Page 10 of Unlawful Lies

Not even when her lips thin out, her eyes narrow, and her father seems to grow by a full hundred pounds.

“You have a lot of nerve coming into my home and accusing my daughter of stealing from you.”

“Not your daughter,” Father corrects. “You. Just another middle finger to me and my family.”

Arden hasn’t stowed his gun. He turns it in a lazy circle, swinging it like a cowboy of old. “I have more than enough money to buy a painting. There’s no need to steal.”

“It’s not about the money,” Father counters. “It’s about power. Over me.”

“You have a rather large head. How have I never noticed?” Arden breaks their standoff to move to his desk and grab the bottle.

“I think it is absolutely ridiculous you would come here and attempt to cast the blame on us for something personal. If you want to argue about our men overstepping the boundaries of the territory, then fine. I’m sure Father will be amenable once we’ve all come down. But this?—”

Someone flicked a switch inside of Nicola. Like the injustices heaped too high for her to continue ignoring them anymore. As quickly as she erupted, she fell silent, even before her father shot her a death glare.

“Nicola, no one is blaming you,” Arden snaps.

She’s not having any of it, though. Nicola storms out of the room and leaves me torn. The tension is thick enough to choke on and burns every piece of me it touches.

“Oh, go on and fuck off out of here, Edward,” Father says. “We both know you want to follow her. No one needs your bleeding heart.”

I’m invisible. He sees everything, even what I want to hide. With my face still aching from the slap of the gun, I grunt out an agreement and follow Nicola outside.

My longer strides catch up to her quickly. Her back hunches, her shoulders forward, and her fists lifted to her eyes.

“Leave me alone!” She knows I’m there, and it pisses her off even more than Father’s accusations. “I’m really not in the mood for company.”

“What do I want?” I repeat.

Too many things to give voice to any singular one of them. I want to be free, as she accurately pointed out earlier. Chasing this dream of expansion, Father’s dream, doesn’t come close to the simple life I always pictured for myself. Maybe some gardens like the one Nicola retreats to yet again. Her comfort area, I realize with a start.

None of the soothing aspects of the simple life are available to me or people like me. Not when you’re born a Balestra. It’s become synonymous with power, with the underground, with crime and a thorough demolishing of anyone who stands in our way.

She may not be in the mood for company, but she will get it regardless. Because I’m curious about her reaction and the way she went off. I’m curious about what makes her tick and what secrets are stored inside her pretty head. I want them.

I want to know what they are and steal them from her the same way my father accused hers of stealing.

If only Father knew the truth…

“Well?” Nicola says, and her voice is the only thing that snaps me out of my head and back into my body.

I blink at her. “What’s the matter?” I ask.

“I asked you what the hell you want and why you’re following me and nothing. You disappeared even though you’re standing right there.” She glares at me with her hands on her hips. “I’m waiting for an answer.”

She’s as regal as a queen. There, with the sunlight gilding her with a crown, I wonder why I’ve never seen this side of her before. Was she so adept at keeping it under wraps?

Or had I not looked close enough?

“I just…can’t seem to stay away from you.” When in doubt, fall back on charm. It works almost every time on any person. “There is something about you I’m powerless to resist.”

Except Nicola Salvatore, it seems. She sets me with a look and a dubious tilt to her head. Right then, she reminds me of her father, but not in the same swollen and blustery way. Not in the same pickled from the inside way, either.

“Feed me another line, Eddie, and see if it takes.” But she loses a bit of the height and bluster at the words. Now, she just looks tired.

“You think I’m feeding you lines?”

Her hands fly into the air, exasperated, and Nicola takes a right turn this time rather than a left and heads to a different part of the garden. Hopefully not too far from the office because I want to be nearby in case the two men lose their tempers with each other again.

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