Page 48 of Charity's Redemption

Me: Just checking in. How are you feeling?

“Do you think something is wrong?”

Luca scoffed, and Max just shook his head, staring into his glass with indifference. Bad things happen when there is dysfunction within the ranks.

“Yeah, she knows she got caught and doesn’t want to face the consequences.”

“She didn’t do it. I’m telling you. If you’d just listen to me.”

My gaze bounced between them, trying to follow along with a conversation no one felt the need to fill me in on.

“She’s done it before. Why wouldn’t she do it again? Especially when she was high on cocaine.”

“Someone want to try filling me in here?” I interjected, still not understanding what was happening.

“You say that as if she chose to snort cocaine, then kill him. That’s not how things went down. And don’t you think that if she killed him, she’d have blood on her when she came home?”

“She could have washed it off.”

Max’s anger drifted off of him like a stench from a bog. “She was cognizant enough to wash her hands, but not to remember killing a man?” He tipped his head back and laughed in a mocking tone. “Come on, Luca. You’re smarter than that.”

Luca stood, throwing his chair back into the wall, then slammed his hands onto his heavy oak desk. “Do not insult my intelligence, Maximilian. Blood or not.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Sometimes, I wondered how this family stayed together. But if I questioned that, it would have to apply to all Italian families who fought with each other. We were passionate in our pursuits and even more so when defending those we loved.

“Start acting like you actually love her, then. Have her back. Instead, you jump to the same conclusion every time—she’s done something wrong and you need to fix her.” Max rose to his feet while I watched.

“Let's just calm down, you two.” I rose and stepped between them even though it wouldn’t come to blows between them. That was a major rule… you never laid hands on another Made Man.

That stuff you see in the movies where they hit each other was just not realistic. You hit another Made Man, family or not, and you’re gone. You just don’t do that.

“I have a dead guy in my apartment complex, and Charity was the last one to see him. So yes, I find two plus two equal four.”

“Not in this case. You’re not listening.” Max swallowed the contents of his glass and stormed out of the room. Luca followed him with his gaze, and once he was out of sight, they sprung in my direction.

“Do you have something to say, brother?”

I took in a slow, deep breath and shook my head. “Just one question.”

He exhaled through his nose as he clenched his jaw. “And what’s that?”

“What the hell is going on?”

Melodic, watered-down voicesencompassed me as I came to through the fog with my chin touching my chest and a strange tickle down my neck.

“You must have hit her pretty hard, then.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Painful spasms shook my muscles, taking away the blissful numbness that held me captive. An unconscious groan evaded my stillness, waking me further until I rolled into Hell with a headache that would take a miracle to treat.

“She’s awake.”

Yes, I’m awake.

My head swirled like it did when I was a kid stuck on the Merry-Go-Round. Why did they name that hellish toy a joyful thing? It was anything but. My world leaned towards the right where my pain populated, with a sickness twisting my gut. Pain distorted my equilibrium, forcing my balance to wane.

What happened?

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