. That’s probably why the two of us bonded so quickly. We both lost our parents when we were kids. We both survived that unimaginable heartbreak. My pain was amplified by the death of my twin sister, who died at the same time as our mom and dad. Drago was the only family member I had left. Until Keva, that is. The two of them got me through those dark times. I’m not sure if I would have made it had I been separated from them. Just the thought of that possibility makes me physically sick.
“But you weren’t?” I choke out. “Taken away from your brother?
“If it wasn’t for Ajello, we certainly would have been.”
“Salvatore Ajello?”
“Yes. We were moments from departing when Ajello arrived. He told Arturo to unpack our stuff, saying simply that the old don had changed his mind. That was it. A minute later, he turned around and left. To this day, I have no idea what exactly happened. As I heard, the old don was not prone to going back on his decisions, so it had to be Ajello’s doing. But he’s never brought it up. Like, ever.”
“Well… I’m not sure anyone really knows how Ajello does the things he does.”
“Yeah. That man scares the shit out of me,” she chuckles. “So, you see, that’s the true reason why Arturo is so loyal to Ajello. It’s not only the principle that mandates his obedience toCosa Nostra. For Arturo, it’s because he feels beholden. He owes a personal debt to Ajello, and no matter what, my brother will never go against the don.”
A heavy weight settles in the pit of my stomach. This is bad.
“Oh! I almost forgot!” Sienna jumps onto her knees and claps her hands with glee. It’s so like her. Sad one moment, excited the next. “The first draft of my hockey romance is done. Will you have time to read it and give me some feedback?”
“Um… sure. Need me to count limbs again?”
Sienna is amazing when it comes to the overall plot of the story and creating well-developed characters and settings, but she’s terrible with pesky little details. Fact checks. Consistency. That sort of thing. Which means, in every sex scene she writes, she seems to end up with at least two extra hands somehow.
“Please! I’ll email it to you in a sec.”
I watch her dance out of my room on the tips of her sparkly turquoise house slippers, then slump in bed and stare at the ceiling. In no time at all, my laptop pings with an incoming email. I pull it off the nightstand and onto my stomach, opening the attachment Sienna sent. After repeated attempts, I give up trying to read it. My head’s not in it; I can’t make myself focus on the text.
What am I going to do? I spent the past three days hoping that the arrogant devil would come to his senses and back out of this idiotic plan to get hitched. In truth, I haven’t fully wrapped my mind around the fact that I’m being forced into marriage, so for now, I’m simply going with the flow. The temptation to tell my brother what happened and rely on him to get me out of this mess is overwhelming. He’d probably kill DeVille for me. Maybe. I can’t imagine he’d hurt Sienna like that.And, even if he’d be willing to do it, I don’t think I could bring myself to ask that of him. Plus, I’d have to explain how my damn prints ended up all over a murder weapon, and then ask Drago to clean up yet another one of my messes. Again.
Like the time he had to pick me up from a police precinct after my friends and I got busted for disorderly conduct. A bunch of us left piles of turds outside a high-end boutique. In my defense, they were selling fur coats.Realfur coats made from endangered animals’ pelts! Since I was deemed the ringleader, and because I used school grounds to organize this little “protest,” I got expelled from that particular school in my freshman year.
My stint at my second high school wasn’t much better. Drago had to pay to decontaminate and renovate an entire chem lab after I accidentally spilled a dangerous substance while trying to rescue a resident guinea pig that escaped from the neighboring biology classroom. I only got suspended for that, and only because of Drago’s deep pockets. I’m sure he bribed school officials to get me off the hook, too.
Being older, one would think I’d wise up. But nope. Last year, my brother had to “rescue” me once more. Drunk as a skunk, I got on the wrong train, fell asleep, and ended up in the middle of nowhere good. Not surprisingly, my wallet and phone did not arrive with me. Luckily, that’s the worst of what happened. I had to beg a stranger to let me use their phone to get a message to Drago. He was spitting mad when he came to pick me up, practically ready to strangle me for disobeying him. He specifically told me to get ahold of him when I was ready to leave the bar and go home. But I knew he’d been exhausted, and it was very late, and I simply didn’t want to wake him.
God! I’m so tired of being stuck on this merry-go-round. As sick as I am of always fucking up, Drago must be reachingthe limit of how much he’s willing to put up with. He’s got a wife now. His attention should be on taking care of her, not cleaning up after me.
And that leads me to the other major worry on my mind. I’m terrified of Drago’s reaction if he finds out the truth. What if he challenges Ajello? The last thing I want is to put my brother in danger because I managed to get myself into another clusterfuck.
I’m staring blankly at the ceiling, contemplating my options, when a sudden commotion breaks out on the driveway. It must be something substantial because several raised voices followed by the rapid slamming of car doors reaches me. I rush to look outside just in time to see Drago getting on his bike and peeling out like his tail’s on fire.
“Adam!” I call out after I crack my window open. “What’s going on?”
My brother’s childhood buddy, and now his head enforcer, shifts his mighty frame to look up at me. “Special agents from the IRS just showed up at Naos,” he says while yanking his motorcycle helmet onto his head.
“Shit.”
“Yeah.” He flips down his visor and, in the next breath, takes off on his bike, too.
Getting back on the bed, I grab my laptop again so I can check the admin files for Naos, just in case there’s something that I’m unfamiliar with. Drago might need my help to deal with whatever it is they’re investigating. My phone starts ringing, and I answer it without glancing at the caller ID, too distracted by opening one folder after another.
“I hope you didn’t forget about our plans tonight, Tara.” The deep, polished voice rumbles across the line, setting off a slight shiver down my spine, even from a distance.
“Now’s not a good time, DeVille.” I hit that red circle on the screen and throw the phone on the nightstand. It starts ringing again as soon as it lands on the wooden surface.
“Jesus.” Grabbing the damn thing, I press it to my ear. “I told you that—”
