“Don’t worry about any of that. When are you coming home?”
“Not yet.” I shake my head. “I have some things to do first. But I’m okay, Kaz. I’m fine.”
“If you’re fine, then come home.” His jaw tightens with his insistence. Kaz has always been the easy one to deal with; he’s always known when to push and when to stop. But he’s looking like he’s out of patience with me.
“I just have to do something first,” I say, hoping he’ll leave it at that.
I’d ask him to trust me, but I won’t insult him any more than I already have.
“What? What do you have to do?” He pushes. This is the closest he’s come to raising his voice with me.
“Kaz.” I lean back from my phone. If I can just get him to understand. “Alexander and Ivan…they hate me. They see me as a traitor.”
“No.” He shakes his head.
“If one of your men were found with a DeAngelo girl, had been having a relationship with her for months behind your back, what would you guys do to him?” If he’s honest with himself, he’ll understand where I’m coming from.
“You’re not one of the men.”
“No. Worse. I’m blood. And I betrayed you.”
“He was using you, Elana.”
“Yeah, that’s how stupid I was.” I laugh, but it feels hollow. I feel hollow. But isn’t that what happens when you realize you’ve played the fool?
“Elana.”
“It’s fine.” I brush it away. “I’m okay. Really. You think he’s the first guy to break my heart?”
“Then why did you run away?”
“Let’s not talk about that. I want to know about your wife. Is she horrible? I mean she’s a DeAngelo, right, so I’m guessing she is.”
She looked beautiful in the picture Megan sent, but her brother had been good looking too.
“Come home and meet her.”
“Tony never talked about a sister. Did they hide her in some tower?” I force a laugh. After seeing what Tony and his brothers were really capable of, it’s not too far from a possibility of what they could do to her.
“Elana.” There’s a warning in his voice. “She’s my wife.”
“Yeah. Because of me,” I whisper.
“No. The trouble with the DeAngelos started way before you. It had nothing to do with you. You were a pawn. Then you were a casualty.”
“Tell me about her, Kaz.”
“She’s nothing like her brothers,” he finally says, but there’s something in his eyes when he says it. Like a light has flipped on somewhere.
“So she’s not a complete monster, just a little one?” I try to tease. I’m in no position to make light of the situation. He had to marry this woman because of me. I’ll owe him a debt for the rest of my life.
If I can do what I came to Boston to do, it might make up for some of it.
“She’s not a monster at all. No more than you are for having us as your brothers.”
“There is a big difference between what you guys do and what?—”
“Is there?” He pauses. “We put women in cages and sell them to the highest bidders. We move drugs, clean dirty money. We’ve killed, we’ve tortured. Hell, Elana, we have a fucking room specifically for that purpose. We aren’t that different.”
