Page 57 of Gilded Desires

Time to come clean. “My brother’s partner.” I stand and grip the blanket on me. Saying what I need to say is much easier with clothes on, but I left mine in their bedroom. So, the blanket it is.

“There’s something I need to tell you, but I need you to know my blood doesn’t determine who I am. Okay?”

“Okay,” all three say in unison.

I get up and walk around their house and try to find it in me to tell them I am mafia blood when I see picture after picture of men standing up for what is right, fighting the good fight when my family made their money by doing nothing but wrong. I can paint it in any light. Like we don’t sell drugs and we don’t traffic, but we do own illegal gambling and we do deal in death. If they run away, then I know I am going to be raising our child solo and I am okay with that. I at least got to feel something, and I will show our child endless amounts of love and devotion.

I turn.

“My name is Belle Constantine. Sinclair is my mother’s maiden name. I’m sorry I gave that name rather than my real name when we first met at The Gilded Key Society.”

I have all three men’s attention.

The blanket turns into a shield and I use it between me and the arrows of pain shooting in my direction. Aziel’s aims straight for my heart. “You only need to turn on the nightly news to know who my family is, but I don’t think you need a crash course into what my family does for a living. Something tells me you all already know.”

“We know the name.” Aziel looks hurt while the other two have slipped their expressions into an unreadable mask.

“Talk to me.” All three leave the kitchen and head toward the living room where the light isn’t as harsh, but their silence is cutting.

“Please, someone say something.” I go to them and fall on my knees. The pain in me is unbearable and I can’t manage the weight of my lie.

Gage is the first to reach out to me. He takes my hand and pulls me into his lap. I expected Rush to do that, not Gage so I am a little off balance.

Rush leans forward and puts his elbows on his knees and clamps his hands together under his chin. A move I’ve seen him do when he’s in deep thought.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Have you ever not wanted to be shunned because of who your family is?”

I look between both of them.

“I didn’t think so.” I climb out of Gage’s lap and pace the living room, my blanket trailing behind me.

I stop and face the lake unable to say this next part easily. “I’m not proud of who my family is. I don’t want what my father did and all the court crap, and him being behind bars to follow me. I didn’t want you to judge me for who I share blood with. I wanted you to like me for who I am.”

I turn to find Aziel gone and my heart sinks to the floor bleeding.

Tears spill down the sides of my cheeks.

“Will he come back?”

Gage sets his jaw, his gaze narrowed out over the water. Great. He won’t even look at me.

“He nearly lost his life to the cartel a short time ago. Now he’s in love with a mafia member. It’s going to take him a minute to digest how fucked up that is.”

Love? Not only is my heart bleeding, but it’s taking its final thumps. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. It was a little fun at first.”

“And now?”

Rush’s question burns and I frown in turn. “And now there’s nothing fun or funny about hurting any of you. That is the last thing I want.”

Gage is up and tucking me beneath his chin before pushing me toward the back of the house. “Go find him. Make it right and everything will be okay, sweetheart.”

Gage’s words give me hope. A flickering light at the end of a long hall pulls me in.

“Aziel?”

I crack the door open and find my lover sipping whiskey in the den. He’s sitting in a large armchair facing the window and watching the storm roll in.

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