Briar shakes her head. “We all know he’s been head over heels for you for years. I’m pretty sure you were the only one who didn’t know.”
Well, then…
“And no one thought to tell me?”
“As if any of us can see what we’re not ready to see—no matter what anyone tries to tell us.” Silva sighs. “It was something you needed to discover on your own—or mostly on your own.”
She makes a good point. Would I have listened to Lark months ago?
Hell, even a few weeks ago?
If Prescott hadn't been at my door on that exact day under the exact circumstances, would we be together right now?
Fuck if I know.
“Well, we’re dating now—so there’s that.” I grin at the squeals of my friends. “It all happened because I had a new client come into town with a new case that turns out has something to do with my past.”
Silva snickers. “The bikers? Syrus is counting down the days until they’re gone.”
“About that.” I grimace. “I don’t think they’re going anywhere—at least not anytime soon. I’ve taken their case, and it’s going to be involved. But that’s kind of beside the point. Damn it, I’m already screwing this up.”
“Take a deep breath and start from the beginning,” Aries says, taking a sip of her drink. “We have all night.”
I nod. “Right. Yes. I guess the best place to start is that I wasn't born as Luna Salazar. I was born Mariana Vallejo Gomez,daughter of the leader of the US division of the Colombian cartel.”
Silence follows my announcement.
“That tracks.” Silva nods. “You and Lark?”
I glance at my friend, who gives me a nod. “We met when we were eight. Our fathers did business together from time to time. But don’t go thinking I had a terrible childhood. My parents loved me, and I grew up like most of the kids I went to school with—even if our parents made their money differently. I have two younger brothers and an older half-brother named Fabian. He’s never liked me. He thought Papa babied me and that he should marry me off as part of a deal. Papa was having none of that.
“I don’t know if any of you wondered why I was able to become a lawyer so young, but my fabricated identity had forged transcripts to match the two years of college I’d already finished before Gideon’s men took me. I graduated high school at sixteen, and I planned to become a lawyer for the family. Clearly, that didn’t happen. But that wasn’t the only way I was ahead in life compared to most people my age.
“I was already engaged by the time I graduated to an alpha—Christian.” I take a shaky breath. “This is where things will get harder for me to talk about. Just know there will probably be tears, and while I’m not okay, per se, I am working on it. Christian worked for Papa, and he was four years older. We were in love, and it wasn’t something my parents forced on me. We were waiting until after I turned eighteen and designated at Papa’s request.
“Less than a month before my wedding, both of my parents were murdered. That left my half-brother, Fabian, to take over Papa’s job. It put him in charge of all of us, which was scary as hell. But to make it worse, I designated from the stress—presenting as an omega while he was telling us about theirdeaths. He was less than enthused to find out his sister was an omega.”
“We can kill him,” Briar says, and as much as I’d love to say she’s joking, I know she’s one hundred percent serious. She doesn’t care that he’s the head of the cartel. For me, she’d kill him.
I snort. “Maybe later. First, there’s more I need to tell you. I knew that my marriage to Christian would mean I’d be able to get out from under Fabian’s thumb—the only way, honestly. But two weeks later, he called Christian and me into his office and said our engagement was off. He commanded me to marry an alpha who had information on my parents’ murders. Not that he cared about Mama’s death—he didn’t like her either. Maybe because she took his mother’s place. I don’t know. I refused, and Christian’s the one who paid the price. He shot him in the head right there in front of me.”
A gasp has me turning to Lexi, who has tears running down her cheeks. “Oh, Luna.”
Seeing her tears has me fighting my own.
I damn well knew I wouldn’t be able to get through this without crying.
Silva pulls her sister against her side, cuddling up to her.
“Yeah, it’s not exactly a cheerful story, is it? I managed to sneak out the next night, and I had a new identity waiting. I called on Lark to help me get out of the country. I was planning to fly to Colombia. I knew the head of the cartel would take me in with no questions asked and keep me from Fabian. Only we never made it. Gideon’s men found us before we made it to the airport. The rest of that story you know.”
I pause, sipping from my drink. “The new case involves an omega who was declared mentally unfit, and guardianship was granted to someone unrelated to the omega. To Fabian, in fact. That’s why I freaked out yesterday. I wasn’t expecting to getslapped in the face with my past. My first response was to say no.”
“As would be your right,” Aries says.
“It would be, and with three bikers, who I believed to be alphas, staring at me, that’s exactly what I said.”
“Oh, shit. The new omega in town? He’s one of the bikers?” Lexi sits up. “Someone told Emmett about it, and he mentioned it to me, but then I got your text.”
