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“And whose fault is that?” Mia whips around fast enough to send the ends of her hair smacking across her face. “Iz, you’ve always been Daddy’s girl, so it’s easy for you to get him to relent. It won’t be so easy fending off me. I’m going to get to the bottom of this whether you fight me every step of the way or not.”
“I know.” I’m not going to tell her the truth, either.
The bracelet burns a hole through my skin. Why hadn’t I taken it off?
She’ll figure out how easy it was for Drago to catch me.
“Tell me what really happened. It’s the two of us. It’s not like Papa is going to do anything, and I promise I won't either until I know the full scope. But I need to understand what you did so I can?—”
“What?” I interrupt hotly. “Clean up after me?”
“Yes.” Mia isn’t sugarcoating anything. I can’t tell if it’s better or worse. “Yes, I need to clean up after you. In another few months, this entire operation will be under my control, and it’s imperative for this town and the peace of everyone in the area to keep our neutral territories neutral. Maybe you don’t understand that.”
“Then help me so I can help you.” I take a step closer. “I’m begging you, Mia, I want to be a part of this.”
“No, you don’t.” She refuses to back down.
“Yes, I do. I’ve given it a lot of thought, and this can be something I’m really good at.”
“This what, Iz? You don’t even know what this is.”
“The entire business.”
“What do you expect to do for us?”
“I got my degree in sociology. I’m good at reading people and situations. Let me sit in on more of your meetings. Let me see about making allies, gaining connections. Paving inroads where we haven’t had any yet.”
My absolutely useless degree, I thought when Mom pushed me to enroll in classes.
Not like they let me out anywhere, though.
Daddy wanted to keep me safe from his competitors in a turbulent time, so I took online classes from the safety of my bedroom. It’s always a turbulent time. There is no peace for us. The wealth we enjoy comes with a steep price tag.
The fact that I’ve been treated as useless twists my stomach, especially when Mia looks away.
“Do you know how hard I’ve tried to keep you out of this? You and Lucia…you have a choice. You don't have to get into this. And I’ve done everything in my power to make sure you stay far, far away,” she admits.
“I never asked to be saved.”
Mia sighs, and it makes me flinch. “Well, you’re doing a great job of damning yourself.”
I open my mouth to argue and quickly snap it closed because there is nothing to say. She’s absolutely right.
8
RICARDO
I’m not sure why I stayed behind.
Not when my back is killing me, and I barely slept. Except I can’t bring myself to move, and when the driver asks about our next destination, I say nothing, holding a hand out for a pause.
Edward Balestra is no doubt torn between duty and love, torn between treating Isabella like the traitor who sold out her family—ignorant and innocent—and the daughter he treasures.
That is, if she’s come clean about her interaction with Drago, which I start to doubt the longer I sit.
I suck in a breath and scrub my hands over my face. One fucking problem after another. They all stem back to a single person…
Goddamn Isabella Balestra.
