Page 36 of A Taste Of Darkness

Taking a deep breath, I replied, “I am.” There wasn’t a single reaction coming from her. She just stood there, as numb as a minute ago. “I told you, they’re here for me, not you.”

It took Sterlie a hot second to find a way to show any sort of reaction, though I didn’t think it’d be her squinting her eyes at me.

For a moment I thought her memories somehow returned, but when she asked for my last name, I knew they didn’t.

“Veneto,” I answered.

Her head cocked, but a moment later her eyes ripped open in realization and a gasp escaped her. “They’re from the mafia, aren’t they?”

I nodded.

“They don’t know you changed your name.”

“Arlo knows.” Obviously.

“Okay, but what do I have to do with this?” she asked. She didn’t seem put off by finding out who my family was. “No matter how many times I try to come up with a reason, Milo or Luca or whoever you are, it doesn’t make sense to me why I’m involved. I’ve never been in contact with the mafia before in my entire life.”

A muscle in my jaw ticked, and I guess she noticed because she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“When?” she demanded. “Clearly, you know more than I do. So please, tell me when I, unbeknownst to me, contacted the mafia before. Did my father get me into this mess?”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Okay. But regardless, I don’t know what I did, and I have the right to know.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stepped back again. At least she didn’t appear as if she was fearing me all of a sudden.

I slid a hand down my face, trying to think of a way to tell her. “Do you remember going on vacation eleven years ago?”

Sterlie thought about it for a second, then shook her head.

I knew she wouldn’t remember, drugs did that, but I thought at least her sister told her. “Flora didn’t tell you?”

“No…? But why did she tell you?”

“She didn’t tell me,” I replied and pulled out my phone from my pocket. I scrolled through my gallery for a while, just to find that one picture. When I found it, I gave my phone to Sterlie.

Her eyes filled with tears as she very obviously recognized herself in the picture.

She stood in a jewelry store, owned by my family but nobody knew we owned it.

The picture showed her as she picked a necklace, and me, how I was sitting behind the register, watching her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who watched her. And I had much different intentions than they had.

I pointed at fourteen-year-old me. “That’s me, eleven years ago,” I said.

Sterlie nodded while she wiped away a tear that rolled down her face, pushing my phone back into my hands. “How did this get me involved with the mafia?”

I pointed at my uncle in the very back of the picture. He stood between two shelves and watched her with gleaming eyes. While the picture didn’t capture the lust in his eyes, I remembered seeing it only too well.

Sterlie was just a kid. I never understood how he could feel something close to lust toward her. I was only two years older than her, and still, all I thought was that she was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen in my entire life.

My uncle was a whole adult with eight kids, lusting after a girl the same age as one of his sons.

“You became a target,” I told her. “And I didn’t realize me speaking against what they wanted to do to you only made you more interesting.”

She swallowed thickly, though she tried to stay strong. “What did they want to do to me?”

I raked a hand through my hair and closed my eyes as I thought about lying. But I never lied to her before, I wasn’t going to start now. “What do you think they wanted?”

“I was twelve.” Her voice was a whisper, laced with sadness. Though I could tell she was fighting her tears, Sterlie cleared her throat and stood as strong as ever. “Why are you here?”

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