Page 30 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

Cara tucked curly red hair behind her ears, and her blue eyes surveyed Catherine. Catherine thought Cara, like her own mother, was aging gracefully for women of their age. Still holding onto beauty with a firm grip, yet showcasing the life they lived with the small lines around their eyes and smiles.

“Have you graduated from Columbia yet?” Cara asked.

Catherine made a face. “Another two years, at least, to complete my graduate program.”

Cara cocked a brow. “You settled on law years ago, didn’t you? You already had quite a few years in, too.”

“Things kept getting in the way. I took two classes this summer just to play a bit of catch up.”

“Things like what?”

Nothing got past Cara. Catherine learned that quickly years ago.

She also learned not to lie.

“My work for my cousin,” Catherine said.

Cara made a quiet, unsurprised sound before saying, “For, now. Not with, I noticed.”

Catherine lifted a hand as if to say, whatever. “Andino’s more involved with Daddy’s business as his man, now. I work for his side of things.”

“Hustling, you mean. Dealing drugs. You still have a hard time explaining what you do, I see.”

“Not really, but even when I am working, I don’t use those kinds of words. It’s not good to make the people buying feel like they’re doing something wrong or dirty. Business one-oh-one.”

Cara laughed. “I’ll have to ask Gian about that, then.”

Gian, Cara’s husband, was a man much like Catherine’s father. A Cosa Nostra Don running a criminal empire.

“Not sure how much a mafia boss knows about being the person on the ground selling the drugs,” Catherine mused.

“Oh, you would be surprised.” Cara glanced at her watch. “Have you chosen to tell your parents about the hustling for your cousin?”

“No.”

“Catherine.”

She sighed loudly. “They never would have wanted me to do this, and I know it. They always pushed me toward school; to college. Any interest I ever had in my mother’s business was quickly shut down, if not entirely ignored.”

“Still—”

“I know, Cara. Own who I am. Be honest with those I love. Hold myself to higher standards. And I do that with every other thing. But not this. This is my thing, and I’m not ready to deal with how they’ll react about it all. I’m good at this, and I would like to keep doing it. It makes me a hell of a lot of money, but it’s also—”

“Empowering, addicting, indulgent, risky,” Cara interjected. “We’ve had this discussion a thousand times over, but I see you’re still only looking at it from your perspective, Catherine.”

“Because right now, my perspective is the only one that matters where hustling is concerned. I know what they’ll want, and it’s different from my wants. So, for now, it stays my private business.”

“It’s your choice, but you know where I stand.”

“Of course.”

Eventually, Catherine would take Cara’s advice regarding dealing and being honest with her parents about it all. Today was not going to be that day.

“It’s been, oh, three years since we’ve sat down and had a proper session,” Cara noted.

Catherine glanced at a painting on the wall, a new one since her last visit to the Guzzi mansion. Cara liked to display her family, and this new painting was no different. Only now, five boys, Cara, and her husband, Gian, were all in the artwork. Older, too. It was more recent.

“I didn’t think I needed to chat beyond a phone call occasionally,” Catherine admitted.