Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“Talin! Anahit!”
As always, we hear him before we spot him moving through the crowd. Papa’s voice booms like a cannonblast and more than one person turns in his direction. Annie’s smile tightens and she gives me one of those looks, typical Papa, before she seamlessly falls into the perfect daughter yet again, striding forward to greet our father. She kisses his cheek and asks how the party’s been as Papa turns his big, somewhat red, jovial face in my direction.
“It’s been good, darling Anahit, very good, but I have need of my two youngest daughters. Where did you disappear to, Talin?” He shuffles closer and his big, meaty fingers pluck at my blouse. “Wasn’t this tucked in before?”
“I got hot,” I say too quickly. He doesn’t notice though, since he never notices much, though Annie shoots me a curious frown. “Are you successfully courting more business, Papa?”
My clumsy attempt at deflecting from my embarrassment works. Papa takes me by the arm and lumbers through the people, heading toward the back garden. “I make friends wherever I go, darling youngest. This party’s been rather fruitful in that regard.”
I don’t like the way he says it, and I especially don’t like the way Annie’s hovering so close. She’s practically fretting at me, which is a bad sign. That means I’ll be needed to do something important, or at least to smile and seem polite and pretty to someone meaningful, which is usually the extent of my usefulness to the family. Sometimes, I wish I could be like Miriam, falling for a civilian and moving away, or like Tate, straight up getting the heck out of Baltimore. The way Papa treats me and Annie though, I doubt we’ll get off so easy.
We’re led out into a quiet, breezy yard, with nicely maintained grass patch, concrete slab, high-end furniture, and beautiful blooming bushes. A group of people stands at the far end speaking softly to each other. Papa steps in front of me, blocking my view of them, and takes me by the shoulders. He leans in close and I smell the vodka on his breath.
“Tallie jan, listen to me now.” I go very still. He hasn’t called me Tallie jan in a long time; adding jan to a name is a pretty common Armenian thing, like referring to me as dear. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve either been darling youngest or just plain Talin. “You are about to do something very important. Something I should have prepared you for sooner, but I wasn’t sure if this was actually going to happen.”
My stomach’s knotty and twisted. I look for Annie and find her lurking nearby, wringing her hands together, her perfect smile completely gone now. That look on her face scares me even more than Papa’s pleading tone.
“What’s going on? What do you need me to do?”
“You are going to meet someone, Tallie jan. He is a member of the McGrath clan and the brother of Cousin Alexan’s wife. You remember Riley?”
“We’ve met a few times.” I try to look over Papa’s shoulder, but he’s large and round and doesn’t budge. “Why am I meeting this person?”
“Because there are deals happening. Your cousin Arsen… there are business reasons… you know, the Brotherhood…” Papa trails off. I’ve never seen him lost for words in my life. He’s always the center of attention, brash, in control, confident to a fault. Any silence is filled by a joke, a compliment, some mundane piece of conversation that keeps an entire room at ease.
Now it’s like he’s forgotten how to be himself.
Annie appears at his side. Her hands are clasped together and her face is serious. “It’s going to be okay, Tallie, I promise. Just do as Papa says, okay?”
“Annie? You know about this? What’s going on?”
“I found out a few minutes ago—“ She looks over her shoulder and curses softly. For once in his life, Papa doesn’t correct her. I’m practically spinning. Annie never talks like that around our father, and he’d never allow it. And yet. “They’re coming over, Papa. You have to tell her.”
“Tell me what?!” Panic sets in. Sweat prickles down my chest, and god, why the hell is it too damn hot today? I’m intensely aware of the stolen lighter nestled between my breasts, the cool metal the only thing keeping me from a total meltdown.
Papa grips my shoulders. “We have an arrangement with the McGraths. An arrangement Patron Arsen specifically requested. You will be strong now, Tallie jan, for the whole family. Do you understand?”
Patron Arsen? Papa never calls Arsen by his formal title. Which means this is Brotherhood business, which means… which means…
Papa moves aside as the group of people speaking near the bushes steps forward. Among them is Riley McGrath, or now she’s Riley Sarkissian, along with Cousin Alexan, her husband. Riley’s always been really nice, though Alexan’s kind of terrifying. She’s got a sad smile on her face that makes me want to shove Papa sideways and start running the hell away from here.