“Anyway, so I was back home for a few days. Everything was normal. Nothing seemed suspicious. Mom baked and cooked all day long. All my favorite meals, you know. Dad said he took some time off work so he could spend time with me. I was happy to be home.”
I stopped and looked over my shoulder. Tristian hadn’t said a word, he’d barely even moved, so I didn’t know if he was still listening.
He was. In fact, he sat on the edge of his seat, staring at me.
“And then one night after dinner, without any warning, there was a knock on the door and a stranger walked in with an entourage of intimidating men. Well, he was a stranger to me, but not to my Dad. Not even to my mom. Turned out, she’d been in on it too. I was the only one who had no idea about my Dad’s involvement with the mafia.”
I had to hold out my hands and grip the glass window for support. I wasn’t sure I would’ve been able to stand on my own. The memories of that night flashed through my head and I closed my eyes. It was unbearable. I saw everything. Every last detail of Aldo’s face as he smiled at us. The gold signet rings on his fingers, the strong scent of whiskey on his breath as he shook my hand.
“Their argument was brief. Dad tried to convince Aldo to leave, he said he’d talk to him the next day in person. That he just wanted to spend the night with his family. At that moment, I heard it in his voice, he’d begged for all our lives. He must’ve known what was coming.”
Tristian stood up. I sensed him walking towards me. If he touched me right then, I would’ve shattered into a million pieces. I had to get to the end quickly before I couldn’t go on anymore.
“But Aldo wasn’t in the mood to forgive. He gave a nod to one of his men. I saw it and I gasped, even though, naively, I didn’t know what it meant. The man shot my father in the head, then my mother in the head too. Then he pointed the gun at me and I screamed so hard I didn’t hear anything. I thought I was going to die. But Aldo stopped him, told him to leave me. That he had something I could help him with.”
Tristian put a hand on my shoulder and it felt warm and heavy. Tears rolled down my cheeks. The kind I couldn’t just blink away.
I struggled with the need to fall into his arms.
Four
Tristian
Maybe I shouldn’t have touched her at that moment. She was still supposed to be under surveillance, right? Not to be trusted.
Yet, the story she told me about her parents and how Aldo killed them felt real. Elsie slowly turned to me. Tears streaked her cheeks and I wanted to brush them dry.
She looked beautiful with her wet eyelashes fluttering, the tip of her nose red, her lips quivered.
“I’m sorry you lost your parents. I’m sorry he did that to them,” I said.
Elsie couldn’t make herself say anything now. She’d spoke for a while, telling me a story—which sounded like it had to be true. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
“I lost my mom too. She was murdered by a rival family when I was very young,” I said.
Elsie gasped and forgetting herself, she reached for me, grabbing my arm. When she tried to pull away, I grabbed her hand. For a moment, I was close to bringing her fingers up to my lips and giving in to the thing I wanted to do from the moment I laid eyes on her.
Kiss her.
But I dropped her hand like I’d touched a ball of fire.
“I’m sorry, Tristian. I feel your pain. Did he do it? Did Aldo kill your mother too?” she asked.
“No. The people who were involved have been driven out of the state. My family made sure they paid for what they’d done to her.”
“I wish I could avenge my family’s death too, but I can’t. I am nobody.”
Elsie ran her slender fingers through her shiny dark hair. I pictured her lying on a pillow with her hair spread out around her face like a halo.
She was angelic.
And she could be a spy.
I took a step back.
“You need to tell me the rest of your story.”
That seemed to snap her out of it. She licked her lips quickly.
“He told me I worked for him now. That I didn’t have a choice if I wanted to live. He said he needed someone to cook his books and launder money, and he didn’t have anyone else who was qualified for it, or had any knowledge or experience.”
“So you agreed.”
“Do you think I had a choice?” she snapped. Her eyes were bloodshot with tears and fiery at the same time.
“He would’ve killed me. He will kill me now if he finds me. Can you deny it?”
No, I couldn’t, if she told the truth about what had happened to her, then yes, Aldo had every intention of killing her. Elsie was a dead woman walking, as far as the Barons were concerned.
But I wasn’t sure I could defy my brother’s instructions to treat her as an outsider, to treat her suspiciously. I was still a Doherty and my loyalty lay with my family.
Elsie shook as she stood there. I noticed it after she’d told me everything she could possibly say. I felt a tinge of guilt—which I knew I shouldn’t have felt. I felt bad that maybe I’d pushed her too hard to reveal everything.
“Why don’t you sit down,” I offered.
The thing was, I wasn’t an expert at consoling someone. Especially not a crying girl. I didn’t have the necessary tools or experience to make someone feel better.
She looked up at me with her big wet eyes,
