AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I'm not sure I'm the right person to tell you that," Amara replied, and Morana turned back to her, ignoring the headlights in her peripheral vision.
"But you were going to tell me something," she insisted, pressing on. "Before I passed out."
When the other woman didn't speak but pursed her lips together, Morana sighed, knowing she wouldn't be getting any answe
r. Curiosity assailing her about the woman, she asked. "Are you in the family?"
Amara's lips curved as she smiled slightly, shaking her head. "Not technically."
At Morana's waiting silence, she elaborated. "My mother was the head housekeeper in the Maroni household. I've grown up with the men when they were boys, but I was never family."
"You were adopted into it?" Morana asked, curious.
The other woman shook her head. "No. The only one to ever have been adopted into the family was Tristan."
Morana studied the woman, a heavy feeling deep in her gut for some reason. "But you know the family?"
Amara glanced at her, her eyes hard. "Yes. But if you think I'll spill any secrets, you're wrong. I didn't when I was fifteen, and I won't now."
Morana raised her eyebrows. "Fifteen?"
She saw the woman's hand clench on the steering wheel, her lips purse tightly for a moment before she sighed. "I was abducted and taken prisoner by another mob. They tried to get me to talk, and when I refused, they damaged my vocal cords."
Morana's heart clenched in pain for the woman even as a sort of admiration for her strength seeped in. A fifteen-year-old young girl facing horrors and refusing to succumb. Morana knew the cost of being strong in this world, and even though this woman was the enemy, Morana could respect that strength. So she did. Silently.
"Dante and Tristan found me after three days. Dante took me home but Tristan stayed behind to clean up," Amara spoke on quietly, in that voice that had been made permanent forcefully, only the humming of the car permeating the air. "They'd both been so angry, not just because I had been theirs but because violating a woman is something they both truly abhor. They've always been protective of women and children. Which is why what happened tonight was not ordinary."
Morana took in all that information for a moment then huffed out a skeptic laugh. "You mean Tristan Caine is ordinarily not an asshole?"
"Oh, he is," Amara replied without missing a beat. "But he's an honorable asshole. And what happened tonight wasn't anywhere near honorable."
Was that why he was following them? Out of some misbegotten sense of honor?
When pigs would fly with soft, pink wings perhaps.
He had an agenda. He always did. She just couldn't figure out what it was.
"I won't try to defend him or give excuses for his actions, because as much as I get why he's acting like this, he's the one who has to offer his own excuses to you."
Even though the woman refused to give answers, Morana was starting to like her for her loyalty. She didn't let it show.
"Then what are you saying?" Morana asked, her eyebrows raised.
Amara looked at her for a second before turning back. "The man who drugged you - the bartender of the club - has been working for the family for almost two decades. After Tristan dropped you with me, he went to deal with the man. It got... heated. So, he came over and carried you to the car and told me to drive you home. But he's been following us all the way. That's all I'm saying. Make of it what you will."
That was the issue. Morana had absolutely no freaking idea what to make of him.
Heart pounding, she looked out of the window and realized they were just a few miles out away from the mansion. She couldn't go back to the house. Not like this. Not half drugged and off-kilter, only to have her father suddenly demand a meeting in the middle of the night. Which he would because she'd ditched her security detail. No. She couldn't go back, not yet, not until she had her wits about her and some alone time.
Swallowing, she took a deep breath. "Please stop the car."
Amara glanced at her. "Why?"
Morana raised her eyebrows. "Because it's my car and I'm going to drive it."
"You were just drugged," she pointed out rationally.
"I'm fine now, and it's only a few miles away," Morana told her. Amara slowed the car a little but didn't stop, and Morana could feel her hesitation.
