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Ethan has a black SUV, but I’m still unfamiliar with American cars despite being here for a few months. My uncle has several that someone chauffeurs him around in wherever he needs to go, but they are Audis, Mercedes, and then he owns a Land Rover Defender, but that one is rarely used.
“Get in the backseat with Ciera,” Sasha calls out as she goes to the driver’s side door. “Someone may recognize you when I pull around to exit the parking lot.”
Getting in on the side behind Sasha, I pull on the seatbelt. Sienna does the same on my other side. Her phone is in her hand and her eyes are cast down on the device. “Why is the police commissioner looking for you?” Sienna asks without glancing in my direction. “Dad mentioned you’re related to him, but that’s all I know since I just got back this morning.”
“I don’t know him. We’ve never met,” I tell her while thinking in the back of my mind that this probably isn’t good. If my uncle’s brother is looking for me, then that means either Liam has either discovered that I’m not attending college as he sent me here to do or my father gave me away.
“You’re related to him,” she deadpans and then tilts her head in my direction, one eyebrow arched as if silently telling me she isn’t buying my story.
“I’m not lying. Do you know everyone you’re related to?” I throw back, getting somewhat upset. I haven’t done anything to the Caputos. They took me, not the other way around.
“No, she doesn’t,” Sasha says, joining our conversation as she pulls out of the parking lot, turning left and driving away from the range and self-defense place. “She doesn’t know anyone on her mother’s side of her family.”
“Butt the fuck out, ho-bag. You wanted to drive, so do it and keep your trap shut while I figure out what’s going on.” Sienna glares at the back of Sasha’s head, then she swivels her body to face me. “I’m not accusing you of lying, Ciera. I promise, I didn’t mean it like that, but I do need to know what to tell Dom so that he doesn’t come unglued and lose his shit on you. I also need to be able to give my Dad as much information as I can. Do you know why he would be looking for you?”
“How would he know you were there?” Sasha adds. “Strikes me as odd.”
“Okay,” Sienna starts before I can reply to either of them. “We need to have a straight talk. Dad has his reasons for you marrying Domenico. I’ve decided to trust him. However, if you are marrying into our family tomorrow, then you’re doing it for real. You have to be with us one hundred percent. If you have an ulterior motive, then tell me now. We’ll cancel the wedding, take you back to your father’s house, and I’ll deal with the boss’s wrath. There are too many people that I care about and am not willing to risk, including the bitch in the front seat. If you’re hiding something or someone is using you to get to my family, then you need to tell us.”
“I thought you hated Sasha,” I say.
“She’s carrying my brother’s baby. She might have weaseled her way into my family, but I’d still protect her over you at the moment. She’s family. You aren’t yet, so convince us that we should let you become one of us.”
“Bitch, I don’t need you to protect anything of mine, includingmyhusband. I’ve got him too.” Sasha sneers through the rearview mirror.
“Funny, two weeks ago, I helped save you and Ren. So shut it, Sasha. Stay in your lane and just drive like a good little chauffeur, capiche?”
“Bitch, you did not just capiche me,” Sasha fires back, her fair complexion reddening with spiked anger.
“Give me something, Ciera,” Sienna directs toward me, ignoring her sister-in-law. “Prove to us that you’re willing to fight for us and we’ll fight for you too. That’s what today was about. Sasha and I can hold our own with our brothers and back them up. We will always stand by their side as a united front without any question. We’d kill, and both have, to protect ourselves and our family.”
Sienna reaches to the front, shoving Sasha on her right shoulder.
“What she said,” Sasha bites out as if agreeing with Sienna is torture.
“You have to be willing to do the same,” Sienna finishes.
“I really don’t know why he’s looking for me,” I say to Sienna, looking her in the eyes and then glance at Sasha through the rearview mirror. “Owen is close to my great-uncle, but to my knowledge, he hasn’t been home since he left Ireland before I was born. I’ve never spoken to him.”
“Okay.” Sienna’s head bobbles.
“I also don’t know how he’d know where I was, but I’m not shocked either. Men like him and my great-uncle, my father, and maybe even your dad, have ways of finding out whatever it is they want to know. Maybe we were followed. Maybe my uncle found out your father acquired me and isn’t happy about it. I don’t know,” I tell her, speaking the truth. “But I also don’t know any of you. You can’t expect me to give you or your family blind faith. There isn’t one person I’ve ever met that I trust.”
“Why is that?” Sasha asks just as Sienna had started to open her mouth. By the pursed lips Sienna is showing, she was likely going to ask me the same question.
“Trusting people will only set yourself up to be hurt in the long run. I’ve learned that lesson, and I don’t care to repeat it, so to answer you, I can’t fight for people I do not trust. That includes every member of my family. The ones I’m related to by blood and the ones I’m not. It also includes your family. You’re both here of your own free will. I’m not, but I don’t want to go back to my father’s either. I’d rather die in a gutter than be subjected to that, so if that means I must be on the Caputos’ side, then I’d choose the lesser of two evils.”
“We aren’t evil,” Sienna says, taking offense to my chosen words.
“You aren’t innocent either,” I deadpan.
“No one is,” Sasha adds.
“Would you stab my brother in the back if your family ordered you to?” Sienna asks, her question striking me like an interrogation.
“No,” I reply without hesitation because it’s the truth. “I wouldn’t hurt any of you unless you hurt me first. I’m not like my family, and frankly, the less of them there are, the better the world would be.”
I wish I didn’t feel that way, but I do with every fiber of my being. That will never change.
