Page 87 of Absolution

“Luciano called me and told me to take care of you.”

I stare at her, stunned. I never thought he’d care about me.

“He needed your man.”

Christian? “He’s not my man,” I say quickly.

She cocks her head and regards me. “It sure looks like that, the way you two look at each other.”

“He’s Cecilia’s dad.” I can’t control my chin as it begins to tremble again, and new tears fall. “I’m so afraid, Carmen!”

The little woman scoops me into her arms and hugs me tight. “Kerry,” she says. “Luciano and Christian, and their men, they’ll get your daughter back. They’ll stop at nothing. This is the wrong family to ever set your foot in, but right now you couldn’t be in better hands.”

“None of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for them,” I say bitterly.

“You wouldn’t have had Cecilia either,” she says quickly. “Or Christian.” Her voice is a little coy and I glance up at her. Carmen reaches out and wipes off my cheeks with her thumbs, then she throws me a quick smile. “You’ll have her back.”

“You can’t know this,” I cry and hug my chest, rocking back and forth.

Carmen hushes me and then just holds me. For a long time she lets me cry in her arms. There is nothing else to say, nothing for us to do. I want to run out on the streets, look in every house, scream at them to show themselves, but they could be anywhere. It’s impossible.

“What can they do?” I whisper.

“Luciano?”

I nod.

Carmen is quiet, emotion flickers through her gaze. “There’s nothing he can’t do,” she finally says. “He knows everyone. If you’re on his bad side, you’re not safe anywhere.”

A shudder runs through me. Old wounds. Oh, I know this.

“Do you know how I met Christian?” I ask.

The beautiful little woman next to me shakes her head. “I stay out of that nest as much as I can.”

“That’s clever.”

“I have my reasons.”

“But… you’re David’s mom… right?”

Carmen nods. “Yes.”

“So…” I chew on my lip, “you and Salvatore—”

“It’s a story for another time. How did you meet your man?”

“He’s not my man!”

Carmen gives a half-shrug, as if I can say anything, she has her mind made up anyway.

“I was his hit.”

Tilting her head, Carmen frowns as she studies me, then she shakes her head. “I swear, these men… What happened? If you don’t mind?”

For the first time ever I have someone I can talk to absolutely freely about this. I can tell her everything. She knows them. She’s also trying to make time pass, to take my mind off the current absolute disaster, and I’m eternally grateful as I start from the beginning. When I stutter and blush as I try to describe Christian’s dark passion, how he scared and enticed me, she grabs my forearm.

“Kerry, love. I was a prostitute. I worked on the streets for two years, then for some months in one of Salvatore’s brothels. There is nothing I haven’t heard, seen, or experienced. There’s nothing to be shy about.”

---