Page 99 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

“Work. It’s not important.”

“Work,” she said, drawing the word out slowly. “Work with my family. My father’s family. When did that happen?”

“Well, technically your father doesn’t know.”

Catherine cringed. “Yikes.”

“We would prefer he doesn’t find out,” Cross added.

“Okay.”

“But that’s not the point.”

“Okay, so get to it, Cross.”

He sighed, and shot her a look from the side. “Anyway, I was with Andino, and we got to talking about some things.”

“Like what?”

“You, for one.”

Catherine’s brow dipped. “Uh …”

“Your dealing for him, for another,” Cross added.

“You know I don’t like people prying into my business, Cross, even you.”

“I know,” he murmured, “and I wasn’t prying, Catty. I swear.”

“So what were you doing?”

“You came up after he mentioned your family dinner this past Sunday.”

Catherine rolled her eyes, and groaned. “Oh, that shit show. Yeah, that was fun.”

“I bet,” Cross said faintly, “but it moved onto your dad, and your business with Andino because of how your dad is with you.”

“I don’t get it.”

“No, I guess you wouldn’t,” Cross replied. “I suppose you’ve made such a great effort to keep this part of your life hidden from your parents that you likely believe they have no idea what you’re doing. You probably think you’ve been so careful, so smart about hustling, that they don’t have the first clue you’re one of Andino’s most profitable dealers on his crew.”

Catherine’s gaze narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“They do know, babe. Your parents, I mean. They know all of it.”

“No, they … no,” she said quickly. “They would have said something, Cross. They don’t know anything about this at all.”

“Catherine, they’ve known for a long time.”

“Cross, you’re being ridiculous. My parents don’t know that I hustle for Andino.”

He could hear the fear in her voice. He didn’t agree with Andino’s choice to keep lying to Catherine, never mind letting her lie, but he could see how easy it would be for the man to do. He could understand how Andino came up with the idea that Catherine would quit her business with him over something like this.

Cross still didn’t like it, though.

“They do know,” he assured. “Andino made that perfectly clear, amongst other things. They’ve known for as long as you’ve been doing it.”

“No,” Catherine repeated, “they don’t.”