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He stood back up and looked down at me.
“We were all fucking someone over and using each other to get what we wanted.” He expelled a deep breath, running a hand over his mouth. “Your mother thought Richard would love her. Your father took advantage of my mom, blind to the fact she was just like yours. My father…well, he orchestrated the entire thing. No one accounted for your sister being a junkie who started screwing her dealer and telling him everything.
I trusted her. My father died, and I moved forward with his plan. And that’s where you came in.
“I couldn’t figure out who you were at first. It should have been easy; you look just like your dad. Your mom tried to pass you off as Richard’s. I needed his daughter and it was discovered Cassie wasn’t the girl we thought he had. You were. She became expendable. She told Seth, and he killed her and took you. That brought me all the way into it. I could no longer watch from the sidelines. I found out a few more vital pieces of information and failed to kill him. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
Was he referring to trusting me? Killing Seth? Both?
This was all so screwed up. We both came from corrupted families; the problem was that his wanted to destroy mine. And they had. He had. There was nothing left of my family but me…and my father.
“What is it he has everyone wants?”
“Just you. He’d been wiring Seth money to keep you safe. When he found out his real intentions, he contacted me. Let’s just say the news of our engagement traveled fast, and he isn’t pleased. Your father wanted me to keep you safe, still trusting the wrong people.”
I felt a million different emotions at once, but anger was in the lead. Standing from the chair, I faced off with him.
“Did anyone consider that I’m a human being and not a game piece? That I want more out of life than to be someone’s pawn!” I was a glutton for punishment. A stitched breath rattled my chest. Tears burned in my eyes; I tried to hold them back but a few strays escaped. When did this end? When would I no longer be yanked back and forth in this game of his?
“And what do you want? Revenge? His money?”
“I want a lot of things,” he answered, not responding to anything else I had just said. “Right now, I need to go handle a few things before all hell breaks loose.”
He kissed my cheek and then my forehead before walking back inside the house. He’d given me a handful of answers that each came with their own questions, keeping me in a constant state of unknown.
This had to stop. I had to take control of my life back.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
I had told her more than I ever thought I would. What I didn’t tell her was that it was her father who had made a colossal fuck up and killed my baby sister.
A car crash he’d set up turned her into a brain-dead corpse. She was so young and innocent, born into a life she had no choices in—just like Willow.
But she didn’t need to know that. She knew enough.
It had been five days since I’d been home. I’d only gone back to take care of a special package with the help of my brother and cousin.
Everything had come down to this. There hadn’t been any room for error. I had men with families loyal to me and relying on me to come through, and now I had Willow.
“I told you it was a bad idea to fall for this girl,” Enrique muttered from beside me.
The glare I gave him had his hands shooting up in defense. Of course, the motherfucker was right. I wasn’t supposed to fall for my charge. Truthfully, I hadn’t thought that was even possible.
Emotions. Love. The disease was given to humans by the devil himself. A disease people fought over, died over, and made too many fucked up decisions over. I didn’t think I was capable of it, not in the way most people were.
Obsession, however.
Well, that was another story entirely.
“Hey, I don’t blame you. She’s beautiful, strong, and doesn’t put up with your shit. Not like…” my cousin’s voice trailed off. I knew who he was referring to, and once again, he was right. Willow was so much different from Cassie. They were night and day.
“I want her for all the reasons I hate her.” No one said anything. Not Enrique, Jax, or Tito. They all nursed their drinks and looked to the stage, where a brunette was twirling around upside down.
“You should stop this then, before—”
“I said I want her, not that I’m ready to throw everything away and say fuck securing our future. If we don’t do this, she may not have a future. It’s a bit of pain to reap the reward in the end. She’s resilient; she’ll be fine.” Silence ensued once more. They all knew I was right. I didn’t add what was already known.
