Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“How long?” she asks, surprising me and I recall how she lost her mother five years ago. I suppose we have that in common.
I shift my gaze back to her ready to tell her I’m not interested in discussing our pasts, but I stop because I see something I don’t expect. An openness on her face. A vulnerability. It catches me off guard and I hear myself speak before I even think about how to answer.
“Twenty-nine years.”
She looks confused. She doesn’t know my exact age. I’m afraid she’s going to tell me she’s sorry for my loss, but then she speaks, surprising me again. “I was fifteen,” she volunteers. “I’m afraid I’m forgetting her face. Her voice. I’m scared I’m going to forget her.”
I don’t speak. I can’t. I can’t fucking breathe. I just sit there watching her.
“Sorry. Never mind.” She shakes her head, clears her throat and although her eyes are damp, she doesn’t cry. “I feel like the president,” she says, gesturing to the SUVs ahead and behind ours.
I’m glad for this change in topic. I’m ill equipped to respond to whatever that was.
“Your father traveled with a motorcade larger than this if I recall. I suppose Michael and Malek have slimmed down given budgeting issues.” I know the finances of the Moretti family have dwindled since her father’s death. Payments haven’t been coming in like they would when Alaric was at the helm. There’s a lack of respect for Michael. The tide for the Moretti family was changing even before I stepped in. Does Allegra realize that?
She’s quiet for a few minutes. “I’ve been here on a school field trip,” she says as we pull out of the gates.
“Excuse me?”
“St. Anastasia. Before you bought it. It’s a replica of a church in Verona.”
“You know that?” I ask. She nods. “Have you been to the original?”
“I’ve never left the country,” she says.
“That’s too bad.”
“It was rumored something like the Spanish Inquisition was held here by some bad priests, but nothing was ever found.”
“Is that so?” I don’t offer any details on what was uncovered during my rebuild.
She shrugs a shoulder. “What you said about my dad last night, you’re wrong.”
“Does your brain always work like this?”
“Like what?”
“Jumping from one topic to another? It’s exhausting.”
“Am I going too fast for you?”
I snort. “I’m more worried about you tiring yourself out.”
“Well, don’t worry about me and I’ll try to speak more slowly so I don’t overtax your brain,” she says, doing just that.
I raise an eyebrow.
She smirks.
“Your father wasn’t a good man if that’s what you’re trying to tell me,” I say.
“He never hit us.”
“Well, he hurt plenty of people, Allegra. And no matter how you feel about him, you’d have been a pawn to him.”
“You don’t know anything about him.”
“A daughter is always a pawn.”
“Speak for your own family, not mine.”
“I have no sister. No daughter. I never will.”
“What, you’ll only have male offspring? You do know how that works, right?” She snorts.
“I meant I won’t have any offspring,” I say and immediately wonder why I said it. Why I’d tell her that.
She looks puzzled, but curious. I expect her to ask what I’m talking about and I’m not sure if I’m grateful or disappointed when she doesn’t.
“You said something to Malek,” she says instead. “You’ve danced this dance, and it didn’t end well for us. What did you mean?”
“You caught that?”
She nods.
“I mean Moretti and Trevino families have a truce in place because things have gotten ugly before. Territories crossed, borders not respected. And every time that’s happened, our family has come out on top. Every single time. More than once an example has been made.”
“You mean soldiers were killed?”
“No, that’s expected when there’s a war between mafia families. I mean an example.”
“You’re being cryptic.”
“You sure you want to know?”
Her eyes search mine for a moment, but she nods.
“A woman.”
“What?”
“A woman is made an example of. A daughter, or, if there’s no daughter, a wife or a sister.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“He really did keep you in the dark. You should ask your brother. Or Malek.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Take care. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.”
“I’d rather face what’s coming eyes wide open.”
“A Moretti with a backbone. Who knew?”
“I want to know, Cassian. I want to know when I can get back to my life.”
The way she says it makes me pause because she is just so far off the mark. Did she really think Michael would just pay what he owed, and I’d drive her home, no harm, no fowl?
“No, you don’t, Allegra. Drop it,” I tell her.
“What did my brother do anyway?”
My phone pings with a notification. I take it out of my pocket and unlock it. “Doesn’t matter, not where you’re concerned,” I say, reading the text from Angelo letting me know he’s sent a file on Allegra.