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)
“I mean, why try to be a friend to someone who doesn’t want your friendship, am I right?” he asks me. “Take care, Allegra. Cassian is dangerous and his…” he clears his throat. “Claim on you puts you in danger. You don’t want to be in the middle of this. Bad things can happen.” Am I imagining it or does he glance at my hand with its missing finger when he says that.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Save me a dance, will you? If Cassian lets you out of his sight, that is.” He walks toward another curtained wall, so many curtains in this place, and slips through, but pauses, turns back to me. “The red one,” he says with a tilt of his head toward the dress.
21
CASSIAN
“You sure you don’t want me to look after the girl?” Enzo asks just before I enter the dining room where Angelo is seated in a corner table.
“I’d like you with me, Enzo.”
“Got it,” he says, expression as neutral as ever. He glances at his father, who stands, smiling. Enzo nods his greeting, but surprises me when he remains standing at the door rather than walking over to say hello. Their relationship has always been fraught, though, even when we were younger. Enzo was a quiet boy and he is now a quiet man. I wonder if it has to do with his parents separation and the fact that my uncle took full custody of him. I don’t know the particulars, but for my part, I don’t even remember my aunt’s face.
“Cassian,” Uncle Angelo says after clearing his throat.
I cross the room to shake hands with him. “What’s up with you two?” I ask quietly.
We sit. Angelo shrugs his shoulders and gives a little shake of his head. “Just a little disagreement. You know how it is with fathers and sons.”
I nod because I do.
I’ve known my uncle all my life. He is my father’s brother and was his trusted consigliere. When dad started to get sick and Seth declined so quickly, in many ways, Angelo took up the spaces they left behind. But even before that, Angelo’s always been more to me than an uncle. My own relationship with my father was always fraught. My mother died in childbirth, a complication the doctors didn’t see coming. I don’t have a single memory of her. Although never outright, my father always blamed me for her death. I was never excluded from the family, and to the outside world, I was equal to Seth, except that I was not first born. To anyone looking in, they simply see the favorite. Parents are human too, after all. But I knew it went deeper than that. Seth was the best big brother anyone could have. He understood what was happening at a young age and between him and my uncle, I was loved and cared for. But it didn’t quite make up for missing my father’s love. For knowing every time he looked at me he saw our mother, the woman he loved. The woman whose life ended the day mine began.
“Something to drink?” Angelo asks.
I see the carafe of coffee and pick it up to pour myself some. “Coffee’s good. Tell me what you’ve found.”
He opens a folder, turns it so I can read it. “The weapon was registered to Blackstone’s and, unsurprisingly, Severin Blackstone reported it stolen just this morning.”
“Hm.” I read as I listen.
“We have to think this through, Cassian. What reason would Severin have for sending a loaded weapon to a child? What message was he hoping to get across?”
“Who the hell knows with him? If it was him. I suppose it could have been Jet or even Sybil. But I don’t buy that it was stolen.”
“No, too convenient.”
“Given dad’s decline, I know they would be happy to be rid of me. Rid of the Trevino name. Our continued partnership might benefit me more than it does them at this point.” Blackstone’s launders money for me. It goes through the casino and although that money was once their lifeline, it no longer is. With Severin at the helm and Sybil no longer controlling the company, they’ve done well.
“There’s more,” Angelo continues. “Their lawyer has also reached out with a renewed interest in buying back this property and the land the club sits on in Devil’s Peak.”
“Oh?”
My father and I own the buildings and properties. My father bought them from Sybil and rented the space out to her for pennies when selling was her only option. The pennies for rent was a separate understanding between them followed shortly after by their marriage.
“They must be flush with cash,” I comment, sipping my too-weak coffee.
“Suppose so.”
“Well, I’ll talk to Severin tonight. Understand what he’s been up to. But as of now, I have no intention of selling back to them. If anything, I’ll be increasing their rent.”