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“Not far enough away. As soon as you are okay to travel we need to leave.” Her words have the events of earlier rushing back to me. I gasp and shoot her a worried look.
“What happened, Riverland? You had a gun? Oh my God, he is going to kill us both!” My hysteria begins to rise the longer it takes for her to answer me.
“Calm down, you passed out and I got you out of there.”
“How did you get me out?” My sister may be a badass but there is no way she was able to carry me out and keep our father at bay.
“Colson helped me carry you out.” My jaw unhinges and she rolls her eyes.
“Colson?” I squeak.
“Yes.” I shake my head, unable to comprehend what she is saying. Aside from Wallace, Colson is my dad’s second most trusted man and not to mention Wallace’s son and grew up with us. “Colson has seen what we had to put up with for years and when I reached out to him a couple of months ago he didn’t hesitate to offer his help.”
“Dad is going to kill him!” I whisper.
“He can’t because he is here with us, keeping watch outside.” A whoosh of air escapes me, this is a lot to digest.
“What are we going to do, River? We have nowhere to go, no friends, no money?—”
“Don’t worry about all of that, Lake. We have each other and that is all that matters. I swear I will never let that bastard hurt you again.” Her every word is laced with hatred but I feel like there is a double meaning to what she is saying. “We need to get going. Are you able to move?”
I nod and accept her help to stand when she offers. I make quick work of using the restroom, then splash some water on my face before staring at my reflection in the mirror. My hair is a mess of knots, so I use the elastic on my wrist to twist it into a messy bun like my sisters. I pinch my cheeks to give them a bit of color and sigh. My green eyes are lifeless and my brown hair has no shine to it, I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me but I feel like a huge part of me is missing and I can’t figure out why.
“Lake, we need to move,” I hear River call from the other side of the door. I quickly exit the bathroom and follow her downstairs to the parking lot, only to cringe when I see an old man leading a woman around my age to one of the rooms on the lower level—this is definitely one of those places that rents rooms by the hour. A shudder of revulsion runs through me as I climb into the back of the car. Colson shoots me a welcoming smile as I buckle in.
We’ve been driving for about an hour and night has fallen but I still haven’t said anything since muttering a greeting to Colson. He rides shotgun next to River and they are both tense, constantly checking the mirrors to make sure we aren’t being followed. I can’t stop taking in the view outside my window. It feels so strange to be outside without my dad beside me. At first I summed it up to him being a worried parent and wanting to keep me safe but after a while, I figured out it was just his way of trying to control me. I’m the sick child, he would say. If only I wasn’t such a burden and more like River, I would be the perfect daughter, he had said.
I don’t know what I did to make my father hate me so much. Growing up I remember him being kind, caring and loving to us and our mom before she passed away, but everything after our mom’s death feels hazy. I can’t recall much and she has been gone for nearly seven years now.
“Do we have a destination?” Colson asks, breaking the silence. I haven’t spoken to him in a long time. The last time I recall actually seeing him and having a conversation was around the time my mom passed away. Dad wouldn’t let any of the young guards near me. The only men allowed around me were old and of course, I had the maids watching my every move and dictating what I could and couldn’t eat. Dad would never allow me to have fast food, he’d say if I got fat I would be worth nothing.
“I’ll take the first shift driving then we can switch. I only want to stop for gas and that’s it. We need to get to Calgary.” I reel back.
“Calgary?” I practically shout, earning a scowl from my sister in the rearview mirror.
“Yes. We need to put as much distance between us and Winnipeg as we can. It’s a thirteen-hour drive but we don’t have a choice. Percy will have all the airports locked down and we need to get out of Giovani’s territory as fast as we can.” Her words have a pit forming in my gut.
“If Gio or Dad find us, they will kill us,” I mutter.
“Percy won’t kill you, he needs you to keep his deal with Gio.” Colson’s words offer me no comfort.
“What deal?” River asks.
“Percy is marrying Lake to Gio in order to form an alliance against the Re Della Strada. Gio gets Lake and Percy’s finance companies throughout the US and Canada to clean money while Percy’s debt with Gio gets wiped and he makes millions.”
“Percy’s broke, isn’t he?” My eyes widen at River’s question.
“He ran your mother’s family’s companies into the ground. He made some sketchy investments and owes Gio a shit load of cash. Percy was lucky to walk away with his life but given what La–. Percy had something that Gio wanted and knew it would piss Knox off, so he gave your father a way out.”
“Who is Knox and what is the Re Della Strada?” I ask, interrupting their conversation. Colson shifts in his seat and turns back to face me. His warm brown eyes are filled with sympathy and that confuses me.
“Knox Bronson is the leader of the Re Della Strada and the head of the Da Luca family.” It takes a second for that to register inside my head, then I’m gasping.
“Oh my God, he’s the guy that is at war with Gio. Dad hates him and the Da Luca family.” Knox is the man who ran me down. Dad had business dealings with him and six years ago their deal went sour and Knox came after me as revenge against my father.
Colson nods. “They aren’t known as the Da Luca family now, they go by the Re Della Strada. Percy has something that means… a lot to Knox and was willing to sell that to Gio in the name of revenge.”
“Why does Dad hate this man so much? I know they had a deal that went bad years ago, hence my accident,” I say bitterly. Colson and River share a weird look. River subtly shakes her head and Colson straightens gazing out the window without answering me. “Someone answer me!” I snap.
