“Again, yes.”

“What else have you lied to me about?”

“Nothing,” I lie.

Actually, this is only a half lie. I haven’t technically lied to her about who my partner is yet. I just haven’t said.

“Do all these people really have jobs, or are they all in on this, too?”

“Everyone has a real job, including me. Manny, Bronzer, who you already know and our other friend Beamer, and I work together. No one else knows we front this bar to cover our tracks.”

I shrug as if it’s no big deal when really, it is.

“And this is where your snitch comes in? Someone here found out, or they’re an undercover cop, or they’re out for revenge. Am I right?”

“You’re very inquisitive, baby. I like it. I’m getting hard sitting over here, admiring how you’re questioning me like I’ve been arrested and now being interrogated by a sexy-as-hell lawyer.”

She looks over to me, a deep frown line creasing her forehead.

“None of this is funny. It’s both illegal and immoral. You could spend the rest of your life in prison or wind up dead.”

“It’s not funny at all. It’s not who I wanted to be, but it is who I am,” I say with an edge.

“Who do you sell them to, Cain?”

She’s demanding now, her tone heavy and completely in control. Me, not so much at the moment. The answer I’m about to give her is going to scare the hell out of her.

“Salvatore Diamond.”

She jumps off of the couch, her eyes becoming wide.

“Jesus, Cain. Are you serious? How in the hell did you get mixed up with the fucking mob?”

I sit there, watching her pace back and forth across the carpet. Her hands run through her hair out of frustration.

“I don’t know if I want any part of this. Do you know what this means, for God’s sake? It means you will never get out of stealing and dealing guns. You can’t just get out of the mafia. Everyone in the world knows that. If you want out, the only way those people let you out is by killing you and burying your body somewhere where no one will ever find you. And you say you love me? You’ve kept me safe from a drug dealer? Well, who the hell has been keeping you safe? Who has your back?” she snarls.

I take a deep breath and steeple my hands under my chin, resting my elbows firmly on my knees.

“Your dad keeps me safe, Calla.”

I half expected her to go on a rampage, but she does the complete opposite. She stays calm, acting like I haven’t just tossed her into a tornado.

“I knew there was more to the reason why my parents were so adamant about keeping us apart, but never in my wildest of dreams would I have ever imagined this. You have a lot more explaining to do. And I demand to see my parents.”

She stalks over to me and leans down right into my face. Not so calm anymore. She’s become the eye of the twirling tornado and fuck me, she’s destined for destruction.

“You said you weren’t lying to me about anything else!”

“I haven’t.” She’s so close to my face. Her face bright red from anger.

“No? Are you sure? Because I have a very good memory, and I recall you telling me just yesterday that I couldn’t call my parents because the less they knew, the safer they would be. Get them here now, goddamnit. I want, no, I deserve to know everything. My God. The mob! This is insane! We’re better off just putting one of those guns you steal to our own heads and blowing our brains out. Those people don’t mess around.”

“Calla. Enough.”

Our attention swings to the door. Neither one of us heard it open.

“Well, speak of the devil. Hello, mom and dad. Or would you prefer I call you Bonnie and Clyde?”

“Sit your ass down, and watch your mouth.”

John Greer stalks into the room. The fucker is big. I’m talking huge. He towers over his daughter. The two of them stare each other down. Her stubbornness matches his.

“I’m a little old for you to be telling me what to do. Considering the lion’s den you all have thrown me into, I think you should sit down. Or better yet, start fucking talking.”

Her mouth. Christ almighty. If we were by ourselves right now and she kept on running her mouth like she is now, I’d love nothing more than to… Yeah. Fuck, I’m not going there. I palm my hands down my face, then toss a glance at Manny, our eyes saying the exact same thing. This is about to get real ugly.

Chapter Twelve

Calla

I feel like an energy field. My emotions have all of a sudden risen past their capacity; even though they’ve been pushed to the max, someone is still feeding me just to see how far I will expand.

“Last time I checked, I was the parent in our relationship. So if I say sit down, then sit the hell down. And if I say shut your mouth, then I mean shut your mouth,” big, bad John says.

I’m not afraid of my dad, especially when his soft eyes give him away. He’s towering over my tall frame trying to intimidate me. I want to laugh, no, spit in his face. My entire life has been nothing but a lie. I move to the couch and sit. Not because he told me to, but because I deserve to know what the hell is going on.

“You look like hell,” my deceitful mother says.

Her long, dark hair is pulled into a ponytail. Her loving eyes that look so much like mine send me an apologetic look. She’s in on this, too. Everyone is. Along with Manny, who’s standing off in the corner by the door.

“Yeah, well, what do you expect?” I ask through clenched teeth. “I came here for a divorce, not expecting to be carried away by a lying, cheating, and now criminal husband.”

I peer around my mother, who is now standing in front of me with eyes shooting bullets at my husband. I wonder if he steals those, too. I could use about four of them right now to shoot every one of these deceitful, mafia-loving people. Okay, not really. I could never shoot my parents.

“How long?” I demand.

It’s a simple question, really. One I deserve to know the answer to. I seem to be the only one left in the dark here by the way everyone is looking back and forth at each other as if they’re deciding which one of them should fill me in.

My parents sit down next to me. A fond memory flashes through my mind from when I was five years old. The three of us were sitting on the couch exactly like this while they told me our family dog was struck by a car and died. I cried like a baby, kicking and screaming for Hopper to come back. My dad held me for the longest time, stroking my hair and reassuring me that all dogs go to heaven and Hopper would be waiting there for me someday. I feel just like that little girl again. Except I’m not, I’m an adult. One who has been lied to about everything.

It’s my mom who speaks first. Her hand comes to rest on my knee.

“I’ve been connected to the Diamond family my entire life,” she begins, giving me a little squeeze. “My name was Cecily Abagail Diamond. Salvatore is my older brother.”

I stand and move over to the wall, pressing my back up against it and glaring at everyone in this room. I stop when I land on my mother.

“In other words, you’re a mafia princess,” I say with malice.

“I used to be. That is, until I met your father and fell in love.”

Her smile speaks the truth. Even though my parents would fight and argue when I was growing up, the love they had for each other was very evident, even as a young girl, I knew how much they loved each other.

“I don’t understand, then. Enlighten me here, Mom, or what about you, Dad? How do you fit into all of this?”

I hold my breath and wait for him to speak. The tension in the room coils around me.

“Calla, baby. I really think you need to sit down,” Cain declares.

“I don’t want to sit down. What I do want is the truth from all of you.”

I feel cheated, sad, and humiliated. This is a lot of information to incorporate. I’m so angry right now. With Cain, I had so many questions; with my parents, I feel like they have hidden too much from me since the day I was born. My brain at this minute doesn’t even know how to function. My dad gets up and puts his arm around me, tugging me into his chest.