Page 8 of Final Installment
“Dafina!”I gasped.Paranoid, I glanced around the room, half expecting to find some sort of obvious listening device.“You shouldn’t joke like that.What if someone hears you?”
She looked at me like I was crazy and tossed her lip gloss back into the drawer.“The only person who heard that is you.Do I need to worry that you’re going to tattle on me?”
“I would never!Especially not to him.”Unlike my brother and sister, I had been old enough to experience and remember everything related to that blood feud and the death of our father.I rememberedhim, Luka, standing there on that rainy night.Still a teenager but acting like a man.Threatening us with death if we didn’t leave.Ihatedhim.
“It’s too bad he’s one ofthem.He’s not the ugliest man I’ve ever seen.”
“No?”
“He’s tall.”She glanced at me, visually sizing me up.“You’re closer to his height.”She scrunched up her nose.“But he has better taste in clothing.”
I let that barb slide.“What’s he like?Did you get to know him at all while you were in Tirana to visit?”
“He’s quiet.He doesn’t like to talk.He’s judgmental about everything.Every time I drank or lit up a cigarette or used my vape, he was so offended.Just straight sour-faced like he was sucking lemons.His sister ran away from him and lives here in Houston.That should tell you what a control freak he is.”
“She’s closer to Skender’s age, right?”
Dafina nodded.“She’s going to school here.I’ve seen her around at different clubs, usually on game nights.She’s wild as hell.”
“Maybe you two will end up becoming friends?”I asked hopefully.
“Not likely!Every time we cross paths, she looks like she wants to stab me!”She made a disgusted sound.“Just like that housekeeper!”
“Housekeeper?”
“Drita.She runs the house in Tirana like she’s the queen of the place.She had nothing but ugly looks and nasty remarks for me the whole time I was there.Just nonstop resting bitch face.”She shook her head.“If I was living there, firing Drita would be my first order.”
“I suspect he’d fight you on that.”
“All the more reason for me to live stay here,” she muttered.“Also—can you believe he’s lettingherplan our wedding?A fucking housekeeper planning my wedding!”
“What?The whole thing?You have no input at all?”
“Oh, well, she let me choose my dress from five she handpicked.”Begrudgingly, Dafina admitted, “They were beautiful gowns, at least.She isn’t pinching pennies.”
“Is Luka involved in the planning at all?”
“Not as far as I can tell.”
“What do you mean?You two are talking regularly, right?”
“Nope.He texts me, like, twice a week.That’s it.”
“No phone calls?No video chats?Just texts?Why isn’t he making an effort?”
“He didn’t make one when I visited.Why would he make one now?”
“Was he busy with work when you visited?”
“Work?”she scoffed rudely.“As far as I could tell, he’s shit at his job.Total nepo baby who failed up.”
I winced at the description, but it was the realization that Luka might not have control over his territory that made me nervous.“Why do you think he’s failing?”
She shrugged.“Lots of little things I heard.You know how it is when people start drinking.All their secrets start to spill.He introduced me to some of his friends, and one of them had a lot to say.Apparently, the uncle that lives here, the one that owns all the strip clubs, and the other guy back in Tirana, the one with the awful scar on his neck, control everything.”
Memories of that man with the vicious scar across his throat flashed before me.His terrifying face was one of the few clear memories I had of the night we’d been banished from our home.
I didn’t know anything about running a criminal enterprise, but I knew a lot about running a business.If the CEO lost the respect of his employees and the confidence of his shareholders, they were at risk of getting axed.Luka was basically the CEO of his family, and if he didn’t have their support?I shuddered to think where that might land my sister.Maybe she was safer here, even if it risked Luka’s ire.
